Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.
Theologian and professor Norman Nagel famously would tell his students, “Don’t tell me about your faith. Tell me about your Jesus.” This is the heart and center of our Gospel reading from Mark 8:27-38. Here Jesus asks his disciples not what they are like, but what he is like. Peter’s response is telling. Jesus is the Christ. He is the Son of the Living God. This should also be the testimony of every Christian.
Why are you a Christian? It is because Jesus is the Christ. He is the Anointed One of God, the one who can save. What confidence do you have? I have no confidence in my own ability or my own righteousness, only in Christ who was crucified for me. What is your hope for the future? I know that because Jesus rose from the dead I also shall rise in the last day, by the power of God. Why do you want to live for Jesus? I want to live for Jesus because he lives for me. How does the Christian life make you feel? That’s a matter of no consequence to me. The Christian life is about Christ crucified for sinners. I’m marked in the Bible as a sinner. I needed Christ to give his life for me. Thanks be to God, that is exactly what He has done. I need nobody else. But what about the fact that Christians fail? That’s exactly why Christians don’t claim any honor for themselves, but only for Jesus, who never fails.
Don’t tell me about your faith. Tell me about your Jesus.
If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.