Peter was always doing it. He was always out in front of the other disciples. He was always putting his foot in his mouth. "Who do people say that I am?" Jesus asked his disciples one day. The disciples answered that some people thought he was John the Baptizer or Elijah or one of the prophets. "Enough of what other people think," Jesus said. "What about you? Who do you say that I am?" This time Peter answered. "You are the Christ," he said. Christ was the Greek word for Messiah. Peter thought that Jesus was the promised Messiah.

Peter was part of the Jewish people who had been awaiting God’s Messiah for a thousand years. The peoples’ hopes were high. They expected great things from the Messiah. So, most assuredly, did Peter. You can be sure that Peter was really tickled by his own confession. If Jesus was really the Messiah, there was a lot in it for Peter. According to Jewish expectations, the Messiah would come to destroy Israel’s enemies. He would restore the kingdom of Israel. He would usher in a great age of peace. "What a grand and glorious confession to be able to make," Peter must have thought to himself. "You are the Messiah. I can hardly wait to see all the marvelous things you are going to do for me."

Immediately Jesus began to burst Peter’s bubble. It is as if Jesus said to Peter: "I’m the Messiah all right but I’m not the kind of Messiah you have expected. I’m a Messiah who will suffer many things. I will be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes. I will be killed and after three days I will rise again."

"But that can’t be true," Peter thought to himself. "That’s not what happens to God’s Messiah." And Peter began to rebuke Jesus, if you can believe it. Peter and Jesus had totally different views of what a Messiah should be. Peter would tell Jesus a thing or two. But Jesus would not let that happen. He spoke with authority to Peter. "Get behind me, Satan!" he said to him. "For you are not on the side of God, but of men."

We are not told how Peter responded to Jesus’ rebuke. We can be sure that he was dumbfounded. He did not know what to think. He was so pleased that God’s Messiah had come in his time and in his generation. His mind was filled with all of the wonderful things that would mean for him. Peter’s hopes for a Messiah were filled with dreams that Peter would be so much better off when Messiah came. There was a lot in it for Peter if the Messiah came and touched his life. But Peter had it wrong.

This story in the gospel passage scares me a little bit everytime I read it. Peter had everything backwards. He had connected the Messiah to his own hopes and dreams. Peter had it wrong. And that makes me wonder. I hear all kinds of proclamations of of the Christian faith today that emphasize exactly what Peter emphasized. They tell me what is in it for me. If I believe in Jesus, they tell me, I will experience a renewed and powerful sense of my own self-hood. If I believe in Jesus, they tell me, all my physical ailments will leave instantly. If I believe in Jesus, they tell me, all my enemies will be destroyed. If I believe in Jesus, they tell me, my financial needs shall be met. If I but make it a point to give money to their ministries, I will discover that I prosper. I have heard all of these promises and many more. You have everything to gain and nothing to lose by becoming a Christian, they tell me. There are many voices today telling me what is in it for me if I become a Christian.

But, according to this passage in Mark’s gospel, Jesus rejected this "what’s-in-it-for-me" version of Christianity. Jesus rejected Peter’s interpretation of the Messiah, and Jesus will reject any such notions of Christianity that dance in our wee little heads. "Get behind me, Satan!" Jesus said to Peter. Jesus was filled with fear at Peter’s speech of rebuke. He might have identified Peter’s zeal to protect him from suffering as the work of Satan. In Peter’s words, Jesus had to do battle with Satan all over again.

Satan always wants us to be interested in what is in it for ourselves. That is how Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness. "Command these stones to become loaves of bread," Satan said in tempting Jesus. "Throw yourself down from the temple and watch angels bear you up." That was Satan’s second temptation. The third temptation was: "Fall down and worship me and all the kingdoms of the world and their glory shall be yours." In other words, Satan kept saying to Jesus: "Look what’s in it for you." Jesus resisted that temptation. "Begone, Satan," Jesus said. Jesus remained obedient to God.

Through Peter’s words, however, that old voice of temptation came to Jesus again. "You don’t have to suffer," Peter told Jesus. "Messiahs don’t suffer! You can have it all, Jesus."

"Get behind me, Satan!" Jesus replied. "For you are not on the side of God, but of men."

Jesus then proceeded to lay out his expectations for his followers. "What’s in it for me?" Peter asked. Perhaps we ask the same question. Jesus said: "If any one would come after me, deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me."

"What’s in it for me?" Peter asked. Perhaps we ask the same question. Jesus said: "For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will find it." Jesus, the suffering Messiah, issues a call to suffering service. That’s what’s in it for us!

And now we are faced with a temptation similar to that which Jesus faced. We hear two voices. One voice promises that following Jesus will bring an end of our human suffering. One voice promises us a crossless version of the Christian faith where all our needs are met now. The other voice, the voice of Jesus, calls us to take up the cross. The voice of Jesus calls us to a life of suffering for the sake of the gospel and for other people. Which voice will we heed? We are tempted to think only of ourselves. We are tempted to follow the path that promises immediate rewards.

"What’s in it for us?" That always seems to be our primary question. Why, after all, should we agree to follow a suffering Messiah? We are surely tempted to put our own needs above everything else. But when we do that, when we put ourselves first, we deny the very ground of our creation. In the Bible’s creation story, Eve was made for Adam because it was not good for Adam to be alone. Human life is intended to be life in fellowship and community with other people. Jesus underscored this reality when he was asked about the great commandment of the law. "Love God and love your neighbor," Jesus said. "On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets" (Matthew 22:34-40). We were not created for ourselves. We were created for life with other people. When we are tempted to put our own needs in first place in our lives, we sin against God and we sin against the structure of human life.

To focus our lives around the question, "What’s in it for me?" is to live the life of a sinner. Jesus calls out to sinners and bids us to repent, bids us to take up the cross, bids us to make the needs of other people the focus of our lives. The good news in this call is that Jesus has walked this way of life ahead of us. That means that when we live lives for others we never walk alone. When we focus our lives on other people, we follow in the path that Jesus walked. His suffering is the suffering that we enter. His pain is the pain we endure. His cross is the cross we shall carry. His death is the death that we die. And, finally, triumphantly, his resurrection is the new life we share with God for all eternity. Truly it is said, it is in losing our lives in the service of others that we find ourselves. It is in losing our lives that we receive God’s gift of eternal life.

"What’s in it for me?" That is our daily question about ourselves and the Christian faith. Some Christians seem willing to answer our question, some Christians seem willing to offer us a version of Christianity that focuses primarily on our own gain. Some Christians offer us only gain with no loss. Some Christians offer us only victory with no cross. We are tempted, as Jesus was tempted, to reach out for this crossless version of obedience to God’s will. We need to say to such a temptation what Jesus said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan!"

God turns our question and our expectation of life upside down. God in Jesus Christ offers us personal victory through taking up our cross. It is in taking up our cross, it is in taking up a symbol of death, that we find life. It is in losing our lives for the sake of the gospel, that we find our lives. It is in giving that we receive. It is in losing that we win. It is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

And so we take up our cross. We give our lives away as we walk the path of suffering with Jesus, and our lives are given back to us for all eternity. That, my friends, is what is in Christianity for you and for me.