Daily Reflection | Gospel Reading | RVA

Gospel: Mark 8:27-33
Jesus set out with his disciples for the villages around Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked them, “Who do people say I am?” And they told him, “Some say, you are John the Baptist; others say, you are Elijah or one of the prophets.” Then Jesus asked them, “But you, who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.” And he ordered them not to tell anyone about him.

Jesus then began to teach them that the Son of Man had to suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law. He would be killed, and after three days rise again. Jesus said all this quite openly, so that Peter took him aside and began to protest strongly. But Jesus, turning around, and looking at his disciples, rebuked Peter, saying, “Get behind me, Satan! You are thinking not as God does, but as people do.”

Reflections:
“Who do people say I am?”
Here is a turning point in the Gospel of Mark. Heretofore Jesus has performed a series of miracles and wondrous signs, all begging the question: Who is this man? Now Jesus puts the question di­rectly to his disciples: Forget about what others are saying. “Who do you say that I am?” By his impul­sive, heartfelt answer Peter seems to score an “A” on his Christology exam: “You are the Messiah!” But then almost immediately he flunks the course, and Jesus rebukes him. Where did he go wrong? It is not enough to identify Je­sus as the Messiah. It remains to understand what that means— that Jesus is a Messiah who will accomplish his mission by means of suffering and death. That is not what Peter and the others envi­sion. They are thinking more of a super­hero Messiah who will be invulnerable, who will smash their enemies, and establish an unbea­table kingdom. In other words, a Messiah who accepts the temp­tations that Jesus rejected in the wilderness.It is not enough for us to wor­ship Christ as the Son of God. Con­fession implies discipleship, which means following Christ, even on his path to Calvary. Only thus will we learn to see and “think as God does.”

© Copyright Bible Diary 2019

Gospel: Mark 8:22-26
When they came to Bethsaida, Jesus was asked to touch a blind man who was brought to him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had put spittle on his eyes and laid his hands upon him, he asked, “Can you see anything?” The man, who was beginning to see, replied, “I see people! They look like trees, but they move around.” Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again and the man could see perfectly. Then Jesus sent him home, saying, “Do not enter to the village.

Reflections:
“Can you see anything?”
The story in Genesis of Noah and his ark signifies, among other things, the importance of the holy remnant. Noah did not “walk with God” for himself alone. The call to righteousness carries with it a responsibility for the entire globe and its inhabi­tants. Thus, Noah represents an ethic and spirituality concerned with the preservation of the earth and the survival of endangered species and cultures; he
might well serve as a patron of ecological stewardship. Through Noah’s faithfulness God makes an unconditional covenant with all creation: “Ne­ver again will I strike down every living creature as I have done.” This is a universal covenant that precedes the specific covenants with Abraham and Moses. But the fact that God has vowed never to destroy the earth by means of a flood offers no grounds for complacency. Today the earth is threatened, as never before, by human wicked­ness, greed, and carelessness. The challenge for Noah’s des­cendants is
not “survivalism” but defense of our common planet and its delicate ecology. If the earth becomes uninhabitable there will be no other
lifeboats.

© Copyright Bible Diary 2019

Gospel: Mark 8:14-21
The disciples had forgotten to bring more bread, and had only one loaf with them in the boat. Then Jesus warned them, “Keep your eyes open, and beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod.” And they said to one another, “He saw that we have no bread.” Aware of this, Jesus asked them, “Why are you talking about the loaves you are short of? Do you not see or understand?

Are your minds closed? Have you eyes that don’t see and ears that don’t hear? And do you not remember when I broke the five loaves among five thousand? How many baskets full of leftovers did you collect?” They answered, “Twelve.” “And having distributed seven loaves to the four thousand, how many wicker baskets of leftovers did you collect?” They answered, “Seven.” Then Jesus said to them, “Do you still not understand?”

Reflections:
“Do you not see or understand? Are your minds closed?”
One can sympathize with the disciples who often had a hard time judging when Jesus was talking literally or resorting to one of his riddles. When he talks about bread, does he mean, literally bread? And what’s all this about the “yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod”—are we still talking about bread or something else? And when he fed a multitude with seven loaves of bread, was that just about feeding a hungry crowd, or was it supposed to be about something more? Why can’t he just say plainly what he means? These simple men are strugg­ling to keep up, to understand what it means to live in this marve­lous human/divine world of their master, for whom every ordinary fact is a window onto some dee­per spiritual truth, for whom bread is not just food, but life, compas­sion, blessing; where yeast is not just the stuff that makes bread rise, but could be about some­ thing that corrupts us from within . . . or something like that. “Do you not see and under­stand?” he asks them. Well, no… not entirely. Not yet.

© Copyright Bible Diary 2019

Gospel: Mark 8:11-13
The Pharisees came and started to argue with Jesus. Hoping to embarrass him, they asked for some heavenly sign. Then his spirit was moved. He gave a deep sigh and said, “Why do the people of this present time ask for a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign shall be given to this people.” Then he left them, got into the boat again, and went to the other side of the lake.

Reflections:
“Why do the people of this present time ask for a sign?”
According to Genesis, no sooner were there two brothers, than one killed the other. Along with this primordial sin comes the impulse to evade responsibi­lity. God asks Cain, “Where is your brother, Abel?” And Cain, con­scious of his guilt replies, “I don’t know; am I my brother’s keeper?” Perhaps the seeds of his crime lay in that innocent­ sounding ques­tion. Yes, we are our brother’s and sister’s keeper. The blood of so many victims cries to God from the ground—victims not neces­sarily by our conscious intent, but by our indifference, our failure even to recognize that they are our brothers and sisters. Meanwhile, in the Gospel text, Jesus shows his exasperation with those who want to treat him like a performing monkey: “Show us a trick! Perform a sign!” He did not come to provide diversion or to satisfy their curiosity. Was it not a sign of God’s coming kingdom when he treated strangers, sin­ners, the sick and marginalized as his brothers and sisters? Well, the time will come when he will provide a still greater sign—one that will cost everything, even his very life. But not yet.

© Copyright Bible Diary 2019