The return of temptation is a reminder of what our resistance to temptation is really about. Keeping faith in a life full of hope.
And resisting our temptations
Lent 2B | Mark 8:31-38
I still get chills when I read this passage. Peter, God love him, can’t stand the idea that Jesus is going to die. That the Messiah will lose. And perhaps most insulting of all—that he will be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes! The whole thing doesn’t make sense to him.
So he says what anyone would say. What any one of us would say. Oh, no! We can’t let that happen! By any means necessary. Which seems like the right thing to say, but it clearly isn’t.
And Jesus says “Get behind me, Satan!” Could there be a more stunning rebuke? I don’t think so.
How we wrestle with this moment depends on how much we’ve paid attention to the story so far. And the lectionary set us up perfectly last week…
The full text may be found here.
For a limited time, you may find the audio here.