I remember once taking our then teenage son to the mall to buy himself something with some money he had left over from a
Christmas gift card. I was flabbergasted when he bought a knitted cap. Now
remember, this was in
Well, he is right. I'm old. I'm out of touch. I just don't get it. The radical,
counter cultural rock I loved as a kid is now played on the golden oldies
station or worse, in the elevator. I feel like a dinosaur sometimes. I just
don't get where our culture is headed these days. Our most popular celebrities sound shallow as
a wading pool, our most popular entertainment has the emotional maturity of a
pacifier, and you would think the biggest fear in our society is the fear of
not dressing well. We are so addicted to sex and violence. People keep throwing
their lives after goals that Ann Lamott calls
holograms, "like the eagle on the credit card. It looks good, but in the
end, it won't fly." Nope, I just don't get it.
I guess I am old. I am out of touch. But it seems to me our priorities are
messed up. Sometimes, the deepest values of what I understand to be the
Christian faith are at clear cross-purposes with the central priorities of our
mainstream culture. But I see those being mixed together all over the place,
too, and it seems to me usually the Christian values that get lost in the
translation. Maybe I don't really understand what Christ was about. Or maybe
they don't. But I think we should all be a little more careful about taking the
name of God in vain. Because when we attach God's name to our political
positions, we miss the point that we're not God, and we are apt to use God's
name in error.
Simon Peter learned that the hard way, didn't he? Many scholars think our
passage today is the main point Mark was trying to make in writing his whole
gospel. Mark wrote at a very frightening and disruptive moment in history. It
had been coming for years because the Jews and this new Jewish sect called
"Christians" refused to worship the local gods - which was considered
their patriotic duty - and they refused to worship the Roman emperor - which
was downright foolhardy. Some of the Jews thought God would help them defeat
the Romans, so they started a rebellion. Consequently, the Roman army marched
through Galilee and
What's going on in this passage? What's going on with Jesus? "Who do
people say that I am?" Why is he asking this? If you need to imagine Jesus
as a kind of totally wise all-knowing, all-controlling superhero, with no real
human emotion, you might think he is just setting up the disciples here for the
answer he wants them to discover. But I see this as a very human exchange.
Jesus wants to know if he's fulfilling his calling. Jesus wants to know if
anybody's really listening. Jesus wants to know if anybody gets it. And maybe
Jesus wants to be sure he gets it, because up to this point in Mark, nobody
understands what he is about except the demons he cleans from the possessed.
"You're another John the Baptist," they tell him. "You're
another Elijah. You're another great prophet sent from God. That's what people
are saying." They don't get it. "But who do you say I am?" Jesus
asks them. Why does he ask? Hasn't he been telling them? Is he wondering about
it himself? We need other people to tell us who we are, to test our
assumptions, to help us overcome our denial and blindness, to share their
perceptions and ideas and experiences of who we are to
them. Ironically, we also have to be strong enough not to let others tell us
who we are, live by their expectations and demands, instead of following our
own heart. Or does Jesus ask this for their sake after all? Because
no matter what the world says about who Jesus is, what matters for your
salvation is who Jesus is for you.
"Who do you say I am?" Peter just blurts it out: "You are the
Messiah!" No one has said it out loud before. No one has hit the nail on
the head. But hooray! Peter gets it! Or at least so it seems.
Immediately Jesus tells the disciples not to repeat this to anyone. That's
surprising. It's not the wide-reaching evangelistic manifesto you might expect
at this point. It's not Matthew's "Go ye therefore, and teach all
nations." Why doesn't Jesus want anyone to know? Why wouldn't he want
everyone to know? Because it's just a word. Messiah is
just a word. It means so many different things to different people, then and
now, and still, today, when we say "Messiah" we mostly mean somebody
who will get us what we want.
There are a lot of things I want Jesus to do for me. Make me successful. Make
me popular. Make me rich. Make me happy. Preserve my health. Protect my family.
Fix the economy. Build up our church.
Solve all my problems. Make winter
warmer and shorter. I'm sure you have
your list, too. The point is, we want the Messiah to
protect us from suffering. But, you know, he never promised to do a single one
of those things.
