“Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed.” Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, “This will never happen to you.” Jesus said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.” “Jesus summoned the crowd” and said to them, “Take up your cross and follow me”
Predictions about the future are a curiosity. Nostradamus (1503-1566) periodically gets notice for making predictions about humanity’s deadly future. His predictions, however, are quite vague. Jehovah Witness founder Charles Taze Russell (1852-1916) periodically made the news in his time about his deadly predictions. He was always specific and always incorrect. He was always predicting the end of the world. 1878, 1881, and 1914 all came and passed with the world and its people still here. In the 1960s and 1970s a woman, Jeane Dixon (1904-1997), would periodically make the news about her deadly predictions. She seemed to have learned a lesson from Mr. Russell and followed Nostradamus’ tendency to keep her predictions vague. Predictions abound as to the deadly future of a Harris presidency – death in abortion clinics and prison chambers and Gaza – versus a Trump presidency – death of women and in prison chambers and Gaza and of all opponents. Even Pope Francis has weighed in on the deadliness, “Both are against life, whether it is the one chasing away migrants or the one that kills children. Both are against life.” Today’s Gospel reading has a prediction of death attached to it. When Jesus tells people the rulers are going to kill him, he is certainly predicting a deadly event. More so, Jesus is helping us to understand how rulers spawn a deadly ethic. Rulers divert us from reckoning with their murder of women and babies and prisoners and Palestinians and so many more. They are so very cunning in their diversions. For example, they have diverted us from reckoning with their murder of Jesus. They have convinced us that we lowly commoners and our sins killed Jesus. Who could have predicted that? Jesus could have, and so when “Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him, ‘This deadliness will never happen to you,’ Jesus called Peter deadly, saying ‘Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.” “Take up your cross and follow me” The next time someone tells you Jesus suffered and died on the cross because of our sins, you can remind them Jesus knew he suffered and died on the cross because deadly rulers who opposed him and all commoners murdered him on it.
In speaking the truth about Jesus’ murder by the ruling class, we will be experiencing a change in the theology taught to us. We will be experiencing a change in our thinking. David Eagleman, a neuroscientist at Stanford University writes: The difference between predictions and outcomes is the key to understanding a strange property of learning: if you’re predicting perfectly, your brain doesn’t need to change further… Changes in the brain happen only when there’s a difference between what was expected and what actually happens.” What was expected by Peter and by many of us still is for rulers to represent a heavenly supremacist’s desire we be worshipful, confessional, and safe. What actually happens is earthly supremacist’s desire we be obedient, manipulated, and conform. Do we expectedly fulfill the desire of deadly rulers? Can we instead do as Jesus asks of Peter and get behind Jesus for a risky adventure in being lifegiving and thus a challenge to a deadly ruling class? What might be the predictions for common people taking that risk? Perhaps a cross awaits. But it will not be the cross we fix upon another person’s shoulder. Rather it will be the cross we risk because of our challenging life in Christ.
Prayer: Spirit, may we always know and always take the risk that is love.
Question: How do I need to change to live free of the deadliness of rulers?
September 15, 2024 Gospel Mark 8:27-35 Twenty Four Sunday in Ordinary Time