Rev. Otis Moss III, Senior Pastor

Mark 8:31-38 NIV

³¹He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. ³²He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 

³³But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. "Get behind me, Satan!" he said. "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." 

³⁴Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. ³⁵For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. ³⁶What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? ³⁷Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? ³⁸If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels." 

Rejecting Jesus? 

“In God we trust,” the familiar adage stamped upon our legal tender frames the folly of who we are as a people.  A small piece of paper stamped with greenish dye stands as the deity of our culture.  “In God we trust?” is not a declaration but a spiritual question and expression of our deepest needs and shallow living. 

In many ways we have rejected God and placed Jesus upon the shelf of self-help, far away from the altar of being our Savior.  Contemporary culture argues and rejects Christ, not unlike the peculiar argument and rejection Peter and Jesus experienced in the Gospel of Mark.  When Peter hears Jesus define ministry in terms of pain, suffering and eventual resurrection, he does the unthinkable.  He rejects his rabbi (teacher), claiming he has strayed from the path by offering such gloomy news.  Jesus quickly returns the rebuke with correction, sharing that a life with God is empowering but not painless.  “For those who want to save a life will lose it.”  We are called to take up our cross, join Christ at Calvary.  Peter, unfortunately, wanted a cross-less Christ and a pain-free faith.  But our theology must dare sing the blues and celebrate the Gospel.   

Our redemption as a community and nation is rooted in our ability to suffer with Christ, love like Christ and forgive with the same tenacity and authority as our Father in Heaven has forgiven us.  We must choose to allow God to shape us in God’s image and not be shaped and designed in our own image.  We must not reject the call of Christ, but accept the demands of discipleship Jesus calls us to engage. 

Prayer 

Lord, we accept your call and seek to carry the cross of love this day.  Amen.