"Our true identity is as followers. We don't decide what the future will be. We don't decide where we are going. We cannot control what will happen. We are simply called to follow and trust the promise."

Dear Friends in Christ,

During this Lenten Season we remember what God has done for us in Jesus, the Christ. As the first disciples journeyed with our Lord to Jerusalem to witness his suffering and death for us on the cross, so we do also in this season.

And as Jesus prepared his disciples for that journey he said to them often, "The Son of Man must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again." When Simon Peter first heard Jesus say this, he took him aside and rebuked him. I can imagine him saying, "No, Lord, it will not be this way. We won't let it happen. Don't talk like this."

Jesus' response was direct and to the point, "Get behind me, Satan. For you are setting your mind not on divine things, but human things."

Do you see the issue here? Peter had gotten ahead of Jesus. He had begun to work out in his mind the whole scenario. He had decided what this was to mean for himself and for the mission of the Messiah.

And he was going to make sure that things did not get messed up. Jesus had to remind him that he (Peter) wasn't in charge of this journey. This was the Father's will for Jesus and for his disciples.

Peter was actually caving into the pressures exerted by the Evil One.

How often do we try to get ahead of God and figure out what is going to happen and even try to control the outcome of the situation? We think we know what is best and we will do all that is in our power to make sure that it happens. Jesus calls this "setting our minds on human things." He calls Peter "Satan" because he was challenging Jesus' identity. That was Jesus' experience of Satan in the wilderness. Satan tempted him by challenging his identity, "If you are the Son of God, then…."

And now Peter is challenging his identity by putting himself ahead of the Lord.

There can be only one Shepherd, one leader, one Lord.

Jesus then goes on to say to all of us, "If any want to become my followers (literally in the Greek it reads: If you want to get behind me), let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me."

Our true identity is as followers. We don't decide what the future will be. We don't decide where we are going. We cannot control what will happen. We are simply called to follow and trust the promise.

For Jesus goes on to say, "For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel will save it."

Yes, in this Lenten season, we are invited to journey with our Lord as his followers. We are invited not to get out ahead of him, but to follow behind him in order that we might find life in him.

And yes, it will mean denying ourselves and picking up our crosses, but what a blessing that will be as we are given the privilege of journeying with our Lord.

Yours in Christ,

Bishop Jim Stuck