A SIX DAY PAUSE
II Kings 2:1-12; Mark 9:2-9
February 22, 2009 – Rev. Jerry Duggins
“Six
days later….” Six days after Peter identifies Jesus as the Messiah… six days
after Jesus tells the disciples that he must go to Jerusalem, suffer, die and
rise again… six days after Peter attempts to rebuke Jesus for even entertaining
the notion that the messiah must suffer… six days after Jesus does rebuke Peter
with the harshest words he ever speaks to his disciples, harsher even than
those he will speak to Judas… six days after Jesus says to Peter, “Get behind
me Satan!” It might seem unremarkable to us that Jesus allows a six day cooling
off period after this dispute with Peter.
But
this is Mark’s gospel where hardly a day passes before Jesus is moving on to a
new town. This is Mark’s gospel whose favorite word is “immediately.” Jesus is
constantly on the move, trying to stay ahead of the crowd, though without
success. From this point forward he moves quickly to
How
like our own lives! Every day filled with something new to learn, some activity
to attend, some need to address. Get a cold: we don’t have time for this; a
problem with the car, don’t have time for this; health insurance messed up the
latest claim, don’t have time for this. It’s a common complaint: we don’t have
enough time. And so our days are very busy. Life doesn’t stop for six days in
our world. If it did we’d be hopelessly behind. So when Mark lets six days go
by, we’d better pay attention. This is really important.
So
forget about where you have to be this afternoon. Forget about the fight you
had with your kids before you came here this morning. Let all the problems, the
heartaches, the physical pain, and especially the brutal pace of life slip from
your consciousness for just this moment and attend to the teaching here at the
core of Mark’s gospel. It’s actually quite simple, and yet easily forgotten.
In
the story that leads up to this six day pause in the action, Peter acknowledges
that Jesus is the messiah, but with his next words attempts to tell Jesus what
to do. To his credit he takes Jesus aside and tries to do this privately so as
to not embarrass Jesus, but he’s still dead wrong. Can you imagine telling the
messiah how to be the messiah? Peter has forgotten who’s the student and who’s
the teacher here. And for the first time, Jesus speaks to him sharply. “Get
behind me…” he says, “Be the follower.”
Jesus
then calls the crowd to himself and briefly describes those who would be his
followers. He talks about “self-denial” and “taking up the cross” and “not
being ashamed” of him or his words. And then he gives them six days to think
about it.
After
six days, he takes the favored three, including Peter, up the mountain. Jesus
is transfigured and speaks with Moses and Elijah, symbols of all that the Law
and the Prophets had to teach the people. And still Peter doesn’t get it. He
wants to hold onto the glory of the moment by building three shrines. Jesus
lets it pass without comment. The voice from the cloud is rebuke enough. “This
is my Son, the Beloved, listen to him.”
A
major disagreement, a six day pause, and it boils down to this: “Listen to
him.” We forget it all the time, but we have nothing more important to do in
life, than to listen to Jesus. This is what lies at the core of our faith. In
listening to Jesus, we may find comfort in our distress, we may find hope in
despair, we may find strength for our weakness. We may also find the cross that
is ours to bear, we may find the call that is ours to perform in life.
Listening to Jesus is not always easy. Sometimes his clear words are muffled by
the busyness of life or the inner turmoil of our soul; but listening is what we
do. It is who we are as his followers.
There
are times when Jesus is hard to see. For those times, you might think about the
example of Elisha in our other text for the day. He is not a follower of Jesus
of course. His master is Elijah, who is soon to be taken away. Notice how
Elisha holds firm to him though. Each time Elijah moves on and wishes Elisha to
stay, the answer is the same, “As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I
will not leave you.” When the company of prophets attempt to persuade Elisha to
let go and accept the inevitable, Elisha holds to his course, to his
determination to be with Elijah to the very end. He even tells the others to be
silent.
And
when the end comes and Elijah asks what can be given in compensation for his
loss, he begs for a double portion of his spirit. This is not greed on his part.
The double portion is the right of inheritance for the eldest son, for the
favored child. In asking for the double portion, he asks to be regarded as
Elijah’s son. It reminds me that as Jesus’ followers we are regarded as
children of God as well; quite the comfort as we make our way through the
trials of life. But Elisha discovers something else helpful to us as well. In
losing his master Elijah, he does not lose his Spirit. The Spirit remains
behind. We have this as well from Jesus, though we lack the physical touch of
his presence, the sound of his voice; we too retain his spirit. For the world
is the place of the Spirit’s work. While the creator may seem to be at somewhat
of a distance from us and Jesus may seem to have lived a long time ago, the
Spirit remains present, however mysteriously, in our lives in this time and in
this place.
So
in the midst of very busy lives, we have these things to remember: we are
followers of Jesus and our call is to listen to him. This is not always, maybe not
even often easy, but we have the knowledge that we are God’s children and the
promise that God’s spirit is present to us and in us. We have only to pause and
ponder these things as we seek to be faithful disciples, even in the chaos of
life. Amen.