Mark 8:27-30 - Homilies By R. Green

The confession of Peter.

The brief record of St. Mark leads us to turn to the fuller statements of St. Matthew. Jesus tests the faith of his disciples "as they were able" to bear it. First, "in the way he asked, Who do men say that I am?" What is the general opinion? Then, more closely," But who say ye that I am?" It was a day of testing. There had been a general blindness. Immediately before he had occasion to say, "O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have no bread? Do ye not yet perceive?" But there was amongst them one discerning spirit; and he who "knew all men" saw the elevation of character, the quick perception, the sympathetic, sensitive soul. "Who say ye?" "Simon"—of whom it had been early said, "Thou shalt be called Cephas (which is by interpretation, Peter)," which is by interpretation, "Rock," or" Stone"—"Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." It is enough. Here is one who, seeing, can see the true character of the Sent of God; not a mere teacher, or rabbi, but the Hope of Israel—the long looked-for Christ, "the Son of the Blessed." The wise Master-builder stood ready to lay the firm foundation-stones of his enduring Church—"a spiritual house," built up of "living stones;" and in this first confessor, the first to acknowledge his exalted person and high office, in this man who is a rock, Jesus discerns the suitable stone to lay first on the prepared earth. "Thou," of whom it was once said, "Thou shalt be," now "art, Peter: and upon this rock I will build my Church." Not upon Peter's mere confession; not upon Peter apart from his confession; nor, indeed, upon Peter alone. For the Church of Jesus is not a column, a pillar, of stones. But of those "twelve foundations," of what afterwards was seen by one of them in be a city, and on which are the "twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb," this was the first to be. laid. Or of that "household of God," which is "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief Comer-stone," this stone gained the honorable position of being laid immediately next to the comer. The house is spiritual, the stones are spiritual, the total idea is spiritual—every stone is a "living stone." Here is no dead body of rubbish; but spiritually discerning men, who, like Peter, can discern and confess The Lord's Christ. There need be no hesitation in acknowledging the high position assigned to Peter—the prince, the very primate of the apostles—by his Lord and ours. An immeasurable gulf lies between this and the assumption of the exclusive authority of Peter by Rome. Yea, though the improbability of Peter's ever having visited Rome were exchanged for a certainty that he both visited the city and founded its Church, yet would that claim be baseless. Nor does the putting into his hands "the keys of the kingdom of heaven," with which, by God's good grace, he opened the gates of the kingdom to Jews and Gentiles, which work, done on earth, was truly confirmed in heaven, give Rome the slightest warrant for her assumption,

I. The first great lesson for every Peter obviously is— TO SEEK A PENETRATIVE DISCERNMENT OF JESUS AS THE , CHRIST , THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD . The beholding Jesus, the Son of Mary, as the common eye may, is a primary step. A life so pure, so beneficent, so exalted, justly claims the attention of all. It stands pre-eminently above all It is out of the common category. But this is not the perfect view. There is more hidden in the word "Christ;" and this demands a fuller insight. Some, like Nicodcmus, acknowledge him to be "a Teacher come from God." But in their view he is only one of many; with whom Homer, and Shakespeare, and Dante and a thousand others rank as sent of God, and filled with the spirit of wisdom and understanding and all knowledge, like a Bezaleel of old, to work in all manner of work for the building up of an outer temple of God. But he stands alone in Peter's judgment, and in that of all who are "blessed" like Peter, in that the truth is revealed to them not by" flesh and blood," but by the "Father which is in heaven." But even this falls short of the final term: "Thou art … the Son of the living God." "God of God,… very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father;" he "being the Effulgence of his glory, and the very Image of his substance." Yet let every discerning one acknowledge, "no one knoweth the Son save the Father."

II. A second lesson is for every one who sooth the Son as he is revealed of the Father, To CONFESS HIM IN PRESENCE OF THE WORLD 'S ERROR , SELF - SEEKING , CONFUSION , AND SIN . This each, who having seen Jesus has seen the Father in him, is called to do. And thus shall the kingdom of heaven be opened more and more. Thus shall the great Church be extended, whose inviolable security is pledged to every one who, in the spirit of Peter, can hear and receive the assuring words, "The gates of Hades shall not prevail against it."—G.

Verse 31-ch. 9:1

Discipleship.

