Almost immediately after Peter confesses that Jesus is the Messiah, Mark has Jesus begin to redefine what Messiah is. Jesus is the one who follows the way of the cross. This would have been scandalous to the first hearers of Jesus and also sat uncomfortably with those listening to Mark. Messiahs did not die.

As importantly for those of us following Jesus today is that Jesus begins to redefine discipleship. It would be costly. The early followers of Jesus, like us today, had to unlearn many things.

It is like learning a language. I am learning Welsh: Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Sant Hapus i pawb means Happy St David’s Day to all. I can do this with relative ease now. A year ago, I would have been tempted to begin the sentence with Hapus… and end up saying St David is happy. With learning a language, I have to unlearn how I think it should be done. This is perhaps the hardest act in learning anything new; you need to reconfigure the old.

Lent is a good time to engage in that reconfiguration.

Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Sant Hapus i pawb

May Lent continue to be blessed