March 16, 2003
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Prayer: Eternal and loving God, whose revelation in Jesus Christ calls us to self-denial and risk-taking service, we dare to listen for your call, knowing that it may draw us out of step with the expectations of our culture, realizing that you may lead us away from our dependence on things we have accumulated. We take that risk, longing for the day when all the families of the nations shall worship before you. Amen. (Lavon Bayler. Led by Love . Cleveland. United Church Press, p. 59) In our first reading, Abram was invited to renew his covenant with God, and as he did, God’s promise that he and his wife, though childless would be the parents of a great and populous nation. As the promise was given and fulfilled, Abram’s and his wife received new names and renewed hope for their future, and for the future of Israel. Renewal comes to us when we like Abraham, like Peter, like the disciples deepen our faith in a way that helps us connect what we know about what we believe. Abraham and Sarah knew God’s promise, but they had some work to do before they could believe that what God promised was actually true. In the meantime, God reminds them of the covenant they share, knowing that the moment would come when a son, Isaac will be born to them. We can understand how our faith is deepened and renewed when expectations are met and a miraculous promise is fulfilled. The problem comes when we are asked to go deep in our faith when our expectations are turned upside down. Jesus and his disciples are walking and talking as they make their way to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. They are laughing and joking, talking, enjoying the scenery. Their mood is light when Jesus asks almost casually, “By the way, who do people say I am. What are they saying about the healing and teaching, the miracles and renewal that is happening? “Well, your passion and your intensity remind people of John the Baptist. Your devotion to God and your love for all people remind them of Elijah, or another of the prophets.” “Good, so who do you say that I am?” Their pace slows a bit, they get serious as they ponder the question we all must answer if we are going to call ourselves Christian. Peter breaks the silence. “You are Jesus the Messiah.” Matthew adds, “the son of the living God”. “Who do they say that I am?” “You are the Christ, the Anointed One of God who came to earth to bring hope and salvation to oppressed people and to anyone seeking a closer relationship with God. You are the one who will free us from the oppressive Romans and bring the Kingdom of God on earth. That’s who you are.” Jesus responds with a blessing and a promise that upon such faith and recognition would his church be built. This church, Jesus says will be so strong that even the gates of hell will not be able to stand against it. Peter knew who Jesus was. He knew deep in his soul that Jesus was his deliverer. So he may have been perplexed when Jesus said to Peter and the other disciples to keep their conversation just between them. The command to say nothing surely made the disciples anxious. When we hear good news, when we get the answer right as Peter did, when we have solved a great mystery, we don’t want to keep quiet. We want to stand up and tell whoever will listen what we know. But the timing is off. It is not yet time to talk about Jesus as the Messiah just yet. We can imagine that if Peter was perplexed by what Mark calls a stern warning to tell no one that Jesus is the Messiah, he was certainly infuriated by what Jesus said next. Here is Peter ready for his teacher Jesus to do what the Messiah is supposed to do. If the hymn had been written then, Peter would no doubt have quoted it: "Come,
O long expected Jesus, born to set your people free. Because Peter knows that Jesus is the Messiah, he cannot believe it when Jesus tells him and the other disciples what is coming next. Jesus began to teach his disciples a hard lesson. He says to them, “I want you to know that four things are going to happen. Then using the only title he uses to describe himself in Mark, he says this. The Son of Man must endure great suffering, be rejected by the religious leaders of his day, be killed, and in three days be raised from death. Jesus wants his disciples to understand what is coming so much that he repeats this prediction several more times in the gospel of Mark (9.9, 12,31; 10.33-34, 10.45, for example). The problem is that the disciples are not exactly alone. Think of Jesus and his disciples walking on Broad Street between 3rd and High Streets around 4 o’clock in the afternoon. People are hearing bits and pieces of the conversation Jesus is having with his disciples. There are enough people around that Peter is sure that Jesus has been over heard talking about his death. This is not what Peter wants people to hear Jesus saying, so he pulls Jesus aside and speaks to him. While we do not know exactly what Peter said, we do know that his words were strong enough for Mark to describe them as a rebuke. The word means to scold or reprimand. We
don’t have Peter’s words, but this is Peter the Zealot, the one whose
feelings often get the better of him, so we can imagine. “Look Jesus, we are
counting on you to make our lives better so quit talking like a condemned man.
You are the Messiah. Don’t bail on us now. What will these people think if
they hear you talking about being killed? This is no time for weakness, don’t
lose your nerve, there is a lot at stake here, don’t talk like that. You are
making me nervous. What is wrong with you?” Remember
it is Peter who knows that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah. For just a moment,
he has forgotten who Jesus is. He has forgotten that Jesus is the rabbi and
Peter is the student. For just a moment, the follower presumes to teach the
master. He has forgotten who the deliverer is, and he believes he can protect
Jesus from himself. “At issue is who is in charge. Peter has forgotten that to
say, “Christ” to someone to give up the right to define what “Christ”
means; it is to acknowledge the other’s authority to define the term and with
it the meaning of the confession. Peter tried to behave like a patron, like one
who is in charge, not a disciple” (Lamar
Williamson, Jr. Interpretation series. Mark. Atlanta, John Knox Press. p.
