Lent is a pretty long time. I mean, it’s 46 days, 40 days if you don’t include Sundays, and the whole season is dedicated to sacrifice and reflection. To be honest, Lent sometimes feels like a long trudge down a dirt road. It is not as exciting as Advent and most of the time we practice some kind of sacrifice.
In Mark 8, about halfway through the Book of Mark, Peter guesses correctly that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Since the cat’s out of the bag, Jesus begins to tell his followers plainly what it means that he is the Christ. He explains to them privately that he would be persecuted, executed, and resurrected. He gives them a road map of their long trudge down the dirt road to Jerusalem and eventually to Golgotha.
31 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. 32 And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”
Mark 8:31-33
This is too much for poor Peter. Rejection, suffering, and death were not what he had in mind. Peter correctly identified Jesus as the Christ, but it seems to Peter that Jesus does not have a clear understanding what this means. Jesus is confused, and Peter will set the record straight.
Yet, as the reprimand is taking place, something critical happens. Jesus, listening to the dreams and opinions of Peter, hears in his voice the temptations once offered to him by Satan. The same promises of glory and power and comfort and honor that he once refused when he was tested by Satan in the wilderness.
Peter was describing to Jesus a message of triumph. He used his words to paint a picture of kingly honor and messianic fulfillment. You can almost see the montage playing in Jesus’ mind.
But, for a moment, Jesus’ gaze shifts. His eyes leave the passionate face of Peter and he turned to see the rest of his followers. Mark 8:33 says it was this act of turning his head, of seeing the face of those closest to him, that Jesus was jolted back into the present reality. It was the sight of his beloved followers which reminded him of the will of God, that he was sent to Earth for us and for our salvation. That for our redemption he would suffer many things, even death. And that his glorification would be bound up with the restoration of God’s people.
In that moment, I think Jesus saw all of his disciples, not just the ones gathered on that day. I think Jesus saw the faces of Andrew and John and all the others, the face of you and me. He took a moment to reflect on his own love for us in order to resist the words of temptation.
During our Lenten Fast, I wonder that we are not called to do the very same thing. We are called to turn our gaze from earthly pleasures and remember the face of Jesus. We are to remember that our redemption came at the expense of his suffering. And we are to recommit ourselves to the glorification of Christ and the restoration of God’s people.
Kena Hawkins Newkirk 