St. Mark's Guide to Life, the Universe, and Everything

Hope: An Anchor in Lent

Hope is an important thing.  We often hope for many things, but when the world around us is full of fear and stress, it can seem hard to have hope.  As we make our way through Lent 2025, how is our hope holding up?  We can look at the experience of St. Peter and his journey with hope to enlighten our path. 

St. Peter’s Worldly and Eternal Hope

Halfway through St. Mark’s Gospel, in chapter 8, we find St. Peter full of hope.  The Gospel of St. Mark is all about understanding the identity and mission of Jesus, and the first half of the book has been vividly demonstrating how Jesus is a new kind of king.  He is a king that defeats diseases, dead traditions, demons, and even death!  It is understandable that many people, including the disciples, thought that Jesus would also be a worldly king that would set them free from the tyranny of Rome.  

St. Mark makes it clear that the disciples struggled to understand who Jesus was, so it was with a mixture of worldly and eternal hope that Peter answered Christ’s question in chapter 8, “Who do you say that I am?” by saying, “You are the Christ” (8:29).  This is a key moment in the book.  Up until now, Jesus has been presented as the conquering king, and the worldly hope around Him has been rising.  Immediately after St. Peter’s words that Jesus is the Christ, we find the first mention of the cross.  This is when Jesus first tells them that He must go to the cross, and the movement of the book shifts towards Christ’s journey to crucifixion.  

Peter rebukes Jesus for saying that He must die and rise again, and Jesus says to him, “Get behind me, Satan!  For you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men” (8:33). For St. Peter, his worldly hope is immediately dashed by disappointment.  If we could draw an arc illustrating the flow of worldly hope in St. Mark’s Gospel, the line would rise up until chapter 8, and then it would descend to Christ’s death and the disciples’ despair in Chapters 15 and 16. 

The Arc of Worldly Hope vs Eternal Hope

If we could draw an arc illustrating the flow of hope in most peoples’ lives, it would be the same.  We begin with many hopes as we pursue our desires for many things: education, money, career, health, family, and the list goes on. But none of it lasts.  As high as the arc of worldly hope ascends, it always comes down again.  Desires go unfulfilled and hopes are met with disappointment.  A job is lost, a relationship ends, our own health or a loved one’s declines, and we all become like St. Peter, confused and disappointed.  

Amidst his disappointment, Peter stayed near Jesus, and after the hope, and after the disappointment, there was an invitation.  As noted above, the Gospel of Mark flows like an arc when seen through the lens of worldly hope.  The hope rises, but it descends to disappointment in the end.  However, through the lens of eternal hope, there is no arc.  The line of hope ascends to chapter 8 then continues to ascend to chapter 16. 

In chapter 8, after Peter’s hopeful declaration that Jesus is the Christ, and after the disappointing rebuke from Christ, Peter and those with him hear this invitation from Jesus:

This same invitation is offered to you and me.  The invitation is a movement from worldly hopes to an eternal hope, from worldly happiness to eternal joy through intimate communion.  This is the movement that St. Mark’s gospel invites us to.  It’s not an arc of rising and falling hope.  It is a continual ascent because the closer we get to the cross the deeper our communion with Christ.  

Finding Hope in Lent and Beyond

This invitation is fitting for this season of lent.  This is the perfect time to recognize if you are clinging to worldly hopes and to be honest about your disappointments.  As you do so, be like Peter and stay near Jesus.  Mary and Martha were so disappointed as they stood with Jesus at the tomb of their brother Lazarus, and Jesus wept with them (John 11).  He will meet you in your disappointments as well, and when the time is right, He will wipe away every tear (Rev. 21:4).  

St. Peter passed through immense despair and disappointment before learning to exchange his worldly hopes for an eternal hope.  He speaks this message to us today saying, “Rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:13).

Like Peter, we must usually pass through our disappointments to find Christ’s joy on the other side.  This Lent, if you are burdened by disappointments, Peter’s journey can be yours as well.  Let’s follow Jesus to Pascha and find His eternal hope, joy, and love.