Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
First Reading: Isaiah 50: 4-9
Second Reading: James 2: 14-18
Gospel: Mark 8: 27-35
The first reading and Gospel today seem more appropriate for the season of Lent. The truth is that the message is for every season. The first reading is from the third of the four songs of the Servant of Yahweh. It speaks about the Messiah as God’s meek and gentle servant and describes the service, suffering and victory of the Servant of Yahweh. This is the passage that the Ethiopian eunuch read in Acts chapter 8 and asked, ‘who is the prophet talking about, himself or another?’
This servant of God is not rebellious even when his obedience to God results in suffering. He said, “I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled my beard, I did not shield my face from buffets and spitting. In everything the servant of God expresses confidence that God will help him. In his confidence, he is set to fulfil his mission no matter how difficult it becomes.
In the Gospel, we have three important things happening. First, Jesus asks His disciples and indeed all of us, “Who do you say I am?” Secondly, He tells us that He is destined to suffer grievously and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and Scribes and be killed, and rise after three days. And lastly, He tells us that those who wish to follow Him must renounce themselves, take up their cross and follow Him.
How do we respond to the question who Jesus is? This is a very personal question addressed to each one of us. It looks more like midterm exam. It comes right at the middle of Mark’s Gospel. It seems Jesus wants to know if He had made any impressions on His disciples, if any had discovered who He was. He had lived with them nearly three years and teaching. A lot of guesses were going on even among the apostles. Now Jesus wants to settle the matter.
Peter replied, “You are the Christ.” In Matthew’s account which we find in Matt 16:16 Peter said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” What does it mean to say that Jesus is the Christ? What did it mean for the first century Jew that Jesus is the Christ? Christ, in Greek “Christos” and in Hebrew “Mashiah” means the anointed one. In the Old Testament, priests, prophets and kings were consecrated by anointing. But with the passage of time, it took a very restricted meaning. The Jews were conquered and dominated again and again by one super power after another. Eight centuries before Christ, the Assyrians wiped out the Northern kingdom. Two hundred years later, the Babylonians conquered the Southern kingdom and destroyed the temple. Then came the Persians. Later on, the Greeks and at the time of Jesus, the Romans.
The people looked back at the time of David and Solomon as the golden age of their history. Prophets after prophets announced that God will send them a king like David, a descendant of David who will save them from foreign powers, restore the true worship of Yahweh, bring prosperity to the land and salvation to all. So, the idea of the Christ as a warrior king continued to function in Judaism as an object of hope and of prayer.
By announcing His passion, Jesus declares that He is the one who fulfils the prophecy of the first reading today. He is not the warrior king they are looking for but the suffering servant of God. When Peter protested and rebuked Jesus, Jesus rebuked him sternly. Why did He do that? Jesus would have recognized in the words of Peter the same temptations He overcame at the beginning of His public ministry when Satan wanted Him to avoid the cross and take the crown. Jesus used the opportunity to teach us, that discipleship is about renouncing oneself, taking up ones cross and following Him. Like Jesus, the suffering servant, we must learn to follow even when following brings us suffering and death trusting in the power of God to save.
Happy Sunday
Rev. Fr. Chidi Onwuka Msscc