He asked them,
“But who do you say that I am?”
Peter answered him,
“You are the Messiah.”
Mark 8: 29
I am always fascinated by the 8th chapter of the book of Mark, exactly half way through the 16 chapters, because it is here that Jesus’ journey comes to a fork in the road. If we look at what the author of Mark writes from a literary standpoint, this is the moment that the entire story of Jesus balances on. From this passage on, he is on the road less traveled where everything points toward his suffering and death.
People are talking about him. Crowds are gathering around him. There is something in the air that is centered on this rabbi from Nazareth who is traveling around the countryside. He is popular with the common folk and they all want a piece of him.
Now it is time for Jesus and his disciples to turn off the beaten path and instead take the road less traveled. So he asks them a general kind of question, “Who do people say that I am?” That’s an easy one. They’ve been hearing the conversations swirling around them about who he is.
But then Jesus gets personal and asks, “Who do you say that I am?”
And Peter, who always seems to be sitting at the front of the class, blurts out, “You are the Messiah!”
He knows, and the rest of them know, that Jesus is the one they’ve been waiting their whole lives to follow. But for all the time they’ve spent together, they really don’t know him at all. The path that they see ahead of them is not the path that Jesus will lead them down. They have no idea what lies ahead.
And so Jesus tells them what the journey will look like on the road less traveled. There will be rejection and scorn and ridicule and death for him as he heads for Jerusalem. He will suffer. He will be rejected by the religious authorities. He will be killed.
The path that Jesus lays before them isn’t the path that they want to take. They want to take a road that is familiar and safe. They want to walk a road that doesn’t require faith to travel on.
But everything about Jesus is about faith. Everything about Jesus is about letting go. Everything about Jesus is about taking that first step into the unknown. Faith itself is a journey into the unknown. Faith is not about memorizing creeds or prayers or catechisms or scripture lessons. It’s about stepping into the unknown, believing that God will be with us each step of the way.
Those of us who are Lutherans are rooted in a theology of the cross. It is a theology that is deeply rooted in the gospel of Mark. It is our belief that in the midst of this hurting and sinful world, we find Jesus suffering with us. It is in the midst of pain that we experience Jesus most deeply. It is when we need him the most that our faith grows stronger.
The way of the cross is never easy. It often requires us to make difficult choices. The way of the cross challenges the idea that our world is divided into us and them, sinner and saved. It disputes the idea that we can turn away from those in need even if it means giving up our own lives.
The way of the cross is about being witnesses to our faith. It’s about striving to treat all people with love. It’s about being witnesses who are willing to go into the back alleyways of this world to find those who are most in need of God’s care. It is about loving our neighbors as ourselves even when we are not loved in return.
May God gently lead us down the road less traveled, the road that leads to the foot of the cross.
Each month a member of the Cook County Ministerium will offer Spiritual Reflections. This month’s s contributor is Tom Murray of the Lutsen and Zion Lutheran Churches.
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