24th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Sept.

13, 2015
(Isaiah 50:4c-9a; James 2:14-18; Mark 8:27-35)
The Isaiah reading is the third of four Servant Songs found in
Isaiah 40-54. These chapters have been called Deutero-Isaiah, because
they contain material which developed during and after the
Babylonian exile (586 BC) and long after the historical Isaiah had
prophesied.
The servant songs spoke about an unnamed and unknown servant
of the Lord, who would faithfully carry out the will of the Lord in all
things. For this reason some scholars identified the servant with an
idealized image of a personified Israel in a post-exilic period in the
future. Others thought this servant would be the long awaited Messiah
of the Lord who would restore Israels good fortune and place in the
world. Still others thought it was the author himself of Isaiah 40-54.
Even if the identity of this servant was unknown, what is
absolutely clear is that the evangelists all had an awareness of this
servant when they wrote the gospels and they framed their portrait of
Jesus in terms of the servant from these songs.
Sundays Gospel has been called the hinge of Mark. Everything
before this in Mark has been written with an eye towards this
confession by Peter of Jesus as the Messiah as the climax. The rest of
the Gospel flows from this confession. The Messiahs identity finally
becomes clear to Peter, as the speaker for the group of disciples, that
Jesus is the Messiah (in Greek the Christ). It is now no longer up to
demoniacs or those who were ill or non-members of the group to
identify Jesus. Now, his own have finally discovered it.
The confession came in response to the question Jesus had posed
to the disciples, Who do people say I am? They answered John the
Baptist, Elijah or one of the prophets. Then Jesus asks them directly:
Who do you (2nd person plural) say I am? Peter alone speaks for the
group in noting that You are the Christ. It is not possible to say what
Peter meant by his answer, but it certainly suggests that he and the rest

of the disciples believed at the very least that Jesus was Gods agent
come to restore Israel to its place at the head of the nations.
Jesus then ordered them not to tell anyone about him. This is
another example of a stylistic device Mark used to keep the narrative
developing until the actual arrest, trial and persecution of Jesus
culminated in his death on the cross. Immediately upon his death the
Roman centurion says unequivocally Truly this man was the Son of
God. At that point there is no longer cause for secrecy because all has
been revealed.
Once Peter has made his confession, Jesus spells out the
implications of his identity as the Christ and as Son of Man. He must
suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the
scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days. Obviously when Peter
takes him aside and tries to talk Jesus out of this kind of talk, he
demonstrates that his confession was limited to his own expectations
of greatness for the Messiah he awaited; but that could be said for
practically all of the disciples.
Jesus calls Peter Satan as he explains that Peter is thinking as
humans do, not as God does. He illustrates the point with the demand
that anyone who wishes to follow me must deny himself, take up his
cross and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save
it. That instruction is still valid.
Fr. Lawrence Hummer