Calling Jesus "Messiah" doesn't mean much unless you understand what
he means by the word. Naming him your "Savior" doesn't make any
difference if you don't understand he means to save you from some things you
love way too much that may just kill your soul. Following Jesus doesn't mean
the path of least resistance through the maze of competing truth claims and
multiple idolatries in the world, that he will bless just anything that feels
right to you at the moment. Jesus reserves the exclusive right to tell us what
he means in being our "Messiah."
Therefore, Jesus begins immediately to tell the twelve what the word
"Messiah" is going to mean for him. "The Son of Man must
undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and
the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again." Peter
isn't having any of it. That's not what he meant when he said Jesus is
"Messiah." He meant he could heal everybody. He meant he could feed
and lead an army. He meant he could overthrow the power of
So Peter doesn't get it. He just doesn't get it. And Jesus gets angry! "Get
behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine
things but on human things." Is he angry because Peter still
doesn't get it after all this time? Or is he angry because he doesn't like it
either, and it wouldn't take much for him to abandon that plan? The last time
Jesus encountered Satan in this gospel was when Satan tested Jesus in the
wilderness. Maybe the biggest temptation Satan can throw at us is the
temptation to abandon our destiny, to be other than who
we are, who God is calling us to be. Jesus perceives Peter's objection as his
own temptation to abandon the Messiah project altogether.
Now Jesus goes evangelistic on us. Now he widens the call. Mark says, "He
called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, `If any want to become
my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow
me.'" Not only will he suffer, be rejected, and executed, but he
insists those who follow him can expect the same! Well, I don't want to preach
that! Jesus says a lot of things I don't want to preach. "Love your
enemies. Do good to those who persecute you. If they
ask for your coat give them you cloak, too. Those who live by the sword died by
the sword" Is he serious about these things? "Take up your
cross and follow me?" I mean, what kind of invitation is that? Does he
expect us to draw large crowds and fill the baptistery and build a church with
that? What congregation is going to grow by calling people to come and lay down
their lives, give up everything, and follow Jesus even if the whole world is
against you?
He goes on: "For those who want to save their life will lose it, and
those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will
save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and
forfeit their life?" I'm not sure I get that. Do you get that? The
only way to win is to lose? He seems to be saying you have to be willing to
lose something, even to die, if you are going to follow him. He seems to be
saying your salvation lies in letting go of some things that seem like life to
you but only end in death. Is that what you want from a Savior? These are hard
words.
Following Jesus does not mean that he will protect you from all suffering. In
fact, following him means suffering of a particular and redemptive kind. He
teaches us to love, but love means we suffer for those we love and will
sacrifice ourselves for their good. Suffering is also a necessary part of
growth and character formation. As Leon Bloy
suggests, "We have places in our hearts which do not yet exist and into
them we enter suffering in order that they may have existence." Not
all suffering is redemptive or necessary, of course. But to avoid suffering
altogether is to live a loveless and unreal existence, to postpone all your suffering to the very end when you can no longer avoid
what is real.
Not only that, but following Jesus will put you at cross-purposes with the
principalities and powers, with the idolatries of this world, with the popular
culture and its values, whatever culture you choose. For almost two centuries
the liberal Protestant theology worked hard in this country to make
Christianity socially acceptable and non-threatening, a kind of enlightened
worldliness, mainstream. As Mark Coppenger suggests,
the typical sermon was, "History says it this way, Medicine says it this
way, Psychology says it this way. Perhaps Jesus said it best." As if,
given enough time, all reasonable people, all scientific research, all academic
thought would arrive at the deepest values Christ taught us.
This approach was not new. It began when
Well, that is part of the suffering we must endure if we are to follow Christ
into the life that lasts. He confronts all our idolatries and finally leaves us
with what is real. I don't want to preach this invitation. It's too hard.
Listen, if you're looking for a god who will give you whatever you want, go
somewhere else besides Jesus. If you're looking for a God who will let you do
whatever you want, go somewhere else besides Jesus. But if you're looking for a
god who will save you from everything you need saving
from, including most especially yourself, and bring you to the life that is
real and that lasts, then you've come to the right place. Here is his
invitation: "If any want to become my followers, let them deny
themselves and take up their cross and follow me." Do you get it? Do
you get it?
May we pray?
Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior, have mercy on us. Show us our idolatries
that we might end them. And help us to follow your way, not ours, for you alone
have the words that lead to life. Amen.
Mary Anne Biggs, Pastor
Nekoosa United
Nekoosa