Get Behind Me!

How you hear a particular text varies, depending on the circumstance of your life.

In reviewing the 8th chapter of Mark, I think of all the people who are behind me; who’ve shaped me, who’ve asked deep questions, who’ve given support even if they did not agree with or understand me. In this chapter, maybe we resonate with the voice of Peter.  Jesus basically says “Stop seeing this through human eyes, believe in something more and get behind me in this mission.” It is a slightly different focus than Jesus slamming Peter for his Satan-like tendencies. Maybe this rebuke is a call for support, as if Jesus were saying “the road ahead will not be easy.  For us to make it and for this to matter, I need your support.”  

Peter is often personified as one who doesn’t quite get it. He argues, he lacks faith, he messes up, but ultimately he gets behind Jesus. The church is built on the faith and work of Peter and others who decided they would get behind Jesus.  Even in tough circumstances, ordinary folks like Peter and you and me are called for support.

Yet, this passage also calls for something more. It calls not only for support but for a description of who Jesus is for us.  “Who do others say that I am?”  The disciples answer “Some say you are Elijah, others, John the Baptist, or a prophet “. When the ultimate question is asked, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter confesses, “You are the Christ, God’s own anointed.”  That is Peter’s answer.

Peter has the advantage of living daily with Jesus. But we have the advantage of seeing the whole story, remembered and recorded in light of the resurrection experience in a newly formed faith community in which the gospel writer names Jesus as the Christ.  They recognise something in him of immediate importance as well as for the future.

We are called to answer the same question as Peter for ourselves, “Who do you say that I am?”  The answers may be as varied as there are individuals, and none of us has all the truth. Each will understand and answer according to the lens of our lives. And somehow we continue to be the “body of Christ”. Those varied answers continue to be the vibrant faith for today.