153). Peter
presumes to be the protector, the take charge guy, but Jesus knows what is at
stake here. He rebukes Peter, and Mark tells us exactly what Jesus says. While
Peter took Jesus aside, Jesus looks at Peter, and at the disciples, and at the
crowd that has gathered around them, and creates a teachable moment. He
says to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan”. That is
a strange way to talk to the man who just identified him as the Messiah. Satan!
Jesus uses the term sure to get our attention. It reminds us of the temptation
story. Lamar Williamson reminds us that : “While Matthew and Luke spell out
the temptation, in Mark the temptation of Jesus is defined here. Jesus is
tempted, and so are we, to think that God’s anointed one can avoid suffering,
rejection, and death; that God’s rule means power without pain, glory without
humiliation. This is Peter’s human way of thinking; and Jesus, overcoming this
tempting suggestion, identifies it as coming from the mind of Satan” (Williamson,
153). Jesus wants him to expand his thinking
and his spirit so that he can know the kind of trust and faith in God that Jesus
knows. “Peter”,
Jesus says, and he could be speaking to you and me, “your
mind is too earthly bound. Deepen your thinking. You are being much too shallow.
Go deeper. Let your faith grow like the roots of a plant. Go deeper to grow up
stronger in faithfulness, and stronger in discipleship. Be a good follower of
the Son of Man, grow deeper and stronger in what you know about who I am and who
you are in me, so that when hard times come, you can handle it”.
Jesus
calls his disciples then, and any who would be his disciples now and to the
deepest possible discipleship. “If
you want to deepen your faith and follow me, do three things.
Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me”.
We
say, but Jesus, that is not deeper, that is way to much for you to ask us to do.
Denial, crosses, and then following you, is not what we signed up for when we
joined the church. What is it you
want us to do? Deny ourselves? But we live in a culture that is all about
indulging ourselves, meeting every whim and desire.
Denying ourselves means sacrifice and that means giving up things I like.
It means doing without. Denying myself means that I might disappear and I like
me. Take
up my cross? When did I get one of these? A cross is embarrassing, it is
shameful, it is for criminals, it is an ancient forerunner to the electric chair
or a lethal injection table. The invitation to take up a cross had real life and
death implications. “Jesus call to take up our cross would have great meaning
for Mark’s first readers, who were victims of the Emperor Nero’s
persecution. Many Christians of that day were in fact, crucified because of
their refusal to deny Christ or to acknowledge Caesar as Lord. Jesus does not
call Christians to martyrdom without purpose, but he does call us to live
faithfully” (www.lectionary.org). Jesus
you are complicating my life. Deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and then
follow you? Number one, we are doing the best we can here. We are good people,
we come to church, we are members of small groups, we do no harm, we care for
one another. And number two, Jesus, you are going to a hard place. We would
really rather follow somebody who promises an easy life, no stress, no death,
but will give us everything we want right now. Jesus,
what is it exactly that you are asking us to do when you say follow you?
The invitation to follow Jesus is an invitation to understand what Jesus
is saying to us. It is indeed an invitation to deny, take up, and follow. Denial
here is not about rejecting who we are, after all we carry in us the image of
God. Denying the self is about the way we let go of that part of us that has no
need of Christ. We are asked to deny our selves, take on Christ, live for
Christ, not to deny ourselves any joy or pleasure, but to find our highest
pleasure in him. We
can act in ways that satisfy our needs and desires exclusively, that require no
sacrifice, and we can refuse to follow Jesus. But we will be left with what is
temporary, there will be nothing sacred, there will be nothing that has been
transformed from what is ordinary to what is extraordinary, by the love of
Christ for us. Living in such a way will exhaust us because it will keep us
running after the next big temporarily satisfying thing. We gain nothing when we
gain the whole world, which is the biblical way of describing life without God,
and we lose our souls in the process. We gain everything when we follow Jesus
Christ, and we gain life with him forever. We
are invited to say yes, we will take up our cross, our share of suffering, our
measure of pain, our willing sacrifice of what satisfies us temporarily to what
will satisfy the soul forever. We are invited to says yes, Jesus, count us in
the number of followers of Christ. We
are Easter people, we live on this side of the resurrection, and in this Lenten
season, we want to renew and deepen our faith. A renewed and deepening faith
will help us in the days ahead. We know that Jesus will face his cross, he will
die, he will be raised from death and he will some day in God’s own time
return for his church. Right now we are called to a broad vision and deep
discipleship as we follow Jesus. We are called to us all that we have to declare
that we follow the one who is our passionate teacher, our crucified savior, our
risen Lord. That
knowledge surely helps us when our lives confuse us, when our strength wanes,
when grief numbs us, and when emotional pain overwhelms us. It surely helps us
to say, “I know who Jesus is, and because I do, I will bear this cross knowing
I won’t have to carry it long, the day of resurrection is coming for me and
for every follower of Jesus Christ. May
God grant us all we need to grow deep in our faith in Jesus Christ, and to
remember that Abraham lived by a covenant, and so do we. We live by a new
covenant embodied in Jesus Christ, and we are invited to look deep within, to
deepen our understanding of who we are in Christ Jesus, and to follow him. When
we do, renewal will come, it will come in our lives, in this congregation, and
in the church universal. When renewal comes, we will see amazing things. We will
see growth in our spirits, growth in our passion, growth in our assets, growth
in our relationship with God. God through Jesus Christ has promised, and those
promises of God can be trusted, absolutely.
Dr.
LaTaunya M. Bynum |
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Broad
Street Christian Church
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