Lent 2 (year B)- Mark 8:27-38

 The Gospel for this Sunday is from Mark 8: 27-38. In this passage, our Lord asks His disciples who they believe He is. In response to Jesus’ question, Simon Peter speaks out and makes his famous confession about Jesus. He boldly affirms that Jesus is the Messiah or Christ, God’s anointed Redeemer. Peter is correct about Jesus' identity, but our Lord immediately responds to Peter’s profession by redirecting the tone. He tries to lead His followers to understand His true mission. Jesus warns them against telling everyone who He is until His work is complete. Mark 8:31 says, “And he began to teach them that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again” (ESV).

So in response to being confessed as the Messiah or Christ, Jesus predicts His rejection, suffering, and death. Such realities are not what Peter and the others wanted to hear. Nevertheless, suffering, death, and resurrection are basic to who Jesus is and what He does. As Jesus' followers, we must accept His words about these matters. Despite popular misconceptions about Christ and His Church in the first century or now, we must recognize the necessity and the centrality of His cross. 

After speaking about His cross, Jesus goes a step further. In Mark 8:34, He says, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me”  (ESV). In other words, Christ’s disciples must also follow His suffering example. They too must take up their crosses. Peter and the others did not want to hear or accept that part of the message. They learned it slowly. They had to go through Calvary, forty days of resurrection experiences, and the grace of Pentecost before the full meaning of the way of the cross finally sank in.

Our Lord is still telling us that the whole Christian life is meant to be one of self-denial, a taking up of the cross. The first disciples did not want to hear that, and very often, Christians still try to avoid this reality. Of course, there is joy in the Christian life, but there are also sacrifices and sorrows. There are Christian times of feasting, but there are also times of fasting. As followers of Christ, we have to keep learning the way of the cross throughout this life. Lent is a time for us to remember and relearn this basic point of Christ's message.