“Missing: consistency in life”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Tuesday, August 8, 2023
Mark 8:22-33 (Forward, p. 10) CEV p. 1037
When one of the previous popes was elected, I heard an interview with a nun who said, ‘Thank God, that our first pope was Peter and not Paul. Paul would have been insufferable as pope, but Peter, good old Peter, we can all identify with him—because he is so much like us!’
We certainly see evidence of this in today’s account. At one point, inspired by our Heavenly Father, and presumably speaking for all the Twelve, he blurts out, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Or, in Mark’s rendering, “You are the Messiah”).
But then, seemingly only moments later, when Jesus starts to explain to His disciples what being the Christ, the Messiah, would mean in practical terms—namely being rejected and crucified but then rising again in three days, Peter takes Jesus aside and vehemently rejects those claims. So, is he still speaking the words of the Father? No, not in the least, just the opposite. Jesus reproves him and suggests that he is acting like Satan, the adversary, in uttering these words. All through the gospels we see Satan at work opposing the work of Christ and trying to undo or impede it and here it becomes evident that he can even work through believers on occasion. Peter is voicing what normal humans would think about the Messiah—everyone else in Judaea—but not what God thinks. Most people thought of the Messiah as the triumphant warrior king who would vanquish all his enemies and rule victorious for ever. But that was not how it was to unfold in God’s plan. So, Peter, so right at one moment, was so wrong at the next.
And this occasion was not the only time we see Peter vacillating, wavering like this. Certainly, he was like this when Jesus was arrested and when Peter denied knowing Him in the High Priest’s garden. And then, again, even with his vision, his decisive encounter with the Roman centurion Cornelius, and his spirited defence of the Gentile mission, we find him waffling later on in terms of fulling accepting Gentiles (in this case, eating with them) (See Galatians 2:11-13).
In this, I am afraid that Peter is woefully, and unmistakably, like so many of us—in two ways. One way is that we can so often listen to the opinions, views and values of our world and society rather than listen to God—and, in so doing, frustrate and impede the work of God. And the other way, of course, is that we can waver or vacillate like Peter. We can miss out on that inner consistency, that inner and outer integrity that God so desires.
And, sad to say, sometimes we Christians have gotten it totally or glaringly wrong. We have listened to, and heard, and acted upon, other voices than that of God, and so we have goofed big time. And so, it is all the more essential that we continue in His word, in prayer, in worship and in fellowship with other Christians, for these can be our mainstay and our corrective.
Forward notes: “And the man looked up and said, ‘I can see people, but they look like trees, walking” (verse 24).
“Last year I had cataracts removed from both of my eyes, and the doctor corrected by astigmatism using laser technology. When my sight returned, I could hardly believe my eyes. I could read the road signs without glasses. The world seemed brighter and more focused. I could see. Can it be a surprise that healing and hope appear in the gospel as gradually seeing clearly? One of the earliest tropes on baptism in the Christian tradition is the healing of the blind man. Saint Augustine of Hippo compares our baptism to the gift of sight.
“But sight doesn’t always arrive with perfect clarity. Seeing the world. Seeing ourselves. Seeing God. At first, it may seem like trees walking: blurry, shimmering, just beyond our reach. But Jesus touches again, and we can see everything clearly. The extra touch makes the difference.
“Don’t give up; keep looking. And if the world is still a bit blurry? Let Jesus touch you again.”
Moving Forward: “Pray today for clear vision”.