Scripture text: Mark 8:27-38
One problem some people face, particularly if they are in the public eye, is that their identity is defined more by who people think they are, rather than who they truly are. A famous actor may be confused with their most famous character. For instance, the late Leonard Nimoy, known for his role in the Star Trek TV series, felt he had to title his autobiography “I am NOT Spock.” That should seem obvious; the actor is not his character, but so often isn’t.
Our President is also a good example of this. Seven years ago, Barack Obama swept into office. Many of his opponents were convinced that he was the devil incarnate, ready and eager to doom this nation to destruction. Conversely, many of his supporters were convinced he was the Second Coming of Jesus, ready and eager to usher in a new golden age of prosperity and peace for our country. Lost in the mix was the human being that he is and after seven years of his Presidency, we’ve seen that he is neither as awful as his detractors believed nor as gloriously wonderful as his supporters once claimed. He’s just a guy trying to do a tough job in a tough environment, but no one seems to remember that.
Even I’ve dealt with this to some degree. I remember clearly when Sarah and I were dating when we had the “You’re a WHAT?” moment in regards to what I do for a living. Thankfully, it came after she’d gotten to know the real me somewhat and the expectations and perceptions of who we clergy are and what we’re like did not send her screaming for the hills. But it could have.
Our engagement photo from 2007. Dodged a bullet with the whole "You're a pastor?" bit.
Jesus likewise wrestles with this dynamic. As he performs his miracles of healing, as he teaches his philosophy and theology to the crowds, as he stands up to the powers of the religious establishment of his day, his fame has grown and along with it, the expectations and perceptions of his admirers and his opponents. Who is the real Jesus? Somewhere along the way, that’s getting lost in the shuffle. Does anyone really know who he is?
So, while on an excursion to Caesarea Philippi, Jesus confronts the question with his disciples head on. Who do people say that I am? Who do you say that I am? The choice of venue for this confrontation is intentional. Caesarea Philippi is pretty far afield from Jesus’ normal stomping grounds. He’s out in the hinterlands, away from the crowds, away from all those who are seeking to define him as something other than what he really is.
But it’s also a temple city, a place dedicated to the pagan religions of the day. So Jesus is asking this question in the midst of shrines and monuments dedicated to the pantheon of Greek gods and goddesses. Who do people say that I am? Am I a war god like Ares? Am I a healer like Demeter? Am I wisdom like Athena? Who am I? What am I? Do you even know?
For one thing, Jesus probably wasn't as fond as Ares of standing around naked holding a spear.
It’s a smart play by Jesus, because it forces the disciples to confront the fact that they really DON’T know who Jesus is. Like everyone else, they want him to be who they want him to be. Even when Peter blurts out a seemingly correct answer, that answer is nuanced by his expectations of what the Messiah is. When Jesus begins to explain the truth of his purpose and identity, Peter’s expectations are so shattered that he verbally attacks his teacher. The Messiah Jesus truly is, but he’s not the Messiah you thought he’d be.
How little things have changed.
It’s not hyperbole to say that there is a war brewing in the heart of Christianity. And at the center of that war is this same question. Who do people say that Jesus is? Do we really know?
I grew up in the 70s and 80s. At that time, in the church and the larger society, there was sense of celebration. We’d won the civil rights struggle (a premature thought perhaps, but it was the spirit of those times.) The melting pot that is America was something over which to rejoice. We were brothers and sisters, black, white, Latino, Asian, whatever. I watched Sesame Street with its diverse cast of people of color and didn’t think anything of it. That’s the way the world was. That’s the way the world was supposed to be, full of color and diversity and how great it was that we were all different. I was a kid, of course, too young and blissfully ignorant of such things as bigotry and racism, but I’d like to think I never lost much of that mindset.
And yet now, 30-40 years later, I look out over people frothing with rage over anyone and everyone who is even remotely different from they are. And rather than stand against it as it should and as it once did, I find the church often at the forefront of this fear and hatred, urging it on. We claim bigotry and discrimination as a religious right, say that this is what Jesus would have wanted. Is it really? Or have we confused him, like so many did before, with something else?
Christianity? To quote The Princess Bride, "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."
“Then he began to teach them that 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. He said all this quite openly.” Those are the words that Peter can’t handle. Neither can many of us. They are words of defeat. Words of sacrifice. Words of giving, when what we want is to take, to win, and to surrender nothing of our preconceptions, prejudices, and power towards the world and other people..
Who do say that I am? Are we going to listen to Jesus tell us who he really is and what he came to do, words recorded in the Holy Scriptures that we so often fail to read, or are we going to put words in his mouth based on what WE want of him? Setting our minds on human things indeed.
Salvation will not be won by conquest. Christ is no war god that wins by strength and violence. He is not Ares, no matter how much, then or now, we wish him to be. If Jesus had been who we claim him to be, who we DEMAND he be, the plan would have failed. There would be no cross, no empty tomb, and no salvation for us or for anyone.
The ultimate blasphemy we humans commit is how we often try to tell God how to do his business, as if we know better than he how to run this universe. It’s the ultimate statement of human hubris and arrogance. But we do not know better. Our way would have damned us all. Peter demands Jesus conform to our way and if Jesus had listened and obeyed, all would be lost. No wonder Peter is called “Satan,” everything that God had worked for, everything that he had planned would come to naught in that one moment. Evil would triumph.
Is that really what we want? It’s what we’re asking for. It’s what we’re demanding. Telling Jesus, yet again, to turn his back on his true purpose, on his true self to satisfy our fears, our anxieties, and our hatreds, not realizing what the consequences of that really will be.
That’s not faith. Faith is, instead, to trust that God does know what he’s doing, that his teachings are correct, and his commandments just. He tells us to love one another when it’s so much easier to hate. He tells us to sacrifice when we hunger for more and more of everything. He tells us to do as he did, to take up a cross for the sake of others, to embrace what seems to be defeat to win true victory.
None of these things are intuitive or logical, which is why it takes faith to follow through. To believe that God really does know what he’s doing. That his plan will work and that salvation will be won not through an act of conquest, but of sacrifice. A man dying on a cross for the sake of the whole world. That man is Jesus and that’s who he is. That’s who he really is. Not a warrior. Not a conqueror. Not a man of power declaring some of us sub-human and unworthy of attention or rights because of our skin color or who we want to marry. No, he’s a sacrifice. He’s a slave. He’s the one standing in our place on that cross so that we may have life and not death. That’s who Jesus really is. He’s the one who given us all by giving all of himself. Amen.
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