Isaiah 50:5-9
Some eight hundred years before Our Lord, the prophet Isaiah foreshadows Jesus’ suffering for us and for our salvation in our First Reading. The prophet refers to the christic figure as the “Servant of God” or the “Suffering Servant”. We hear how the “Servant of God” stands up to the enemies who beat Him, pluck out His beard and defile His face with buffets and spitting. Isaiah says that God gives Him the strength to make His face like flint. The “Servant of God” knows that in this suffering He is obeying God. That is, God will not and cannot abandon Him despite the intense feelings of abandonment.
Mark 8:27-35
The Gospel Reading marks a dramatic moment in Mark’s story of Jesus. Jesus turns to His disciples and asks them whom they think He might be. In their name, Peter answers “You are the Christ.” Indeed, Jesus is the Christ (“Messiah” in Hebrew, meaning “Anointed One of God”). However, the rest of the Gospel account reveals there is more to the dramatic moment than a correct answer stated. Discipleship is intentional, not accidental or lucky. According to Jesus, genuine disciples take up their cross, lose their lives in love of God and service of others and, like Jesus, come to the fullness of life for which they have been created.
