It is now the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time but today’s gospel reading is far from the ordinary as it is the scripture that is the root and foundation of the Catholic Church. As I have mentioned in my past writings, this is one of my favorite scripture readings, especially in Matt. 16: 13-20. However today’s gospel reading comes from Mark 8:27-35 which is written differently.
“27 Now Jesus and his disciples set out for the villages of Caesarea Philippi. Along the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” 28 They said in reply, “John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others one of the prophets. 29 And he asked them, but who do you say that I am? Peter said to him in replay, “You are the Messiah.” 30 Then he warned them not to tell anyone about him.
31 He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief of priests, and the scribes, and be killed and rise after three days. 32 He spoke this openly. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 At this he turned around and, looking at his disciples, rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”
24 He summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. 35 For whoever wishes to save his life will lost it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.” While today’s Sunday gospel ends here in verse 35, however, allow me to extend a little to verse 36 where our Lord Jesus Christ said, “What profit is there for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?” This is a teaching we must all ponder this Sunday.
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The first part of Mark’s gospel starts with our Lord Jesus Christ asking his disciples “Who do people say that I am?” While his disciples answered him, “John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others one of the prophets.” They did not realize that our Lord Jesus Christ addressed himself as “I am.” In Exodus 3, when Moses went up to Mount Sinai and met God in the burning bush, God told him that he should go to Egypt and bring the Israelites out of bondage and slavery.
So Moses asked God in the burning bush, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? Then God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.” Then Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, “What is his name? Then what shall I tell them?” God then said to Moses, “I AM WHO AM.ˆ This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I Am has sent me to you.”
This passage is written in the Torah, so all devout Jews who read scriptures know that God or Yahweh addresses himself as I AM WHO AM! So our Lord Jesus Christ was testing his disciples if they knew who he was? But it was Peter who answered for all his disciples when he told our Lord Jesus that he was “the Messiah”. In Matthew’s gospel he was more specific when Peter said, was more specific when Peter said, “You are the Messiah the Son of the Living God.”
Although our Lord Jesus Christ knew what was in the hearts of his disciples, that they believed that he was the Messiah, he then ordered them not to tell anyone who he really was. But do you think the Twelve Apostles and his numerous disciples kept their mouths shut and told no one?
The second part of this scripture passage is a prophesy of our Lord’s passion and death on the cross. Let me reprint this for you. “He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief of priests, and the scribes, and be killed and rise after three days.” Just when his disciples were so excited to know that their Master was truly the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, then all of the sudden the Lord gives them this prophesy of his death and passion.
Upon hearing this, Peter must have thought, “Wait-a-minute! If you are the Son of the Living God, how could you tell us that you would be killed by the chief priests and be rejected by the elders? What they did not realize was that our Lord Jesus also prophesied his glorious resurrection.
It was just totally unthinkable and so Peter took our Lord Jesus aside and rebuked him saying, “God forbid this would happen to you.” Our Lord Jesus then rebuked Peter saying, “Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.” The word Satan means, “One that opposes.” Some Christian sects even use this passage against the Catholic Church where Jesus himself calls the First Pope a Satan! But in reality, this teaching was hard for human beings to comprehend as we all think like humans, not as God does. But God always knows what’s lurking in our hearts.
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