St. Nicolai Notes

EXCHANGES ON THE WAY: LENTEN PRAYERS
First Thursday
Mark 8:31-38 (especially 8:32-33)

Reminder: Let me know which, if either, style you find most helpful. Thanks! Dave

Style 1: Imagined as a response from someone in the story to Jesus' words in the text.

     This cannot be! You are talking nonsense! There is no chance that we will let You suffer and die after we have walked with You, every day, for so long. You must not die!
     Satan! You call me Satan? You say I'm thinking in merely human terms and overlooking God's concerns?
     But I've been walking with You daily, taking some risks to follow your instruction. Can't I return the favor to steer You away from danger? Can't I keep the welfare of our little group in mind?
     O, Christ! I don't want to be at odds with You. Don't reject me. Don't send me away. Show me how this makes any sense. I can't see it.
     I want to trust your vision, your leadership, but right now this makes no sense to me.
     Forgive me. Keep me near. At least for now. I'm following without understanding.

Style 2: Again, a response to Jesus' words in the text, but with an effort to bring the spiritual drama out of the past into our present.

     O Jesus, we can hardly imagine the impact your prophecy about your rejection, suffering, and death had on your first followers. In spite of the opposition You had already faced, they were stunned and angry about your words.
     Even now, we aren't always sure that this was the necessary way to fulfill your mission. We wish there could have been another.
     It's unlikely we would have had the gall to rebuke You, though we may have tried quiet methods of persuasion. And we probably would have been crushed, or extremely combative after being called "Satan."
     Who knows if we would have had the courage to follow You farther along the way? We hope we would have. Would we regret our initial choice to follow You? Even now, when spiritual resistance can seem less dangerous, we are sometimes tempted to resign the mission and turn back.
     Keep us close to You.
     Give us greater insight into what You are doing and what keeps You moving forward against the current of rejection. Amen.