The Great Exchange - Mark 8:14-38

I write this post with utter amazement with the Gospels. I have read this section (Mark 8:14-28) and picked up on things I have never noticed before, but they all seem to run together with the same theme. This whole section seems to deal with the disciples and their relationship with Christ (excepting the few verses about the blind man), but what I find so amazing is how this section shows how the relationship between Christ and His disciples was so rocky. I want to look at each break and look more closely.

The first part (vv. 14-21) is about how the disciples do not understand what Jesus is saying. They have no bread, and Jesus gives them a warning about the Pharisees, which they determine to mean something about having no food. Immediately, Jesus comes down on them! That's right - comes down on them! He seems flabbergasted that His own disciples still does not understand. "Is your heart still hardened?" He scolds. I can imagine his voice rising in three octaves at His utter disbelief in them! He reminds them of when He fed four thousand with only 12 loaves of bread and how they had seven baskets full when it was over! I picture his ending statement as almost a whisper, and a tear forming in His eye - "How is it you do not understand?"

Jesus, God's own Son, was actually amazed at the amount of sin in His own disciples. This is the first time I noticed this and was shocked by this discovery! Why was I shocked? Well, basically, because I believe it related to our relationship with Christ. Remember - when we give our lives to Christ, we too become one of His disciples!

This same theme is echoed in vv. 27-33 when Jesus is talking to Peter. Christ had just took the Twelve to Caesarea Philippi and asks them the question, "Who do men say that I am?" They tell Him John the Baptist, Elijah, or just a prophet. But then Jesus asks them one of the most profound questions in the Gospel: "But who do you say that I am?"

Immediately Peter says, "You are the Christ!". Here Peter makes a profession of faith and is shown as being a true follower of Christ. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus actually applauds Peter's statement and tells Him that on that statement, He was going to build His church! Back in Mark, only FOUR VERSES LATER, Jesus is looking at Peter and calling Him Satan!

Now, how can there be such a huge switch in such a short amount of time! This is still in the same conversation! Here is where I take what we just read and apply it: I think it shows how utterly sinful even Christ's followers still are, and how real the spiritual warfare is in life.

To reiterate, I think God is showing us through this that even after we are saved, it doesn't mean that you are not going to sin anymore! There is this heresy in America that a lot of people believe that if you sin, then you can't truly be saved! If this was true, then there would be no such thing as a Christian! And also if it was true, there would have been no disciples in the Bible!!

The Gospel of Mark just revealed to us how Peter was used as the mouthpiece of God, and then in a few moments later, was used as a mouthpiece of Satan! Such a switch it is almost unimaginable! But this is the reality that we live in.

Every second you are alive, there is a war for you! It doesn't matter whether you are saved or not, Satan is still out to set you against God, and so we must always be on guard. Some of the people Satan and his demons work on the most are people that are already saved by Christ. This is because he wants to stop them from working for God and doing the things that God has set aside for them to do. If he can wedge his way in between them, then he can get a small victory for his side, even though he has already lost the war for the person.

Now, don't misunderstand me here - once you truly belong to Christ, Satan can not get you back! Once you are God's, you are God's and as Paul writes in Romans 8, "Nothing can separate us from the love of God!". However, Satan can still influence you, and he will try his best! This is what we get from these sections out of Mark, and this is why Jesus follows up with what He says next:

"Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his sould? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels."

Jesus told us that following Him was not going to be easy - in fact, it was going to be like taking up a cross of our own! But, He says that not taking up that cross is actually worse! No matter what anyone else says, the Christian life is probably the hardest one to live on this Earth because you are constantly going against every fiber of your body. The question is: Is Christ worth it to you? What will you exchange for your soul?