Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: JESUS (09/07/23)
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TITLE: Who? | Previous Challenge Entry
By Jack Taylor
09/11/23 -
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His eyes narrowed and his jaw set as if he also was about to make a statement of his own.
The religious leaders had felt the sting of those statements. More than once, so had we. He was turning our world upside down and there was nothing we could do but to take another step and follow. His name was on the lips of everyone. He’d already turned down the pressure to become our king. What more did he want?
Brilliant darts of light glistened off the streams below and the slopes above. This was not the place to be at a time like this. Dusty sandals trod toward the path where thousands formed a river of humanity mesmerized by what was ahead. Curious followers filled the gap behind. Modest eyes deflected focus from the scene of shame ahead.
The question came as a surprise. “Who do they say the Son of Man is?”
The response wasn’t surprising. “These pagans? Look at them with their idols and sexual rites. Men openly cavorting with goats to bring fertility to this land. They have no idea who you are?”
The balled fists of another shared the tension. “Romans? Greeks? They will never know who the Son of Man is. Why do we stand before these gates of hell? The whole world has gone crazy here.”
Snowy peaks of Mount Hermon towered over the raucous worshippers dancing with the goats on the plaza next to the Temple of Pan covering the monstrous cave where the waters gushed out each spring. Beating drums, pan flutes, zithers and lyres surfed on the ecstatic moans and screams of men and women gyrating to draw out the favor of the gods. At the birth of winter, the deities had slipped through the gates of hell into the heart of the earth while the chilling flakes blanketed the land. Now, with the birth of spring, the nine-thousand-foot peak soaked in the rays of the sun and rewarded the efforts below. Surging waters flowed out of the Temple cave into Banias and through the Hula Valley toward the Jordan.
“Who do our people say the Son of Man is?”
The question was unsettling. Despite Daniel’s clear declaration around the Son of Man our people didn’t get it. An answer slipped out nearby. “John the Baptist. Some think you are John the Baptist come back to life. Herod is one of them.”
“Elijah. You fed multitudes and have done miracles. Some think you’re the prophet returned. We do expect Elijah’s return before the last days.”
“Jeremiah.” “Isaiah.” “You speak the words of a prophet.”
The steely eyes shifted across our faces. “Who do you say I am?”
The words catapulted from my lips. “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.”
The smile I loved to see stroked my heart. “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
Sometimes words are confusing. Was this praise or a check on the pride he knew surged below the surface? There was always a lot more underneath the images he shared. I was a pebble and he would build his own gathering on the rock of my confession. Before us, it seemed that the whole world frolicked in abandonment before the man-goat-god, Pan.
What could a few weak, faltering, failing nobodies do in the face of the towering mountain of paganism before us? Could even the Son of Man overturn this monolith? It would take awesome power. But what was he saying now? Jerusalem? Chief priests? Death? Raised to Life?
Someone had to straighten him out. “Never, Lord! This shall never happen to you!”
“Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
Messiah, Son of God. He is so much more than I ever imagined him to be.
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