Apostles, Pt. 8: "Have Thine Own Way, Lord"

HAVE THINE OWN WAY, LORD (MARK 8:27-33)
One of the most acclaimed Jim Carrey movies was “The Truman Show,” an inside look into future reality TV shows, a stunning prediction of the format’s runaway success and a biting commentary on its unrestrained excesses. The movie was about a man who was born, raised and filmed for 30 years to be the star of an unedited but popular 24-hour TV show watched by cameras, sponsors, viewers and audiences all round the world. It was the highest rated show, the biggest commercial success and thrilling to all except Truman, who did not know that his life was a fake, a show and a joke.

One day Truman's car radio and the studio's frequencies accidentally got tangled, and he heard the studio crew relaying to one another his car's every turn. He then suspected his wife, his schedule and even his father's drowning were part of a conspiracy to deter him from leaving the island movie set. Truman made a concerted effort to break away from the stage, the set and the studio. He put a dummy on his bed, sneaked out of the house and dodged the cameras to escape in a sailboat cross the man-made ocean.
Truman overcame the fear of waters caused by his TV father's fake drowning, braved the man-made storm, thunder and lightning and, to his surprise, hit the wall at the end of the ocean to find an exit door out of the studio. Before he stepped out of the studio, the creator of the show boomed in a soothing voice from the skies, cajoling him to stay: “Listen to me, Truman. There's no more truth out there than there is in the world I created for you. Same lies. The same deceit. But in my world, you have nothing to fear. I know you better than you know yourself.” Truman, however, shouted furiously, defiantly and triumphantly: “You never had a camera in my head!”

Everybody wanted Jesus to be who He was not. When Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the northern vicinity of Caesarea Philippi, He asked them who they thought He was and corrected any misconception of who He was. Peter, who was more insightful, verbal and spontaneous than other disciples, gave a ready answer to Jesus' question. Peter’s answer, however, was full of misinformation, misconception and misinterpretation. Although Jesus had told other eyewitnesses to His miracles not to tell anyone what they had seen, including the leper (Matt 8:4, Mark 1:44 Luke 5:14), the blind men (Mt 9:30), Jairus' household (Mark 5:43, Luke 8:56), and a man who was deaf and dumb (Mark 7:36), this was the first of two occasions (Matt 17:9, Mark 9:9) Jesus forbade His disciples to tell anyone what they have heard.

Why did the title of “Christ” receive so much attention from the Jews, create rising opposition to Jesus and produce such a reaction in Peter? Why did Jesus praise Peter's confession, only later to denounce him? What in the world so greatly offended Peter that he had the audacity to criticize, oppose and rebuke Jesus?

Christ’s Suffering is Foretold, Not Forced
27 Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, “Who do people say I am?” 28 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” 29 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Christ.” 30 Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him. 31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. (Mark 8:27-31)

“Peanuts” cartoon strip’s Lucy stands between Charlie Brown and her brother Linus, with both hands on her hips, and voices her opinion: “I think it is possible to be too NICE!” She became more aggravated and swung her fists into the air, opening her mouth wide as she continues venting: “By golly, nobody's gonna walk all over me! NO SIR! If anybody's gonna do any walking, it's gonna be ME!” Lucy then walks away with her back facing them, but not before she snaps grouchily into the air, completing her piece: “There's only one way to survive these days...you have to walk over THEM before they walk over YOU!”

A sober Linus remarks to Charlie Brown when Lucy was out of sight: “It must be nice to have a philosophy that will sustain you in times of need!” (Reprinted in “This is Your Life, Charlie Brown.”)

Jesus Christ proclaimed, portrayed and predicted His coming as a crucified Messiah, but the news of a suffering, bleeding and dying Savior was not well received by the world or well-liked by his closest disciples. They were not ready for a persecuted, dying and crucified Messiah.

To the Jewish people, the Christ or the Messiah was a Davidic descendant, a conquering King and the nation’s Savior. He was supposed to be a political, powerful and prominent figure. At His trial and crucifixion, the crowd stated their expectation and understanding of Christ by the two names they have for Him – “Christ, the King of Israel” (Mark 15:31-32, Luke 23:2), and also “Christ of God, the Chosen One” (Luke 23:35). The Jewish people had no king since the fall of David's kingdom, the captivity of Judah's last king (2 Ki 24), and the Jewish exile to Babylon in 586 B.C. The return to Palestine, however, under the direction of Ezra and Nehemiah seventy years later revived rampant, raging and rising expectations of the Messiah's return. Even then, at Christ’s time, Palestine had no king, no army and no independence. The popular belief at that time was that the Chosen One from David’s lineage would return as king to claim the nation, to liberate the city of Jerusalem and to banish Israel’s enemies.

