Mark
8:27-35
The story is told of Sherlock Holmes and Dr
Watson on a camping trip. As they lay sleeping one night, Holmes woke Watson
and said, "Watson, look up into the sky and tell me what you see."
Watson said, "I see millions of stars." Holmes asked, "And what
does that tell you?" Watson replied, "Astronomically, it tells me
that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets.
Theologically, it tells me that God is great and that we are small and
insignificant. Meteorologically, it tells me that we will have a beautiful day
tomorrow. And what does it tell you?" Holmes answered, "Someone stole
our tent." Some people are great at speculative knowledge but when it
comes to its implication for practical living they score zero. Such is Peter in
today's gospel.
Scholars tell us that the passage we have for
today's gospel is the central passage in Mark's Gospel. The first half of the
Gospel leads up to this passage, and the second half of the passage flows from
it. From the beginning of the Gospel up to this point has been a preparation
for the revelation of the secret of Jesus' identity as the Messiah, in this
passage the Messianic secret is revealed, and from here to the end of the
Gospel deals with the fulfilment of Jesus' mission as the Messiah. What we have
in this passage is Jesus examining his disciples to see whether they have got
the point. The examination is in two parts: a doctrinal-theological and a
practical-existential part.
The first part focuses on the question: "Who do you say that I
am?" (Mark 8:29a). But in
typical theological fashion, they have to summarize what others have said on
the issue before giving their own views. Peter, spokesperson for the apostles
gives the pointed and correct answer: "You are the Messiah" (verse 29b). The importance of this
moment of disclosure is brought out more in the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus
congratulates Peter, assuring him that this knowledge is a direct revelation
from God. Then he rewards Peter, whose name until them was Simon, by giving him
the name Peter, meaning Rock; and promises that upon this rock he, Christ,
would build his church and that the powers of hell would not prevail against
this church. That is the end of the first half of the examination, the
theoretical, theological, doctrinal part; and Peter emerges in flying colours.
The second half of the examination has to do
with the practical, existential implications of the conclusion they reached in
the first part. "Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo
great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the
scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again" (verse 31). At this point Peter
disagrees vehemently with Jesus. Even though he scored 100% in the doctrinal
part of the exam, he shows by his actions that, in fact, he knows nothing of
the practical implications of what he had said. So Jesus gives him a thumbs
down. "Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on
divine things but on human things" (verse 33). The Rock who came out in flying colours in
the doctrinal section of the exam ends up as the Satan in the practical
section, which is really the determining section.
This must have been a big shock for Peter, and
it should for us too. For we are very much like Peter, paying too much
attention to doctrinal correctness and too little attention to practical life
correctness. See how we prepare people for membership in the church. We teach
them all the correct doctrines and examine them to see whether they have learnt
the correct answers, whether they can recite the correct creed. We ask them,
"Do you believe in this and that doctrine," and they say "I do."
Then we baptize them. But have we devised a way of examining them on how they
are following up the implications of these doctrines in their day to day lives?
No. That seems not to matter too much for us, but it matters very much for
Jesus.
In the parable of the Last Judgment, Jesus
reveals that we are judged more by how we have practised the faith than by how
we have believed. Of course, both are important, but practical life has the
priority. Let us ask God today to make us solid as the rock in our profession
of the true faith, but even more so in our practical commitment to the demands
of the faith in our daily lives.
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