Mark 8
When I was in high school I struggled
greatly with advanced algebra and trigonometry.
I remember sitting in class staring at the teacher trying to understand
but it stayed just outside my grasp.
Sadly, there are parts of that academic discipline that I never
mastered.
In today’s reading the disciples were
there with Jesus and they did not understand him. What he was revealing to them was just outside
of their grasp. They simply did not
understand who Jesus is. So they found
themselves in a crowd again without enough food. Instead of remembering what Jesus had done
before and asking, “Could ya do it again?” they despaired, “How can one feed
these people … here in this desolate place?”
After a confrontation with the Pharisees, Jesus warned them to beware
the yeast of the Pharisees. The
disciples thought, “Jesus is upset because we didn’t bring enough bread.” Maddening!
Jesus made a display of the state of the
disciples through a miracle. He heals a
blind man in two tries. The first time
the man says he can see but everything is wonky – the people look like trees
walking around. The second time he sees
properly.
The disciples could see Jesus – but they
didn’t see him properly – “like trees walking around.”
The same thing happens today. When we perceive Jesus any other way than how
he reveals himself in Scripture, we see him like a walking tree. But how are we to see him? How are we to understand him?
The cross is where we see Jesus most
clearly. It is there that we see that
the holy Son of God stands in our place to die our death. Of course, we cannot look at the cross
without the empty tomb. The risen Jesus
declares to us that our sin is paid for, the law has been kept, and we can know
him rightly.
How do you perceive Jesus? Who is he to you? Peter understood that he was the Christ – glory
hallelujah! But when Jesus told the
disciples he must suffer and die, Peter rebuked him. Accept nothing less than the real Jesus, the
Jesus who died for you, who paid for your sin, who gives you new life in his
resurrection.
Jesus, let me know you rightly through the
cross and empty tomb, and help me share the amazing truth of what you have done
for me. Amen.
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