"And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. And He was stating the matter plainly. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. But turning around and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God's interests, but man's."
And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels." (Mark 8:31-38)
Suffering.
Rejection. Death.
This is what awaited Jesus. Beyond that was the promise of the resurrection, but the only way you get a resurrection is to undergo the death that must precede it. Peter was looking for the shortcut to glory. Surely the Christ of God would not suffer those things!
Jesus called this attitude Satanic. It was a posture of the heart that elevated man's self-preservation instincts above the purposes of God. He then told His disciples (and the crowds that followed Him around, hoping for another free miracle-meal) that if you wanted to follow Him, grab a cross and start marching towards your own suffering, rejection, and death.
If we think we can follow Him and avoid the tragedy that our own rebellious and self-focused lifestyles have brought on this planet, if we think we can enjoy the resurrection without the cross, we are fooling ourselves. And declaring publicly that we are ashamed of Jesus. We are disassociating ourselves from Him when we look for the easy way or get angry when God doesn't do things the way we think He should. We think we know how this story should go. We want to correct the Author for what surely must be a mistake. But we only see a very small part of the plot. We are but a sentence in a paragraph on a single page in one chapter of an epic Story. Trust the Author. The ending is worth it. "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God." Romans 8:18-21 https://www.bible.com/bible/100/ROM.8.18-21"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God." Romans 8:18-21 https://www.bible.com/bible/100/ROM.8.18-21(Romans 8:18-21)
Father, forgive me when I set my mind on my own way and not Yours. When the evil and suffering of this world tempt me to think You are not good and You're not in control, help me to remember what it cost You to make things right when Jesus returns at "the renewal of all things." Though we bear the cross now in this evil age, there is a resurrection coming. Grant me the grace to endure and not lose heart. Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!
This is what awaited Jesus. Beyond that was the promise of the resurrection, but the only way you get a resurrection is to undergo the death that must precede it. Peter was looking for the shortcut to glory. Surely the Christ of God would not suffer those things!
Jesus called this attitude Satanic. It was a posture of the heart that elevated man's self-preservation instincts above the purposes of God. He then told His disciples (and the crowds that followed Him around, hoping for another free miracle-meal) that if you wanted to follow Him, grab a cross and start marching towards your own suffering, rejection, and death.
If we think we can follow Him and avoid the tragedy that our own rebellious and self-focused lifestyles have brought on this planet, if we think we can enjoy the resurrection without the cross, we are fooling ourselves. And declaring publicly that we are ashamed of Jesus. We are disassociating ourselves from Him when we look for the easy way or get angry when God doesn't do things the way we think He should. We think we know how this story should go. We want to correct the Author for what surely must be a mistake. But we only see a very small part of the plot. We are but a sentence in a paragraph on a single page in one chapter of an epic Story. Trust the Author. The ending is worth it. "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God." Romans 8:18-21 https://www.bible.com/bible/100/ROM.8.18-21"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God." Romans 8:18-21 https://www.bible.com/bible/100/ROM.8.18-21(Romans 8:18-21)
Father, forgive me when I set my mind on my own way and not Yours. When the evil and suffering of this world tempt me to think You are not good and You're not in control, help me to remember what it cost You to make things right when Jesus returns at "the renewal of all things." Though we bear the cross now in this evil age, there is a resurrection coming. Grant me the grace to endure and not lose heart. Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!
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