Kierkegaard: Christianity & Sitting Safe and Calm

A quote I came across today that helped me make sense of Mark 8:27-37:

To want to admire instead of to follow Christ is not necessarily an invention by bad people.   No, it is more an invention by those who spinelessly keep themselves detached, who keep themselves at a safe distance [Just as Peter does in Mark 8:27ff].  Admirers are related to the admired only through the excitement of the imagination. To them he islike an actor on the stage except that, this being real life, the effect he produces is somewhat stronger. But for their part, admirers make the same demands that are made in the theater: to sit safe and calm. Admirers are only too willing to serve Christ as long as proper caution is exercised, lest one personally come in contact with danger. They refuse to accept that Christ’s life is a demand. In actual fact, they are offended by him. His radical, bizarre character so offends them that when they honestly see Christ for who he is, they are no longer able to experience the tranquility they so much seek after. They know full well that to associate with him too closely amounts to being up for examination [or execution]. Even though he says nothing against them personally, they know that his life tacitly judges theirs.

And Christ’s life indeed makes it manifest, terrifying manifest, what dreadful untruth it is to admire the truth instead of following it. When there is no danger, when there is a dead calm, when everything is favorable to our Christianity, then it is all to easy to confuse an admirer with a follower. And this can happen very quietly. The admirer can be under the delusion that the position he takes is the true one, when all he is doing is playing it safe. Give heed, therefore, to the call of discipleship! (Bread and Wine Kierkegaard 57-58)