24th Sunday of Year B
✠ A reading from the Holy Gospel, according to Mark 8:27-35
Jesus and his disciples left for the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way, he put this question to his disciples, ‘Who do people say I am?’ And they told him. ‘John the Baptist,’ they said ‘others Elijah; others again, one of the prophets.’ ‘But you,’ he asked ‘who do you say I am?’ Peter spoke up and said to him, ‘You are the Christ.’ And he gave them strict orders not to tell anyone about him.
And he began to teach them that the Son of Man was destined to suffer grievously, to be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and to be put to death, and after three days to rise again; and he said all this quite openly. Then, taking him aside, Peter started to remonstrate with him. But, turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said to him, ‘Get behind me, Satan! Because the way you think is not God’s way but man’s.’
He called the people and his disciples to him and said, ‘If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me. For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.’
1. Today’s readings are talking about confidence in God in the midst of affliction. After the 2023 presidential election in Nigeria, Nigerians had a new slogan: “Go to court.” The slogan is credited to Président Tinubu who challenged his opponents in the election to go to court if they were not happy with his being declared winner of the election by the Electoral Commission, INEC. His telling the opponents to go to court was based on his confidence that the court is on his side. In today’s first reading, the suffering servant of God, when overwhelmed by suffering, expressed his confidence in God by daring his opponents, saying: “My vindicator is here at hand. Does anyone start proceedings against me? Then let us go to court together. Who thinks he has a case against me? Let him approach me.” It is this theme of confidence in God that runs through our readings today.
2. In the Gospel, Jesus asked his disciples to define his identity according to what people say. The people saw him as a prophet. He knew that the people were in error, so he asked the disciples themselves what they thought about him. Peter got the answer. Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus knew the Jewish political conception of the Messiah, which does not correspond with his own mission. Consequently, he forbade the disciples from telling anyone about his identity. He then proceeded to inform them that his own kind of Messiah is the one that will confidently accept death and humiliation in Obedience to the will of God, knowing that God will raise him back to life after three day. This is the exact message of today’s first reading (Is 50:5-9). Peter could not accept such teaching. He resisted and tried to advise Jesus against accepting the will of God. Jesus scolded him as Satan, which is a rebel against God.
3. Jesus seized the opportunity to talk about the necessity of the cross for salvation. This is hard to accept because the cross is an instrument of torture. Romans reserved the cross as punishment to those who resist their authority as force of occupation, especially those who refused to pay tax. One now understands why the enemies of Jesus asked him questions about paying or not paying tax to Caesar. They were already wishing him crucifixion. When Pilate asked them what he would do with Jesus, they answered: “Crucify him, for he is against Caesar.” The cross remained infamous gibet until 319 AD when fighting under the sign of the cross, Emperor Constantine defeated his rival Maxentus. From that time, the cross became a sign of victory, and Emperor Constantine abolished crucifixion. For Jesus, whoever wants to be his follower must take up his cross and follow him daily. This means accepting the pains that human nature has imposed on us, accepting the daily difficulties of life without disobeying the will of God in a bid to escape suffering. It does not mean that one should go about looking for suffering. It rather means that one, like Jesus, understands that without the cross, there can be no crown. Without Good Friday, there can be no Easter.
4. Today, many followers of Christ, like Peter, are rejecting the cross. Christians like to be told that with Christ, they would no longer know difficulties in life. Whoever preaches in this direction is classified as a powerful man of God. He is the one who can manipulate people to make donations to the Church and to the man of God, in the hope that God could be bribed to keep them away from suffering when they know that God did not keep his only son from tribulations and painful death.
5. Being a Christian means being a person saved by the cross. It means knowing that God does not abandon those who obey him in their difficulties. Being a Christian implies having the confidence to say to the opponents, “Let’s go to court because I know the God that I’m serving.” It is about having faith in God’s love and ability to protect his people.
6. You certainly have faith in the cross. You are already carrying your daily crosses to the best of your ability. However, your faith in the cross should also encourage you to help others in carrying their own crosses (Gal 6:2). This corresponds with today’s second reading (Jas2:14-18), where James says that “faith without good work is dead.” In all, know that as a human, you will never be free from trouble here on earth but as a child of God, you will never be crushed by your problems (Jn 16:33) if you are careful in seeking and doing the will of God (Cf. Isaiah 43: 1-4).
@Vitalis Anaehobi
15/09/24
