Our Sunday Message

Tempted By Security and Comfort: Mark 8:27-38
Rev. Dr. Kenneth A. Corr
March 12, 2006
Second Sunday of Lent

  Peter took (Jesus) aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things, but earthly things.”
  Whoa! Chill out Jesus! Did Peter deserve that? And notice, Mark tells us that he said it right in front of the disciples. Do you remember getting scolded in front of others; the embarrassment, the shame, the confusion? Can you imagine what this felt like for Peter? He did not just rebuke Peter, he called him Satan. He accused him of being earthly minded and not heavenly minded. Ouch! That had to hurt. In what way was Peter earthly minded when he was the one who had just confessed, “You are the messiah.” What did Peter say that deserved that kind of rebuke?
  I imagined a conversation with Peter this week about this event. In my imaginary conversation, I asked him about this incident. This is what I imagined that he said:
  Oh yeah it hurt! I guess it especially hurt because I thought I was the one disciple who understood Jesus the best. But I knew so little. I look back on it now and realize that, as badly as it hurt at the time, I deserved it. It wasn’t until that horrible night in the courtyard when I denied him three times that I realized what Jesus was trying to teach me.
  But listen, as hurtful as it was at the time, I want you to keep telling the story. There are many who, just like me, think that they know him the best and yet they deny him every day. Teach my story so that each may know.
  What is it that we need to learn from this story? It is Lent in the Christian calendar. We are journeying to Easter. If we travel well, we will not hurry to Easter. Instead, we will use this time to examine ourselves. So, let’s linger with this text today.
  Just like last Sunday, Mark is our chosen teacher. In his commentary on this text, Fred Craddock says, “Clearly, Mark does not want his church to use Easter to escape Lent and Good Friday.”1 But what does that mean? The lesson today says something about what it means to be a Christ follower and something about how we are tempted to deny Christ. What can we learn?
  This text is the very first prediction by Jesus of his suffering and death. Jesus is beginning his journey to Jerusalem for his crucifixion. If you were here last Sunday, you will remember that Mark does not say a lot and we have to listen very carefully to what he says. In Mark’s gospel, Jesus gives this same prediction of his suffering three times. If you have your Bible, you can note them:
  Mark 8:31, Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
  Mark 9:31, For he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.”
  Mark 10:33, See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles.
Each time that Jesus gives this teaching about his suffering, the disciples miss it. In our text, it is Peter who misses the point. In ch. 9, the disciples argued which of them was the greatest. In ch. 10, James and John ask to sit at his right hand. Clearly, the disciples don’t get it. It is easy for us to say, “Wow! The disciples were really dense. They just never got it.” But if we are astute, we will ask ourselves, “What didn’t they get?” If Peter, who confessed him as the Messiah and who was with him on the mountain of transfiguration, didn’t get it, maybe we don’t get it either.
  Let’s look carefully at this story. Jesus predicted his suffering and death. Hearing this, Peter took him aside and rebuked him.   Remember that Peter had just made the great confession, “You are the Messiah.” And in Peter’s defense, the Jewish expectation of a Messiah did not include suffering and death. So Peter had to be thinking that all of this talk about suffering and death was a little bit morose and Jesus needed to snap out of it. What he wanted for Jesus was not rejection, suffering, and death. What he wanted for Jesus was success, security, comfort.
  But what did Jesus say to that? “Get behind me Satan!” And suddenly, we are right back in the wilderness. Jesus was tempted in the wilderness to surrender to the human values of security, success, and comfort. That is what it means to be earthly minded. And so, when Jesus taught about suffering and death, the disciples argued about who was number one. And when Jesus taught that he must die, James and John asked to sit at his right hand. Their values were earthly values.
  To be heavenly minded means to surrender those earthly values of security and comfort and success in order to see God’s dreams for God’s creation. And Jesus says, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake . . . will save it.”
  Temptation is not just about sexual lust and material greed. Temptation is about all those times when we choose between our conviction and our comfort.
  Tommy wanted to be popular in school. But not all of his friends were in the popular group. One day, one of his friends was being ridiculed by the popular crowd. Tommy had to choose between being popular and being a friend.
  Sue was a middle manager at her company and was involved in several meetings with upper management. Sue became aware of some financial arrangements that were questionable. She knew that the decisions were not legally wrong, but they were morally and ethically wrong. She knew that if she raised the issue, her chance of advancement would be at stake. She had to choose between what was right and what would lead to her success.
  James was a member of the privileged majority. He knew that the incumbent political candidate favored his group, but he also knew that there were those in the minority who suffered under the current leadership. He weighed very carefully the privileges that he enjoyed versus the need for greater equity in his community. He would have to choose between his own comfort and the welfare of others.
  At some point in all of our lives, regardless how committed we think ourselves to be, our values of security, comfort, and success get challenged by the Christian values of self-sacrifice and service. We are earthly minded. It is only when we die to self that we can begin to be heavenly minded. Peter couldn’t see it at the time, but he would eventually see it.
  Peter was warming himself by the fire when the young servant girl said, “I know you. You are one of his disciples.” A sudden flash of fear raced through Peter unlike anything he had felt before. “I don’t know what you are talking about. I am certainly not a disciple of this man.”
  One of the guards overheard the conversation and said, “I was stationed in Galilee for a while and I would recognize that accent anywhere. You are one of them aren’t you?” Peter’s heart was racing. He was being confronted in a way that he had never imagined. “I am not one of them. How dare you accuse me!”
  Another one spoke up, “You were in the garden tonight. Were you the one with the sword? Let me get a better look at you.” Peter turned his face away from the fire so that he could not be seen. “I don’t know anything about what you are talking about. Leave me alone!” Just then, in the corner of the garden near the fence, a cock crowed announcing the dawn of a new day. And Peter wept.
As hurtful as it was at the time, I want you to keep telling the story. There are many who, just like me, think that they know him the best and yet they deny him every day. Teach my story so that each may know.

1 Fred Craddock, Preaching Through the Christian Year: Year B, p. 147.