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Jesus Speaks about His Suffering
(Matthew 16.21-28; Luke 9.22-27)
31Jesus began telling his disciples what would happen to him. He said, “The nation's leaders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the Law of Moses will make the Son of Man suffer terribly. He will be rejected and killed, but three days later he will rise to life.” 32Then Jesus explained clearly what he meant.
Peter took Jesus aside and told him to stop talking like that. 33But when Jesus turned and saw the disciples, he corrected Peter. He said to him, “Satan, get away from me! You are thinking like everyone else and not like God.”
34 Jesus then told the crowd and the disciples to come closer, and he said:
If any of you want to be my followers, you must forget about yourself. You must take up your cross and follow me. 35 If you want to save your life, you will destroy it. But if you give up your life for me and for the good news, you will save it. 36What will you gain, if you own the whole world but destroy yourself? 37What could you give to get back your soul?
38Don't be ashamed of me and my message among these unfaithful and sinful people! If you are, the Son of Man will be ashamed of you when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.
1I can assure you that some of the people standing here will not die before they see God's kingdom come with power.
Reflect
The whole structure and flow of the Gospel change with this paragraph. “He then began to teach them…” The Gospel moved from John the Baptist to Jesus and all the encounters we have read since chapter three. Now we move to the culmination of the story that Mark wants to tell. The immediate future does not look bright.
Peter is front and center once again and will stay there for the next several years. Interestingly, he is quite emphatic that no leader he follows is going to experience such shame. Jesus sees a diabolical influence over Peter but he does not leave it there. The real issue is how he thinks. The whole orientation of his mind was tilted in the wrong direction.
When I first entered ministry in the mid 1970s, a wise man said to me, “If you want to act like a Christian, you have to first think like a Christian.” And that is exactly what Jesus describes in the last part of the paragraph. Jesus is calling his disciples and Mark is calling his readers to a radical denial of personal self-interest and behaviour that looks to the greater good of God’s rule. As numerous passages in the New Testament story remind us, followers of Jesus will be rewarded for what they have done based on these criteria. The expressions are specific enough (verses 34-35) and the questions clear enough (verses 36 and 37), that one realizes that nothing counts like following Jesus. Are my thinking and life set in this direction?
Respond
Lord Jesus, I often put self-interest before following you and doing what you ask. Please forgive me. I desire to follow you in word, deed and thought.
Glenn Smith
Dr. Glenn Smith is married to Sandra and together they have three daughters, Jenna, Julia and Christa and two granddaughters They are the pastors of a missional community network in their church in Montréal – a multi-site congregation in five locations. Glenn did his graduate studies at the Université d’Ottawa and his doctoral thesis at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in Chicago. He was the Executive Director of Christian Direction in Montreal 1983 – 2018. He is the Dean of the Faculty of Practical Theology at Presbyterian College at McGill University and the the Institut de théologie pour la francophonie, accredited by Université Laval. He also teaches in Haïti. Publications: co-author of Espoir pour la ville; Dieu dans la cité (Hope for the city, God in the city); Following Jesus: God invites us to transformative discipleship and author of City Air Makes You Free.