To the end, Jesus Christ rejected the two popular notions that the Messianic would speak out and save Himself. At His trial, his accusers slapped him and challenged him in vain to defend himself verbally: “Prophesy to us, Christ. Who hit you?” (Matt 26:65-68). Jesus, nevertheless, did not say a word, utter a sound or reply his critics. He also rejected the chief priests and the law teachers' test, invitation and dare to come down now from the cross, “that we may see and believe” (Mark 15:31-32). Christ also rejected the temptation to defend Himself physically. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One.” (Luke 23:35).

Jesus' self-disclosure to the disciples was a far different version of the Christ from the crowd’s expectation. In His only statement on the purpose of Christ’s coming, that was given at Gethsemane before His betrayal and death, He said: “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (John 17:1-3). He came to bring eternal life, not to govern political life or to fulfill peoples' expectations.

Christ’s Suffering is Fatal, But Not Final
31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. (Mark 8:31)

There are three religious views on suffering. Eastern religions such as Hinduism and its offshoot Buddhism were founded upon the agony of suffering. The young prince Gautama Buddha, who never stepped out of his house as a boy, was wrought and wrecked with sadness at the sight and realization of poverty, hunger and death around him in India. As he meditated under a tree for a solution to man’s problem, he concluded that man suffers because he has desires. The only way to remove suffering is to eliminate desires of all kinds, even for loved ones and human relations. Basically, if you do not feel for people and are not attached to things, then you do not suffer – unlike Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader’s dark side of attachment. Buddha also accepted the caste system and man’s welfare as fated.

Growing up in a Muslim country, it took me a while to figure out the difference between Islam and Christianity on the view of suffering. In a nutshell the Muslims consider everything – from natural disasters and family death as the direct cause of God, so they passively or meekly submit to suffering as the will of God. It is, however, also a trap. They cannot feel sad; they can only praise Allah, who caused good and bad to happen. If fatalism is the mark of Buddhism, passivism is the viewpoint of Islam.

Christians, however, are never taught to reject things or people; they are taught to love God and people. Also, they do not passively see all suffering as the will of God. God allows suffering, but he did not cause suffering. The triumph of Christianity is the triumph of Christ on the cross over suffering and death, so that we can also have the means and power to overcome all sorts of afflictions and even injustices. 1 Peter 4:19 says, “Those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.”

Christ is not the answer for those who seek for a happy ending and a sheltered life. Unlike the Messiah, Peter sought a short cut, a short course and a short hop to glory. He disliked the talk of the belated, painful, divine way to glory, the path of gory suffering, human rejection and agonizing death before the glorious resurrection. Jesus never hid from the disciples the degree of his suffering and the bounty on his life. For the first time, Jesus mentioned His suffering, His rejection and His killing – all in one breath and one sentence. Lost in His prediction of His sorrow and death to the disciples, however, was the affirmation and promise that He would rise again in there days (v 31). The gloom of Jesus’ death was so repugnant to Peter that he could not hear of the glory of the resurrection; Jesus’ first promise of His resurrection was fell on Peter’s deaf ears.

Peter was turned off by Jesus' first disclosure of His suffering, the first time the words “suffer” and “reject” appear in the Gospels, not just suffering of modest proportion, but the suffering of many things (v 31). The corresponding passages of Matthew (16:21) and Luke (9:22) all concur that Jesus would suffer “many” things. Later, He described the nature of His suffering - that people will mock him, spit on him and flog him before killing him (Mk 10:34). Jesus’ description of His rejection would only worsen the next time He predicted his fate in Mark (9:12). In Greek, He said that he will suffer and be made, “nothing” or “zero” or “none!”

To the disciples Jesus’ death meant the end to all political talk, kingly ambitions and earthly reign, but Jesus never had military conquest, world domination and national government in mind. His purpose and target were always the hearts and minds, the souls and lives of men, and only in defeating sin and vanquishing death by His resurrection could He achieve His objectives. Only in His resurrection were eternal life (John 11:25), abiding hope (Acts 23:6, 1 Peter 1:3) and victorious living (Phil 3:10) available to men, but Peter could not comprehend that and would have none of that. Jesus had always maintained on every occasion He predicted his death that His resurrection would follow death, the gain would outshine the pain and the glory is greater than the gore (Matt 17:23, Mark 9:31-32, Mark 10:32-34, Luke 18:31-33).

