Pastor’s Corner – September 15, 2024
Mark 8:27-38 The Turning Point
Spoiler alert! If you haven’t seen the Korean film Parasite that won both the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2020 and the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2019, I recommend it – it is available on Amazon Prime Video. In the middle of the film, the former live-in housekeeper returns to her employer’s house and reveals a dark secret that changes everything. Late in the evening, the doorbell rings while the owner of the house is absent. The new housekeeper opens the door. The film takes a sudden turn. What started as a light comic genre turns into a horror film, turning the world as we know it upside down between the rich and the poor. The dark secret was that the ex-housekeeper’s husband was living for years in a hidden basement the owner didn’t know about. Unbeknownst to the ex-housekeeper, she discovers the scheme behind her unemployment. Violence ensues, with the deaths of her husband, the owner of the house and the new housekeeper’s daughter. Like any good story, at the turning point of the story things unravel and truth emerges, shedding new light to perceived reality revealing something more than meets the eyes.
In the gospel for this coming Sunday, Jesus is revealed as the Messiah by Peter. At the site of this revelation (in honor of Emperor Caesar, the place was named Caesarea Philippi) Jesus instructs his disciples to not tell this truth to anyone and explains what will take place from then on, that he will be persecuted and face death. This is not what the disciples signed up for following Jesus. Peter spoke on behalf of others and rebuked Jesus. He in return was rebuked by Jesus “Get behind me Satan!” Jesus calls Peter’s action Satanic against Jesus’ mission. Unlike those who seek power, Jesus teaches his disciples that his mission is not to gain power like Caesar, but offers a radical vision of the Kingdom of God. He offers himself as life-giving and asks his disciples what will you gain if you have the whole world but lose your life? “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”
The path Jesus chose was the way of the cross. With the revelation of Jesus’ identity and mission, we stand at the threshold of the turning point to follow Jesus as a way to the cross. Everything from now on changes. Come this Sunday and let us worship together and hear the words of Jesus and what it means to choose the way of the cross and follow Jesus.
Pastor Dae