The apostles had already expressed their faith in Jesus as the Messiah when he asked them who they believed him to be. Because people were waiting for a Messiah who would overthrow the Romans, Jesus warned them not to tell people that he was the Messiah, because they would want to make him the centre of a revolution. Because the apostles’ faith in him as the Messiah would soon undergo a severe test, because they too were expecting a Messiah who would lead the people against the Romans, Jesus had to prepare them for the chock they would get. So we find him, in the first part of today’s gospel, warning them about his coming suffering and death. Simon Peter shows at once that the whole idea is unacceptable to him; perhaps because of his personal love for Jesus, he could not accept the idea of Jesus suffering; but perhaps too because of his idea of the Messiah he could not accept the idea of the Messiah suffering. So he objected and he received a severe rebuke from Jesus for doing so. “Get behind me, Satan, you are an obstacle in my path.” We are reminded of the story of the temptations in which the Devil tried to persuade Jesus to be the wrong king of Messiah. In speaking as he did, Peter is acting as an agent of the Devil in offering Jesus the same temptation. Coming from Peter, the temptation has a special force, because of the close friendship between them. The temptations which come to us from our close friends are more difficult to resist, because it is harder to say “no” to our friends. In the second part of today’s gospel, Jesus sets a standard for his followers. In order to be faithful to him, as he tries to be faithful to his Father, and in order to secure eternal life, they must be ready to face suffering in their own life, because fidelity to Christ and the possession of eternal life are to be prized more than anything they can desire; so we must be ready to suffer and we must be ready to let things go in order to be faithful to our Christian calling; even the love of family and friends must not stand in the way of what God wants us to do. As Christians we walk in the footsteps of Christ, no matter where Christ leads, no matter what Christ demands, no matter what we have to give up, no matter what we have to do, no matter what we have to suffer. What sacrifice is he asking of me now? Am I ready to make it?
Jeremiah was a young man, probably in his early twenties, when he was called by God to be his prophet. He prophesied first in the north and then in Judah and Jerusalem during the most critical period of Judah’s history. Kings and priests and people were more interested in politics than in their God. They had become subject first to the power of Assyria and now of Babylon, paid tribute to them and worshipped their gods and took part in their sexual immorality. They wanted to set themselves free from Babylon and they asked Egypt to help them. Jeremiah opposed the policy, because he foresaw first that Egypt would not help and second that rebellion would only bring about the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem and the exile of its people. Jeremiah also spoke out against the religious abuses in the temple and the social and moral abuses in the city. He foretold that the city and the temple would be destroyed and that the people would be taken into exile. For all this Jeremiah was imprisoned, an attempt was made to kill him by throwing him into a pit and leaving him. ( He was released by a servant of the king with the king’s permission, but unknown to the court officials), then he was taken to Egypt and tradition has it that he was murdered there by his won people. Jeremiah seems to have been a gentle and peaceful man and yet as God’s prophet he found himself continually at war with his own people and he suffered deeply because of it. He loved his country, yet he was regarded as a traitor by his own people, because in God’s name he opposed their political designs and tried to prevent their destruction at the hands of Babylon, which would be the only result of their attempts at rebellion and revolt. So much did Jeremiah suffer that he cursed the day he was born and in today’s reading he voices his suffering. He hates what he has to say, yet he is compelled by God to say it; God told him he would destroy and build and so far he has only destroyed and built nothing; he has made gloomy predictions and so far they have not come true and so people laugh at him and pay no heed to him, because God delays in fulfilling his predictions; he wants to give up being God’s prophet in his situation, but he feels God’s power urging him to continue. Among all the prophets, Jeremiah is the one who most resembles Christ in suffering at the hands of his own people; while he brought them a message that was for their good, they refused to listen and mocked him and insulted him and even had him put to death at the hands of the pagan Romans, who occupied their country and oppressed them. He shed tears over the city and its people, he predicted his death at their hands, he warned them that the Romans would destroy their city and its inhabitants, but they refused to listen to his advice.
Having reminded his Christians of the great things God has done for them and for the Jews, Paul now asks them to be generous too to God by offering themselves to him. What they must offer as a sacrifice to God is not dead animals but their living selves; the offering of ourselves to God each day is at once acceptable to God and in accordance with our nature as reasonable beings; when Paul says “your body” he frequently means “yourself” whole and entire. Nevertheless, we can note that our physical bodies are part of the offering of ourselves, because they are very important part of us as human beings, and because they are God’s gift to us, we can worship him with them. The offering to God of our bodies and everything we do with our bodies, is an act of true worship of God. We note too that worship is not only, but is much more than, our prayers and our church services. True worship is the offering of all our daily activities of mind and heart and body. And that is why the prayer we call the “morning offering” is such as important one for us. If we live up to it during the day we are doing what Paul asks of us in today’s reading. Indeed, if we do not offer everything in our lives as a sacrifice acceptable to God, then all our prayers and church services will not be fully acceptable to God either. Paul goes on to say that if our life is going to be an acceptable sacrifice to God, two conditions have to be fulfilled. First, we cannot allow ourselves to change according to the changing patterns of the day-to-day world, as our outward appearance changes from day to day or as the chameleon changes colour according to the surface on which it is moving. But secondly, we must change deep inside ourselves, from being people who live according to selfish and sinful human nature to being people who live continually according to Christ and his Spirit. That change is like getting a new mind and a new heart. We become new people, changed in nature and in character, because we are living with the Spirit of Christ, solely according to the will of God.
Kefa W. MHM
What you’ll find here is my personal reflection on Scripture. I don’t claim to have all the answers, only a sincere desire to seek truth. Some of the references used are drawn from past study and experience, and I may no longer be able to recall all their exact sources. Feel free to leave your comments or personal reflections below as we continue to grow deeper together in the Word of God. I’ll see you next Sunday.
