St. James Episcopal Church
Greeneville, TN
Year B - Proper 19 - September 16, 2018
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Psalm 116:1-8
James 3:1-12
Mark 8:27-38
There are times when we just don’t know who we are… I know personally how tough it was when I changed careers in my late 30s. I went through an identity crisis of sorts. Maybe some of you have been through the same feeling… The feeling when you get when you reached a point and said, who in the world am I?
Maybe it was because you were so wrapped up in what you were doing... wrapped up so much that people came to know you as “that guy or gal that does that” … Oh, yeah, I know that Ken fella, he’s the one that created the concept of Maximum Home Value, offering complete development packages for scattered lot construction projects with modular box homes. He’s the one you need on the team if you want to get your business profitable again… And now, possibly… oh yeah, Ken’s the one that is working on a Human Resources manual for the Episcopal Church. Or… Ken, yes… he’s a skilled liturgist… or he’s that fabulous preacher and teacher 😁…
So, who are you? who do people say that you are? What do people say about you? Have you ever had an identity crisis? Have you ever wondered or questioned who you were??
I don’t think that Jesus is having an identity crisis, but I do think he IS trying to assess the situation. So, he asks his closest companions “What are people saying about me?” “Who do people say that I am?” The disciples answer back immediately, oh… they say… you're John the Baptizer, or maybe one of the prophets… like Elijah, Isaiah, Moses, Habakkuk, or possibly Ezekiel…
This is very unlike today, in our very entitled and individualistic society. It is important to realize that in the ancient Mediterranean world, a person got his/her identity through their associations. This is called “collective personality.” Typically, one would be known by the company they kept, the family they were born into, or their place of origin. So, we have names like ‘James, Son of Zebedee’ or ‘John of Damascus.’
However, Jesus has left his family and his hometown. He has left behind all his associations and is now running around the countryside with a rag-tag caravan of followers... several fishermen, tradesmen, and even a tax collector.
His behavior is “very different” from what was expected. So, Jesus’ question “who do people say that I am” was a way for Jesus to assess his status among the public and among his closest followers. He was also trying to figure out if is his closest followers had learned anything about living into the life that he was trying to teach them.
Things are starting to get real… Jesus has been going about northward along the coast of the Mediterranean in the lands of Tyre and Sidon (where we saw him last week), teaching and healing. Now, he and his close band of disciples start to turn south and are now just North East of the Sea of Galilee in an area called Caesarea Philippi. It is from here, he will start to make his journey south to Jerusalem… And so he asks his followers questions trying to get his bearings.
The disciples had seen Jesus do many great things cast out demons, heal the sick, feed the thousands on the hillside, so they obviously, by seeing him in action, they see the people associate him with the great prophets and teachers of old.
Then Jesus asks them the pointed question “who do YOU say that I am?” And Peter is quick to jump up and say “You are the Messiah – the Christ – the one who we are waiting for” – and Jesus tells them “sternly” not to say anything to anyone…
It’s obvious that Jesus and his followers have a different idea of what it means to be the anointed one of God – (the Messiah or Christ). Jesus taught them that the Son of Man (the human one) 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.
This was not in the disciple’s plans…
For his disciples, being the Messiah meant that Jesus would be a militaristic leader, able to finally free the people of Israel from Roman oppression... able to restore the rightful reign of God’s People over the land that was promised to them by God. This was going to take lots of violent action and much Roman bloodshed. So, they were on two different pages. They had different ideas of who Jesus was.
Peter was obviously upset at Jesus and takes him aside and scolds him. But Jesus will have none of it, and he calls Peter out in front of the disciples and tells Peter that he is more concerned with what Peter wants rather than with what God wants. That Peter and the rest of them need to understand what he is trying to teach them if he wants to be a true disciple. In order to be a disciple, to be a real student, they must learn how to follow the teacher’s lead. They must get behind the teacher (so to speak).
After the spat with his close followers, Jesus calls the whole crowd together and begins to teach them about who he is and what he’s about… Jesus begins to try to iron out any misunderstandings of his identity that may exist…
He tells them, that in order to follow him, it doesn’t mean you’re joining an Army in order to overthrow the Romans… That in order to follow him, you need to deny yourself… that the cost of following him might mean that you will lose your life. But not to worry, in losing your life, you will gain life.
He tells them that by gaining life, it’s much different from gaining stuff or regaining governance over some territory. That those are the things that this world worries about. It’s not the stuff that he’s worried about or the stuff that God’s worried about.
In his lesson, we get to understand the identity of Jesus a little better, not as the Messiah, or Christ, but as the human one – the person Jesus, who is so aligned with the will of God, that he is able to exercise authority and proclaim the kingdom of God.
As followers of Jesus, as his disciples (as students of the great teacher), we are asked daily to deny ourselves and take up our cross with all the risk and sacrifice that implies. But, carrying our cross, is not just some burden we must bear, it is a likeness we must become.
If we are to take up the cross of Christ, we must let go of our own selfish ambitions or agendas and take on the will of God. If we are to become true disciples, we must not formulate plans for God, but rather, let God’s plans and dreams become ours.
When we were baptized, we made covenantal promises to seek to serve Christ... Serve Christ in all persons and love our neighbor as our self. With our baptism, we took on a Holy association with other believers and in that association, we gained a new identity as we became followers of the way of Jesus. It should be part of who we are, it’s in our DNA.
The question for us today is… With our life and our actions, who do we say Jesus is? How we answer that question will tell everyone who we really are.
No comments:
Post a Comment