Do you follow Jesus Christ conditionally, conveniently or casually? Are you seeking a benign, benevolent and beneficial Savior? Is your God too small, too safe and too soft? Acknowledging, believing and confessing Christ invite trouble. Whoever acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ suffered exclusion from the synagogue then. Such was the blind man's fate when he confessed Christ (John 9:22).

Christ’s Suffering is Forthcoming, And Not Fantasy
32 He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” (Mark 8:32-33)

The Old Cherokee Chief sat in his humble reservation hut smoking his ceremonial pipe and eyeing the two visiting U.S. Government officials who had been sent to interview his opinion of the white man's progress. “Chief”, one official began, “you have observed the white man for many generations, you have seen his wars and his products -- you have seen all his progress and his problems.” The Chief nodded “Yes”.

The official continued, “Considering recent events, in your opinion, where has the white man gone wrong?” The Chief stared at the government officials for over a minute and then calmly replied: “When white men found this land, Indians were running it. No taxes. No debt. Plenty buffalo. Plenty deer, turkey and beaver. Women did most of the cooking and crop work. Medicine man free to help sick. Indian men hunted and fished all the time. We never had cheating husbands and wives--we kill cheaters.” The Chief smiled and added quietly, “White man dumb enough to think he could improve system like that!”

Peter, the team leader, was not only the first disciple and the only apostle to publicly confess Jesus was the Christ but also the first and only apostle to have ever rebuked Jesus. Jesus had already “charged” the disciples not to tell anyone, doing it in the same blunt manner and using the same Greek word for the way He “rebuked” the winds and the sea (Matt 8:26, Mark 4:39, Luke 8:24), the devil (Mark 1:25-26, Mark 9:25, Luke 4:35, Luke 4:41, Luke 9:42, Matt 17:18), sickness (Luke 4:39); but still, it did not feel right, make sense or register with Peter. The first Greek word “warned” or “rebuked” that began with Jesus (v 30) was met with an equally bitter, fierce and aggressive objection and “rebuke” from Peter (v 32). The words “warned’ (v 30) and “rebuke” (v 32) are the same in Greek.

Jesus was never fond of rebuking his disciples. This was the first time the disciples received such a heated response from Jesus. The only other disciples to feel his indignation were the two brothers, James and John, whose disgust over a Samaritan village's rejection of Jesus prompted them to ask the Lord for permission to command fire from heaven to consume the villagers. (Luke 9:54-55)

The wisdom and ways of God are foolishness, contradictory and unattractive to the world. As God declared in Isaiah: “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isa 55:8-9)

Jesus did not come to be a freedom fighter, a popular candidate or an elected officer. He did not run for office, but neither will he run for his life. His campaign was never normal, efficient or popular. It wasn't even well-attended, well-advised, well-appointed, but it was painstakingly planned, divinely approved and faithfully kept. His kingdom was a heavenly, godly and righteous kingdom, not an earthly, corrupt or worldly kingdom.

Everyone wanted Jesus to be who He was not, to mean what He did not and to promise what He did not. Jesus turned to the disciples the same time He rebuked Peter. The verbatim chiding extracted from Jesus' first temptation (Matt 4:10), “Get behind me, Satan!” was calculated to rebuke Peter in the sternest way possible. Unknown to Peter, his love for the world, its power, riches and glory was exactly the devil's snare. Matthew 16:23 added: “You are a stumbling block to me.” Stumbling block is scandal in Greek.

Conclusion: Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian who resisted Hitler and his policies during the Second World War and was made to pay with the martyrdom of his life, wrote: “When Jesus calls a man, he bids him to come and die.” Jesus suffered the fate of a condemned criminal on a one-way journey to his own public execution. Have you compromised yourself, your values, lifestyle, and witness? Have you died to sin (Rom 6:2-3), died with Christ (Rom 6:8) and dead to the basic principles of this world (Col 2:20)? Have you been crucified with Christ? Is Christ living in you (Gal 2:20-21)? Have you crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires (Gal 5:24-25)?