March 20, 2022 – The Fisherman, Mark 8:27-33
There may be no better example of the fickleness and irresoluteness of the human condition than Simon Peter. A man of overwhelming passions, Peter managed to confess Jesus as the Christ and speak the words of Satan in just a handful of verses. It can be easy to look down on Peter, but no disciple shows us a better reflection of ourselves. We praise and profane God with the same lips without a second thought. And yet, Jesus chose unstable Peter to be the rock upon which the Church would be built. We are as unlikely of candidates as Peter, and yet Christ chooses us just the same.
Mark 8:27-33 27 And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” 28 And they told him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” 29 And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.” 30 And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him.
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.”
