sermon preached
at Church of the Good Shepherd, Federal Way, WA
by the
Rev. Josh Hosler, Rector
The Seventeenth Sunday
after Pentecost, Proper 19B, September 16, 2018
So
who is this Jesus, anyway? Who do you
say Jesus is?
Those
of us who grew up in the church have in our heads certain ideas about Jesus,
developed gradually over many years, with different pieces of the story ingrained
at different ages. We may have started with an idea of Jesus as a baby born in
a barn, who grew up to be a kind man who loved children. Then we may have heard
that he died but somehow came back again, and that he still loves us today.
Only
later did we probably begin to hear stories of times when Jesus was clever, or angry,
or sad. And perhaps only as adults did we begin, for instance, to tease out the
name Jesus of Nazareth from his title, Christ, and to absorb the impact of the
idea that Jesus might actually be God in some mysterious sense. Even those of us
who didn’t grow up in church have no doubt absorbed ideas about Jesus all our
lives from Western culture, where Christian identity is still dominant.
I
think it’s both possible and important to set all of that aside and approach
Jesus with fresh eyes … frequently. It’s a challenge, but it can be done. One
way is to sit down and read the entire Gospel of Mark in one sitting. You can
read it in about an hour. Better yet, since the Gospel was meant to be heard
and not just read silently, you can get a group of people together to read Mark
out loud to each other, alternating readers by chapter. I did this in
Bellingham with a group of college students, and it took us about an hour and a
half. We stopped at the midway point and again at the end to discuss what we
had read.
From
Mark’s Gospel we get an urgent thumbnail sketch of the life and times of Jesus of
Nazareth. And I can’t dictate to you what surprises you might encounter,
because they’re different for everyone. But one thing you might notice is that
Mark often gives brief versions of stories we know better from the later Gospel
writers Matthew and Luke, who took Mark’s work and expanded on it.
Today’s
passage is one such example. Those of us who are familiar with the Gospels hear
Peter name Jesus as the Messiah, and perhaps something in our brains says, “Oh
yeah—this is the part where Jesus pats Peter on the back for noticing that he
is the Messiah and for naming it. And then he gives Peter the keys to the
Kingdom and sets him up to be the first Pope in Rome.” That’s racing through
layers of interpretation and centuries of historical hindsight, of course. But
look: in Mark’s earlier version of the story, none of that is there.
[Jesus] asked them, “But
who do you say that I am?” Peter
answered him, “You are the Messiah.” And [Jesus] sternly ordered them not to
tell anyone about him.
The
Greek word for “sternly ordered” could also be taken as “rebuked” or even
“threatened.” So Jesus could have said, “Shh! Don’t let my secret out.” But
that strong verb tempts me to put it more like, “Whatever you do, don’t go there!”
Well,
what is a Messiah? First-century Jews didn’t all agree on this, but in general,
the idea taken from the writings of the major prophets was that God had
promised to send a rescuer, a military hero, a successor to David who would
restore the earthly Kingdom of Israel. (“Christ” is simply the Greek
translation of the Hebrew word “Messiah.”) When Jesus says, “Don’t tell anyone
this,” it could mean one of two things. Either Jesus is denying that he is the
Messiah, or he is saying that the Messiah will not do the things that people
expect of him, so it’s not a helpful term.
In
the next breath, Jesus starts teaching them not about the role of the Messiah,
but of the “Son of Man.” Slow down and look at this for a moment. I was well
into adulthood before it occurred to me to wonder what “Son of Man” meant; I
had always just blown through it, knowing that Jesus was referring to himself.
But what does this phrase mean?
While
the word Messiah shows up in the Hebrew Bible 39 times, the phrase Son of Man
shows up 107 times, mostly in the Book of Ezekiel. Sometimes it’s used as a
form of address: God addresses Ezekiel as “Ben-Adam,” “Son of Man,” which can
be translated, “O mortal.” So a Son of Man is just a man, who will die, as
opposed to God, who will not.
