We follow.

 In this weeks gospel Mark 8:27-38 Jesus  begins to give the disciples a more detailed description of who he is. In this reading we begin to understand what Jesus expects from his followers.  While Jesus was traveling with the disciples in he asks his them a question. “Who do people say that I am?” Jesus was asking his disciples what is reputation was. He wanted to hear what the world thought of him.  Some said he was a profit. Others said he was Elijah . He asked the question again to the disciples. Peter accurately call Jesus “Christ”.  Almost saying that you are our savior.  Well, Peter was right in calling him Christ, but Jesus began to teach what it really meant to be “Christ”.   He tells the disciples that he is going to suffer a great deal , be betrayed and eventually “lose” his life and rise again. I can imagine the disappointment when Peter and the disciples find out that their savior wasn’t  going to do  anything that they expected.   Peter actually rebuked Jesus am. In return Jesus rejects him in front of the other disciples and continues to teach.  He went into even  further detail  and began to explain what it means to  be follower of Christ. He  says that in order to follow him you  will also suffer.  He says, that in order to follow him you have to “lose” your life. The losing of your life for his sake is a requirement of being a follower.  As a follower of Christ we Jesus tell us to “ pick up our cross” I can’t imagine this going over well with the disciples. There is no way this conversation with Jesus was expected to go in this direction.  Yet, they remained faithful. Just as we are asked to in our Christian lives. 

Have  you been much like the disciples disappointed by the news you get from God? Expecting to hear what you want, only to hear what God wants.  What I have learned is that with a little faith those disappointments are short lived.  The will of God is never wrong. Life may twist and turn in a direction that you may not want but  what God wants is what will happen. 

 When Jesus spoke to the disciples of losing our lives for his sake. He wasn’t talking about  just a physical death. I believe he was talking about something much deeper. Maybe he  was talking about losing your reputation.  Losing what the world thinks of you.   Maybe he was talking about  losing  our reputation and accepting  his.  Maybe he was saying give up worrying about what the world thinks of you and do what is right. When we choose to follow Christ I believe we are called to let go of the world’s ways of doing things and begin living a new life. These days, more then ever  I am beginning to see that when the whole world is going left, as Christians we are going to be called to go right.  We will face ridicule , we will be judged for not going with the crowd, but that is the cross bearing that Jesus was speaking of.  Maybe that is the “suffering”that we endure.  Following Jesus isn’t about just about suffering and being some kind of martyr for everyone to see.  I don’t think we are called to simply follow Christ and  have small meaningless lives filled with misery.  Instead, I think following Christ actually gives your life meaning. It’s  more about  dropping your old ways and becoming new person with Christ at the center of your life.  Now , When we see the beauty in Gods plan for us  we begin to see that losing our lives for Christ sake really means gaining so much more. 

 So I ask you  again have you been disappointed, shocked and confused  by God before?  Yet we are called to follow. We follow, sometimes half heartedly and unsure of where we are going. Still, we do follow and with a little faith all disappointments are temporary.  They are temporary because deep down  as followers we know Christ’s love for us is eternal.