DAY TWENTY-THREE – Monday, March 20, 2023
Mark 8:31-38
Jesus Predicts His Death
I love a good biblical parable, where there’s room for introspection and interpretation. However, this passage is definitely not up for interpretation. It’s a straight forward, ‘when the rubber meets the road’ kind of passage. Jesus isn’t beating around the bush- he’s putting his foot down.
My mind goes to a social gathering- let’s say a backyard get-together. Everyone is enjoying themselves and it’s a beautiful day. All in attendance are good, upstanding members of the community and a lot of the folks that are there go to the same church. There’s a chat going on about a couple’s recent trip to Tibet and they are speaking of the overwhelming experience they had there seeing the beauty of Buddhism and the culture. A lady in the group conversation joins and says that she gets it. As in- she remembers being overwhelmed by the beauty of the Rose stained glass windows she saw on a trip to Southern France. The excited lady starts going on and on about her spirituality and close relationship with God, when the host of the backyard party suddenly interrupts and pulls the lady aside with an excuse about something to do with the dish the lady brought. You see, the host thought her Jesus talk was getting a smidge too zealous and wanted to intervene as to not make anyone uncomfortable.
For me the host can be compared to Peter in this scenario. Sort of a ‘hey we are having a lovely time here and this Jesus talk is WAY too heavy.’ Jesus shut that attitude right down and is saying that the time is coming and enough is enough of this cocktail talk. He’s basically saying to lose the self serving, “what will people think” attitude and not to be ashamed of him. He’s crystal clear in this passage- drop the worldly ways and do as I’ve explained and all will be well.
Pam Hollett
Mark 8:31-38
Jesus Predicts His Death
I love a good biblical parable, where there’s room for introspection and interpretation. However, this passage is definitely not up for interpretation. It’s a straight forward, ‘when the rubber meets the road’ kind of passage. Jesus isn’t beating around the bush- he’s putting his foot down.
My mind goes to a social gathering- let’s say a backyard get-together. Everyone is enjoying themselves and it’s a beautiful day. All in attendance are good, upstanding members of the community and a lot of the folks that are there go to the same church. There’s a chat going on about a couple’s recent trip to Tibet and they are speaking of the overwhelming experience they had there seeing the beauty of Buddhism and the culture. A lady in the group conversation joins and says that she gets it. As in- she remembers being overwhelmed by the beauty of the Rose stained glass windows she saw on a trip to Southern France. The excited lady starts going on and on about her spirituality and close relationship with God, when the host of the backyard party suddenly interrupts and pulls the lady aside with an excuse about something to do with the dish the lady brought. You see, the host thought her Jesus talk was getting a smidge too zealous and wanted to intervene as to not make anyone uncomfortable.
For me the host can be compared to Peter in this scenario. Sort of a ‘hey we are having a lovely time here and this Jesus talk is WAY too heavy.’ Jesus shut that attitude right down and is saying that the time is coming and enough is enough of this cocktail talk. He’s basically saying to lose the self serving, “what will people think” attitude and not to be ashamed of him. He’s crystal clear in this passage- drop the worldly ways and do as I’ve explained and all will be well.
Pam Hollett
