OVERVIEW – Jesus was the promised Messiah, but he fulfilled that role as the Suffering Servant on his way to die in Jerusalem. His disciple must likewise take up his cross and follow him – Mark 8:27-38.
On the “way to Jerusalem,” Jesus entered Caesarea Philippi and questioned his disciples about his identity – “Who do men say that I am?” Momentarily, Peter began to perceive and confess who and what he was – “You are the Messiah!”
Continue readingTo follow Jesus “wherever he goes” means a life of self-denial and of self-sacrificial service to others.
When he dispatched his disciples to announce the “good news,” Jesus warned that they would find themselves as “sheep among wolves.” Hostile men would haul them before “councils and whip them in their synagogues.” Even “brother would deliver up brother to death,” and his disciples would be “hated by all men for his sake, but only he that endured to the end” would be saved.
Continue readingTo be his disciple means to pursue self-sacrificial service for others, and especially so to the weak and insignificant.
On the way to Jerusalem, Jesus explained to the disciples what it meant to be the Messiah, and not for the first time, for in the city of David, he would face his final confrontation with the Temple authorities and death at the hands of the Romans. Was not that city the appointed place where the prophets were killed, and the Messiah himself must suffer rejection and death?
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