Rocks, Words, And Crosses

How we think, what we believe, shapes our world.

Our thoughts and beliefs are very powerful.

Our world shapes what we think and believe.

Yet, the world we live in also shapes our beliefs and thoughts about things.

The location is important.

Jesus is in Caesarea Philippi the capitol of pagan worship, to some extent. It was the furthest north in the nation of Israel and led to the gentile world.

Peter’s confession is that Jesus is truly the only God, the Messiah.

In the midst of the temples to Caesar, the god Pan, and probably Zeus the greek god we see Jesus is supreme.

Confession starts the journey.

Peter and the disciples did not all the sudden get it right because they uttered the correct words. In our world where we separate mind from body from emotions from soul and compartmentalize like we are waffles does not work as a follower of Jesus. Jesus above all.

The way of the cross is self-denial.

Not in the sense of afflicting our self or foregoing a guilty pleasure. It is about having the concerns of God above all else. It is about not our will being done but God’s alone.

Paradox: to gain we must give up.

We must hold in our hands gently and openly otherwise we may lose it all. The story of Ben Witherington III about the Emperor of France:

The Gospel of Mark: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary Bridging the Horizons

Emperor Charlemagne of France. When it was opened for the first time in many centuries, the usual treasures of the kingdom were found, but in the center of the vault was a great throne, and upon it sat the skeleton of the ruler himself with an open Bible in his lap. His bony finger had been made to point to a certain verse of Scripture—in fact, the one just referred to: “For what shall it profit a person if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” It is a timely reminder that our Western society needs to hear over and over again.

What are our culture’s stone temples?

It is easy to look back and see what was wrong back then but what about today?

Where do we get in the way of Jesus?

How are we like Peter?

Jesus above all!

We must fight daily to not let our way of doing things become essential or primary.