Put Up or Shut Up

 Mark 8:31-38 is the lectionary text for Sunday, February 28 - Lent II.

The Religious leaders of Jesus' time were corrupt.  They were in collusion with Rome and the King, trying to survive, but also trying to get what they could under empire, by exhibiting the values and practices of empire.  Jesus was at odds with them over this constantly, as we have witness in the Gospels.

In this text, Jesus tells His disciples of what His end will be at the hands of the corrupt religious leaders who were adherents of the empire values of greed, hatred, lust for power and desire for personal status above others.  It was inevitable that those with power would silence anyone who would challenge their immoral, unconscionable way of life. 

Peter's rebuke is curious to me.  Was Peter being naive in his rebuke of Jesus' declaration, believing that the religious leaders would never do such a thing?  Was Peter putting his own feelings for Jesus above a value for Jesus' mission in the world?  Both?

I have heard it preached for many years that Peter could not bear to think of Jesus dying, especially such a horrible death, because of his personal (brotherly) love for Jesus, and that this was his motivation for rebuking Jesus.  Thus his mind was set on human things and not divine purposes.

I have come to read the Gospels differently in my life.  I wonder now if Peter was expressing some disbelief that the religious leaders were corrupt and would turn Jesus over, or perhaps that Peter even questioned whether a challenge to empire, life under which was all he knew in his lifetime, was sane or worth losing one's life over.  Those in Israel who had sat in this deep darkness under the occupation and oppression of empire did all they could just to survive.  It was not the matter of divine purpose, but of survival with which they were preoccupied.  It seemed hopeless to challenge Rome's iteration of empire.  It was a pointless suicide mission.  Was Peter questioning the wisdom of challenging the religious leaders, king and empire?  Was he trying to bring Jesus to His senses over just surviving under the oppressive system like everyone else?  Was Peter questioning that Jesus' mission was divine?  Jesus' rebuke of Peter suggests to me that the mission of the Cross was God's divine warfare against the work of Satan through empire.  Jesus' rebuke of Peter suggests to me that there is a choice to be made, even to sacrificing oneself in this spiritual warfare.

Then Jesus made it clear.  Save THIS life, and you lose life with God.  Preserve this existence of participating under or colluding with, even giving one's devotion to empire means that you lose a faithful relationship with the God of Jesus, who resists empire, teaches against empire, challenges empire, commands a different way, and fights it even unto death.  If you seek to profit under empire, rather than resist its immoral and unconscionable ways, you lose your soul.  If you try to give lip service to God while giving your devotion to empire, you lose your soul.  If you claim God but are ashamed of a Good News of Jesus that directly contradicts the values and practices of empire, you lose your soul.  In that case, when Jesus comes back, you may hear the words, "I do not know you."

But if you lose THIS life under empire, you preserve your life with God.  If you sacrifice any gain under an immoral and unconscionable system based on greed, hatred, lust for power and desire for status, even making sacrifices because you resist that and refuse to participate in it, then you gain a faithful, genuine relationship with the God of Justice, Shalom for All and Peace unlike the Pax Romana.  If you lose the life that puts you at odds with the Kingdom values that Jesus taught, commanded and modeled for us in Agape Love and Grace, then you are in alignment with Jesus' Way of living in this part of the Kingdom of God, here and now.

"If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me."

Lent is our journey to the Cross with Jesus, if we will go there.  It is our choice.  We can save the life of empire which puts us at enmity with God, or we can lose that life and preserve our life with God.

For Peter and Jesus' disciples, and perhaps for us, it's time to put up or shut up.

Pastor Jamie