is our children
Proper 20B | Mark 9:30-37
Jesus predicts his coming death a second time. And the response here is completely different than the first time.
Last week, we read about how Jesus was asking his followers what people are saying about him—who they think he is. Then he asks who the disciples say he is. This is actually a pretty tricky question—and interrogates, not what they believe exactly, but what they speak—which can be completely different. And I know you all know how.
So Jesus asks this, Peter steps up and says “The Messiah” and like that, feels like he’s at the head of the class. So when Jesus says that he’s heading to Jerusalem where his critics will arrest him and send him off to be executed, Peter steps up again to say, Not gonna happen, teach! I’ll be there to stop them! Which is the wrong answer, isn’t it?
Why? Two reasons. One: it is getting in the way of God’s work. Two: it is trying to control God in the same way empires do. This is not how we roll …
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