2/22
Tonight as we gather for study, we are looking at Mark 8: 31-38. In this passage, Jesus predicts his death and resurrection. ( See also Matthew 16: 21-28 and Luke 9: 22-27) This is the first of three times that Jesus will make this prediction. (See also 9:n32-34 and 10: 35-41.). They are connected with three discourses on discipleship.
The question here is obvious. That is, is this a matter of Jesus “predicting” the future, like part of God’s ordained plan, or is it simply an awareness of the inevitable consequences of following the chosen path?
Jesus speaks of himself as the “son of man”, a cryptic self-reference. It’s a phrase he will use 16 times in the Gospel of Mark. His emphasis is on his humanity, thus the more contemporary translation, the human one. And of suffering. A suffering that he must undergo. It’s the content of that must that is at issue. It’s an image drawn from the apocalyptic visions of Daniel. (7: 13-14)
His understanding of his mission places him at direct odds with the “elders, chief priests and scribes,” in other words the Sanhedrin, In other words, the ecclesiastical institution. In other words, the Vatican, in other words, the Program Agency Board of the Presbyterian Church. The hierarchies of Episcopal and Lutheran Churches, etc. The institution, primarily commited to its own survival, has made its accomodations with the occupying Roman Empire as church institutions always make their bargains with the empire of the moment. This of course will lead to rejection.
It must be said, however, that rejection itself is not proof of righteousness. Pastor David Manning of Harlem’s ATLAH church, black nationalist and homophobic, sees the criticism that come his way as proof of his kinship with John the Baptist, Jesus, King and Malcolm. Sometimes rejection is simply proof that you are wrong. It takes discernment.
Peter of course gets who Jesus is. Sees Jesus as the one who is to be Messiah, savior. But again, what does that mean? When Jesus speaks of suffering and death, Peter rejects that. For Jesus. But by extension, himself as well.
Jesus only responds “Get thee behind me Satan,” because he clearly doesn’t want to suffer and die. Peter’s rejection of that idea is attractive, is tempting. Could there be another way? Like the girl Diana learns from her mother Hippolyta in Wonder Woman 1984, there are no short cuts. You must pass through every check point, regardless the cost.
Note that suffering is a consequence of faithfulness, it has no value of its own.
The cross is imposed by the political power, the empire. A punishment not for crime, but for insurrection. And to send a message to those who might be drawn to down that path. Jesus is saying that faithful Christianity is in its essence, subversive by its nature.
And of course the warning about gaining the world and losing your soul. Perhaps the best TV series ever, the Wire, through its examination of Baltimore, makes very clear the reality of soul forfeiting compromise in every level and every American institution.
We find ourselves, like Peter, in a rift between expectation and reality. What will happen to Jesus is a direct result of how he lives his life, rejecting religious an social norms. Reaching out to those who are ostracized, unclean, marginalized. He sees what happens to John the Baptist. And knows what will happen to him.
How are human knowledge and expectation related to God’s aims? In studying the actions of early Illinois abolitionists, we see that these couragous defenders of enslaved people had gained their place through violently displacing Native Americans, so even our capacity to “lift up the cross” can come at others’ expense.
How is this Good News? How are we scandalized by Jesus? How does fulfillment and pleasure measure up to defeat and ignominy in the world’s eyes? Are we ready for that?
Jesus speaks of these things in Caeasrea Phillipi, with it's temples to Caesar and cultural acquiescence to earthly power. In confronting these powers, self denial doesn’t equal self fulfillment. Self sacrifice can be self actualization.
We end with the story of Father Christian de Cherge, a French Trappist monk in Algeria in a time of Islamic uprising. He chooses to remain in Algeria and not return to France. A decision which costs him his life.
Here is his profoundly moving final testament:
If it should happen one day – and it could be today – that I become a victim of the terrorism that now seems to encompass all the foreigners living in Algeria, I would like my community, my church, my family, to remember that my life was given to God and to Algeria; and that they accept that the sole Master of all life was not a stranger to this brutal departure.
I would like, when the time comes, to have a space of clearness that would allow me to beg forgiveness of God and of my fellow human beings, and at the same time to forgive with all my heart the one who will strike me down.
I could not desire such a death; it seems to me important to state this: How could I rejoice if the Algerian people I love were indiscriminately accused of my murder?
My death, obviously, will appear to confirm those who hastily judged me naïve or idealistic: “Let him tell us now what he thinks of it!” But they should know that…for this life lost, I give thanks to God. In this “thank you,” which is said for everything in my life from now on, I certainly include you, my last-minute friend who will not have known what you are doing…I commend you to the God in whose face I see yours. And may we find each other, happy “good thieves” in Paradise, if it please God, the Father of us both.
Faithfully following Jesus is not easy. Lent is a time to prepare for that journey.
Mark 8:31-38
New Revised Standard Version
Jesus Foretells His Death and Resurrection
31 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. 32 He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
34 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. 35 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,[a] will save it. 36 For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? 37 Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? 38 Those who are ashamed of me and of my words[b] in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
No comments:
Post a Comment