But
a similar phrase shows up in a bizarre vision in the Book of Daniel. This part
is in Aramaic, the language Jesus himself spoke, and it’s “Bar-Anash,” or “Son
of Humanity.”
As I watched in the
night visions, I saw a Son of Humanity coming with the clouds of heaven. And he
came to the Ancient One and was presented before him. To him was given dominion
and glory and kingship, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve
him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away, and his
kingship is one that shall never be destroyed. (Daniel 7:13-14)
That
still sounds to me like the supposed job description of the Messiah: conquer
and rule. But Jesus doesn’t leave it there. He says that this “Son of Man” must
be rejected and killed—and then come back again, though I can imagine the
general outcry from Peter that drowns out this rather important point.
Mark
writes that Jesus “said all this quite openly.” To me, this is like the times
when I’m hanging out with my mother, and she says, “So, about our will … when we
die, you’re required to want this Navajo pot, which has been in the family for
generations.” It’s like, hey, don’t talk like that without giving me time to
prepare for it! (At the same time, though, isn’t it a good thing to be able to
talk openly about your own inevitable death, with your own family?)
More
on that topic some other time. The point is that all of this is too much for
Peter, who rebukes Jesus. And then Jesus rebukes Peter. There’s a whole lot of
rebuking going on. Why? Because Jesus has a different idea of what the plan is,
and it’s not a plan that the disciples are going to be able to get on board
with—at least, not before Jesus dies. So Jesus shouts, “Get behind me, Satan!”
Whoa, that escalated quickly! How often do you refer to your best friend as
your worst enemy?
And
what has Peter done to receive this treatment? Well, who has Satan been in
Jesus’ life? Mark doesn’t go into great detail about Jesus’ forty days in the
wilderness immediately following his baptism—Matthew and Luke would develop
that story—but we do know that Jesus was “tempted by Satan.” Satan’s job is to
offer alternatives: “Well, you could suffer and die. Or you could do something
else.”
Does
anyone remember that scene in The Lord of
the Rings when Frodo decides he’s not strong enough to bear the burden of
the evil Ring of Power? He offers it to the wizard Gandalf to carry instead. And
Gandalf’s eyes flash: “Don’t tempt me, you fool!” Even Gandalf, who seems
perfect, fears that he might give in to an alternative path. Another great
wizard, Albus Dumbledore, once said, “Dark times lie ahead of us, and there
will be a time when we must choose between what is easy and what is right.”
As
we walk through our lives, we can’t literally see the future. But sometimes we
can see, with some degree of accuracy, where all this might be going. Through
his focused life of prayer, Jesus saw what was coming and resisted the
temptation to choose another path. He saw that he was about to reveal the
blueprint for a holy life, and so he began teaching others to build their lives
on that blueprint. Jesus suffered for our sake, yes, and to save us eternally.
But Jesus also suffered so that we can see how it’s done. “Take up your cross
and follow me.”
It’s
not like we can choose not to die. But we can choose not to take up our cross.
We can avoid a lot of heartache in life—or so we think—by struggling to keep
power over others, to save face in front of others, and not to give our hearts
away to anyone else. When we refuse to take up our cross, we say we’d rather
inflict harm on others than take any onto ourselves. We say no to the training,
the exercise that will prepare us to die for real. We say no to the Love who
made us all and wants so much more for us than mere comfort.
So,
after all this … who do you say Jesus
is? What does your own life tell you about who Jesus might be?
Who
do I say Jesus is? That depends on
the day. But today …
I
say that Jesus is the one who shows me both the easy path and the right path,
heads down the right path ahead of me, and beckons me to follow. That way lies
death: the death of my ego, the death of my assumptions, the death of anything
that might come between me and the way of Love. As I walk with Jesus, he says,
“Don’t fret those times you gave in to temptation. I get it. I’ve been there,
too. But you’re walking with me now, and this road never ends.”
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