The Confession of St. Peter
I missed posting yesterday because I was not online much.
Yesterday morning, when I was drinking my second cup of coffee, I had the idea that I ought to fast and pray for the day. So, after my morning coffee, I did just that. I drank only water the rest of the day and ate no food.
The purpose of the fast was to let my body know it is not the boss :-) I don't know about anyone else but my flesh thinks it is
IN CHARGE. I guess another way of looking at it is that I was reminding my spirit that with the Holy Spirit it is not subject to the body but is its master.
I went for a 5 mile hike in the
Morgan Territory Regional Preserve in the afternoon. Along the way I read and meditated on Romans 8, which is a wonderful chapter for encouragement. I met one
strange individual on a bicycle who warned me about an aggressive pack of sub-adult cattle that ran him off the road and up a tree. :-) "Watch out for number 25!" he said as he rode off. (The cattle in the Preserve have tags with numbers on their ears.)
So, after a day spent reading the word of God, praying and reading out of my new e-book version of the 55 volume collection of the works of Martin Luther, I went to bed early and had a good nights sleep. Oddly I was never hungry all day long, nor did I really feel like I was starving when I got up this morning. I may start fasting on a regular basis. Maybe... ;-)
Here is today's reflection from Higher Things:
Today's Readings:
2 Peter 1:1-15, St. Mark 8:27-9:1The Confession of St. Peter“Peter answered, ‘You are the Christ.’” (St. Mark 8:29)
Peter confessed Jesus accurately. To confess is to say back what you have heard. The signs all spoke the same thing - Jesus was the Messiah, the Christ, God’s anointed One sent to save His people.
When Peter said “Christ,” he likely imagined a king, a military leader, one who would gather an army and with the power of God restore Israel to its former greatness. Perhaps Peter was already collecting his swords for the holy war, ready to establish the kingdom of God by force. That’s why Jesus warned His disciples not to tell anyone about Him.
Jesus began to teach them that the way of the Christ is the way of the Cross. He must suffer many things at the hands of the religious leaders, be killed, and on the third day rise from the dead.
This
wasn’t the kind of Christ that Peter had in mind. Peter pulled Jesus aside and began to rebuke Him. But Christ-talk that
isn’t Cross-talk is devil’s talk. “Get behind me, Satan. You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” There is no Christ without the Cross.
Cross-less religion cannot save from sin and death. Great displays of power and might, sentimental journeys in seas of emotion, concerts of uplifting music may thrill the masses, but they do nothing to deliver us from our ultimate enemies – sin, death, and the devil. Only a crucified and risen Jesus can do that. Only a Jesus with a baptismal burial can do that. Only a Jesus with Body and Blood to give as food and drink can do that.
Without the Cross, Peter the confessor becomes Peter the denier, a spokesman of Satan. Without the Cross, Christianity becomes a devilish deception. To save your life is to lose it in the life of Jesus. To follow Jesus is to die with Jesus, to be united with Him in His death and life. There is no other way. There is no other Christ.Peter, too, would learn this. After Jesus’ resurrection and the Spirit’s outpouring, Peter would confess Jesus as the Christ before multitudes in Jerusalem at Pentecost. And he would confess Jesus as the Christ in his own death, crucified upside-down in honor of his crucified Lord.
“Dear Father in heaven, as you revealed to the apostle St. Peter the blessed truth that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, strengthen us in that same faith in our Savior that we too may joyfully confess that there is salvation in no one else; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.” (Collect for the Confession of St. Peter)