GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 8:30
The “Golden Message”
John Sutter dreamed of building an agricultural empire in the newly acquired territory of California. As part of that vision, he wanted to build a water-powered sawmill on the banks of the South Fork of the American River to expand his trading post business in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. He hired James W. Marshall to build a raceway for the mill; Marshall discovered a lump of gold in the raceway on January 24, 1848. Sutter wanted to keep the discovery secret because he feared that news of gold would bring a sudden population increase to the area and interfere with his imperial plans. Well, the rest of the story, as they say, is history. News of the gold in the mountains leaked out and triggered the California Gold Rush.
St. Mark recorded Jesus’ conversation with his disciples at Caesarea Philippi in the foothills of Mount Hermon, about 25 miles north of the Sea of Galilee, where the disciple Peter made the monumental declaration: “You are the Christ.” Then Mark wrote, “And he strictly warned them that they should tell no one about him.” (Mark 8:30)
This obviously temporary injunction may be based on at least three premises. First, the disciples did not have a full understanding of Jesus that matched Peter’s confession. Second, the disciples told Jesus that there were already many rumors about him. Third, the inauguration of the Kingdom of God on earth, the church, was just a few months away.
Today, there should be as much excitement about heralding the news of the Messiah as there was among the Forty-Niners about gold in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Maybe this could be called the “Golden Message.”
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