Why does Jesus rebuke Peter, admonishing him to “Get behind me, Satan”? What is behind Jesus’ stern warning to his disciples to “tell no one” about his miraculous deeds, the so-called “messianic secret”? As the church’s Sunday lectionary cycle takes us deeper into the Gospel of Mark, this week on “Preach” we confront some of this Gospel’s most perplexing questions.
Joining us to explore these and other perplexing aspects of Mark, including its literary genius, and how it was crafted to help the early Church understand the life and ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the Rev. Charles Bobertz.
Charles enjoyed a distinguished 35-year teaching career in New Testament and Patristics at St. John’s School of Theology and Seminary. He retired this spring, but continues to preach and teach seminars in Scripture and homiletics in parish and clergy continuing education programs across Minnesota and the United States. He is also the author of The Gospel of Mark: A Liturgical Reading.
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Scripture Readings for the Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B
First Reading: Is 50:4-9
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 116:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9
Second Reading: James 2:14-18
Gospel Reading: Mk 8:27-35
You can find the full text of the readings here.
A homily for the Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B, by Charles Bobertz
In the Genesis story—at the very beginning of Scripture—we read that the Spirit of God, a mighty wind, hovered over the Abyss, and swept the waters apart. In other words God was acting through the Spirit to form the creation out of the waters of Chaos. Yet Chaos remained, and Chaos would always be there, right next to creation, challenging God’s work in creation and all of history.
In the Gospel of Mark, at the very beginning of Mark’s story of Jesus, Jesus resurrects from the waters of John’s baptism, the waters of Chaos, and the Spirit of God, the same Spirit that began the creation in Genesis, descends into him. Once again God is acting, this time in the ministry of Jesus, to form creation out of Chaos. Yet Chaos again remains, and Chaos is there throughout the whole of the story of Jesus. The story Mark tells of Jesus is not a simple story of a Jewish Rabbi who will end up being crucified on a Roman Cross, but a story of the eternal cosmic struggle between God and Chaos, between Life and Creation, Death and Darkness.
In our Gospel today we are confronted with simple but impossible questions: Why must there be such opposition to God? Why must there be Chaos. Why doesn’t God simply declare that Jesus is not to die, that he is already resurrected, that he can live forever without having to mount the Cross? Why doesn’t God simply declare that Jesus does not have to suffer and only after that suffering be raised by God on the third day? This is exactly what Peter wants today. This is what the disciples want. This is what we all want. We would all like God to simply solve the problem of Chaos.
On the one hand, in the Gospel today Peter gets it right. Jesus is not John the Baptist. Jesus is not Elijah. Jesus is not one of the prophets. Peter proclaims to Jesus so that all may hear: σὺ εἶ ὁ χριστός. (Mk. 8:29 GNT)—you are the anointed one! Peter scores 100% on the quiz: Jesus is the anointed one. God’s power is here. In Messiah Jesus the waters of Chaos, the darkness of suffering and death, these enemies, have finally been defeated. On the other hand, Peter gets it wrong. He thinks that Jesus, unlike John the Baptist, unlike Elijah and unlike all of the prophets, should not have to suffer and die.
I was with a group of Catholic biblical scholars last week in Washington DC and, in a group discussion, I put this question to the group: in the Gospel of Mark, what is the purpose of Jesus’ death? In Mark, mind you, not in the other Gospels. The group was mostly silent. One of them pointed out that Mark says nothing about Jesus dying for the forgiveness of sins as in Matthew’s gospel. Another pointed out that Mark says nothing about Jesus having to die to release the Spirit of Pentecost for the Church as in Luke; and of course it is obvious that Mark says nothing about the exaltation of Jesus on the Cross as does John. In Mark the purpose of Jesus’ suffering and death remains the mystery at the heart of the story.
And Jesus himself in today’s Gospel amplifies the mystery: the son of Man must suffer greatly, be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the scribes and be murdered and only after all of this, after three days, will he be raised by God. Peter, who got the first question exactly right, now fails entirely to understand Jesus or his mission. Peter rebukes Jesus for saying that the Messiah must suffer and die. And then Jesus rebukes Peter with exactly the same word he used to rebuke the earlier Chaos of the storm and the wind when they crossed the sea of Galilee. The exact same word Jesus used to rebuke the demons in the synagogue at Nazareth at the very beginning of the Gospel. The power of Chaos, the power of suffering, the power of demonic darkness and death is real. It must be there to challenge Jesus just as it challenges us today. The pain and grief of losing those we love will make us literally unable to see any goodness in the world, unable to understand God, seemingly unable to take another step forward in our own lives.
Why does Jesus have to suffer and die? The mystery at the heart of Mark’s story of Jesus is the mystery of our lives, the real experience of our suffering and the real experience of the suffering of those around us. Yet there is more than just this Chaos, the mystery of our lives is also the real experience of joy: my five year-old grandson will stop in the middle of the room and start dancing; the real experience of the love and laughter we share with our best friends on a warm summer evening; the joyful memories we cherish of those who have died, the happy memories others will have about us after we have passed from this world.
Jesus teaches us today that whoever wishes to save her life will lose it, and whoever wishes to lose her life will save it. As the disciples soon discovered, along with all those who have followed Christ for two thousand years, all of us gathered here, all of us will suffer and all of us will die. Chaos is always part of the story. Yet at those moments, just as it was at the beginning of the Creation and Time, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of God who began creation and life and the same Spirit who entered into Jesus at his baptism, that same Spirit is with us today, in all of the Chaos of our lives, the same Spirit who raised Jesus on the third day.