Having elicited Peter's noble confession, Jesus puts the disciples to further proof by declaring that "the Son of man"—his own lowly title, contrasting so strangely with Peter's word—must "suffer," "and be rejected," "and be killed," "and after three days rise again." And this was said in no enigmatical or hidden way, but "openly." Whereupon the weaker side of Peter's character obtruded itself: he "took him and began to rebuke him." The Messianic hopes which had been expressed by the confession, and confirmed by the Lord's testimony to that confession, were contradicted, if not dashed to the ground, by the suggestion of a suffering and conquered Christ. "This shall never be unto thee." Now does Peter need correction. The strong word of which shows how good and bad may mingle in our present imperfectness. The great proto-confessor denies his Lord by denying the true spirit to Christ, and by opposing his earthly to the heavenly method of conquest—"the things of men" to "the things of God." In the yet imperfect heart, though, indeed, taught of God, this would be a prevailing of the "gates of Hades." Therefore we must say, "Be it far from thee, Lord." In presence of the disciples, for their instruction, as for Peter's correction, the Lord utters his displeasure in the strongest terms—terms quite sufficient to prevent any boasting on account of the previous honorable distinction. "Get thee behind me, Satan." So near the words spoken "to the evil one," "Get thee hence, Satan." One only word is needed to add to this by way of explication, "Thou art a stumbling-block to me;" and another word by way of application, "For thou mindest not the things of God, but the things of men." Is it so, then, that "the things of men" stand in direct contradiction to "the things of God" ? That which is purely "of men" do; and all that is not "of God" is of the adversary, "Satan," and must be silenced. That silencing is effected by words which have ever since appeared as in letters of fire Over the gate of entrance to discipleship. And "the multitude" is "called" together to hear them. "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." How simple, yet how comprehensive! how easy, and yet how difficult, is this tri-unity of duty! In its simplest presentation it is:

1 . A thorough, complete, continuous, self-denial .

2 . A patient endurance .

3 . A diligent obedience .

" With men this is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God."

I. It was not only during the early struggles of the Church of Christ, or merely in its conflict with the and-Christian world, that the disciple must needs "deny himself." It is the groundwork of all discipleship, and finds its necessity in the natural revulsion from the duties, the restraints, and the discipline of the gospel. That it should be more needful to urge the necessity for a total self-abnegation in the midst of an unfriendly, antagonistic worldly power, is obvious. But a spirit of self-indulgence is wholly removed from the idea of the disciple of Jesus. The habitual refusal to hearken to the appeals of the sinful self when those appeals contradict the voice of conscience, the inward echo of Christ's outward voice, is a rule allowing of no relaxation, even under the most favorable religious influences. The true idea of the disciple suggests the absolute, unconditional self-surrender—the whole life laid at the feet of the Master.

II. The subsequent words point to a buying of the life at the expense of the life. A paradox designed to awaken thought, and that finds its solution in the dual character of life. The outward and visible, the inward and spiritual; the life temporal, and the life eternal. In Jesus' view a man might suffer, be rejected of men, be killed, and yet truly "save his life" and "find it;" while, on the other hand, a man might save his life from the toils, the sacrifices, the self-inflictions and self-denials which discipleship would require, from the cruelties of men, from the death which human hands could inflict, and yet "lose his life"—lose life in the truest, highest, best, and therefore only real sense. Jesus saw that, so far from losing all, a man might gain all—all the world could give him—the "whole world" itself; yet all this might be at the forfeiture of the life. And if he forfeit his life, "what shall a man give in exchange for" it again? Once forfeited, it is forfeited for ever. There is no possibility of returning to regain it. Well were it, therefore, for his disciples to carry a cross daily, a symbol of dying to self, to sin, and the world, and in the patient endurance of that self-inflicted death to find the true life—the life in Christ, the life in the region of righteousness, and the pledge of a being "raised up" to life everlasting. Before the words were formulated, the disciples of Jesus attained the high estate, "I have been crucified with Christ; yet I live; and yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me: and," with a reaching far and forward, "that life which I now live in the flesh, I live in faith."

III. It was in this spirit of unflagging obedience—even to a hard, self-restraining, self-denying, and self-crucifying rule—that the disciple was, with his far-reaching and fore-reaching vision, to "live in faith," anticipating the time when "the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and render unto every man according to his deeds." After these hard sayings with which Jesus had shaken the hearts of the disciples, and proclaimed to the " great multitude" the severity of his rule, he comfortingly assures them of the nearness of his kingdom, by declaring "some of them" should "in no wise taste of death" till they had seen it "come with power."—G.