15th Sunday after Pentecost (Pr. 19), September 17, 2006, “Series B”
Grace be unto you and peace, from God our Father and from our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Let us pray: Dear Heavenly Father, you have revealed your will and grace to the world in many ways. Through Moses, you led your people out of bondage, and entered into a covenant relationship with them. Through the prophets, your word was proclaimed and your covenant renewed. Yet in Jesus, your presence and grace were revealed for our redemption from sin and death, and to open our hearts to the hope of life eternal in your heavenly kingdom. Through the power of your Holy Spirit, inspire us to deeper faith, that we might trust in our Lord’s gift of new life, and live our lives in discipleship and witness. We ask this in his holy name. Amen.
Our Gospel lesson for this morning is a pivotal passage in Mark’s account of the life of Jesus. It occurs almost exactly in the center of his Gospel. All that has transpired before this time – Jesus’ baptism, his call of the disciples, this teaching and preaching, his healing of the sick and other miracles that he performed – has created great interest in Jesus. Large crowds began to follow him and wait for him along his journey. There is no doubt that Jesus had become popular among the people.
But following our passage for this morning, the emphasis changes. Mark begins to focus our attention on Jesus fulfilling his ministry, which would eventually lead him to Jerusalem, and his death on a Roman cross for the atonement of our sins.
But this passage at the center of Mark’s Gospel is more than simply a bridge between the two acts of the drama of Jesus’ life and ministry. Here, Mark confronts his readers with a simple, but extremely important question: “Who do you say that I am?”
As Gail Ramshaw points out in her commentary on our text, “That we call ourselves Christian indicates that our answer to the question of who we understand Jesus to be is the key to our identity as a religious community. That Jesus lived as an outstanding preacher and itinerant miracle-worker, and, that he was executed by Rome, are historical facts. What we Christians make of these facts constitutes our faith. As this reading makes clear, the titles and names with which we designate Jesus, provide clues to why we have faith in him.” End quote. [New Proclamation, Year B, 2003, Fortress Press.]
Thus, as Mark makes this transition from recording the early ministry of Jesus, to his later ministry that led to his death on a cross, he wants us to wrestle with the question of who this person truly is, who gave his life for us. For who we perceive Jesus to be, makes a tremendous difference to our faith.
As Ramshaw and several other of the commentaries on our text pointed out, the various titles used to answer the question as to “who Jesus is,” all extol him as a virtuous person. For example, when the disciples were first asked by Jesus about who they heard the people say that he was, they first responded, “Some say you are John the Baptist.”
This does not mean that the people believed that Jesus was, in some way, the reincarnation of John the Baptist. Rather, it was a statement indicating that people saw Jesus as a person like John the Baptist, who was able to inspire them to think about preparing for the coming of God’s Kingdom into their midst. To be sure, Jesus was an apocalyptic preacher, who foretold that the reign of God would eventually win the battle between good and evil.
Secondly, they told Jesus that some of the people thought that he was Elijah. Here, again, this is not thought to be a reincarnation of that great prophet from Israel’s past. Rather, it is an indication that the people thought that Jesus was a person chosen by God, to not only proclaim his word to the people, but also blessed with the ability to perform miracles, as Elijah had done centuries before. Jesus certainly had that ability.
And finally, the disciples said that the people thought that Jesus was a prophet, one in a long list of prophets who had been chosen by God to proclaim God’s word to the people, and relate God’s truth to current situations. There is no doubt that Jesus was a gifted preacher.
All of these descriptions of Jesus extol him as a virtuous person, one who was to be honored in the eyes of the people. And all of these descriptions of Jesus apply to who he truly is. But then Jesus asks his disciples who they believe him to be? And Peter blurts out as spokesperson for the rest,“You are the Messiah,” or, in Greek, “the Christ.”
But what does the term “Messiah” or “Christ” mean? More importantly, what did the term mean to the people living at the time of Jesus? After all, our text indicates that Jesus may not have been too enthused about the people knowing that he was “the Messiah,” as he “sternly ordered” his disciples not to tell anyone of his identity.
As Ramshaw points out, “‘The Messiah’ was understood to be a descendent of David, a human king who would be anointed – perhaps with oil, certainly with the divine spirit – to regain rule over Israel and reconstitute Israel as a people. This was perhaps the earliest designation with which believers understood the mission of Jesus.” End quote.
When we consider the meaning of the term “Messiah” at the time of Jesus, it is no wonder that he was not too enthused about being identified with that title. Jesus saw his mission, not in terms of a conquering hero who would rally the people to regain control of their land and reestablish Israel as a sovereign nation. The kingdom that Jesus came to establish was not an earthly, human kingdom, but a kingdom grounded in a living relationship with God.
Jesus could not have made this distinction more clear to the disciples, as he immediately began to inform them that he would soon suffer and give his life on their behalf. And again, Peter, speaking for the rest, tried to rebuke Jesus, telling him that this was not their understanding of how he was to accomplish his mission. That’s not the role of the Messiah.
But Jesus understood his mission in a different light, as hinted at in our lesson from Isaiah. Yes, Jesus had the ability to preach and to heal and to proclaim the word of God, as he did Isaiah. And like Isaiah, he would not turn from his mission, even in the midst of suffering at the hands of those who did not understand. Jesus would give his life to fulfill God’s promise.
There have been many stories of persons who have risked their lives, even given their lives, in order to save the lives of others. We call them heroes. We honor them and remember them as persons of valor. There hasn’t been a war fought, to my knowledge, that some individual hasn’t risked or given his or her life to save the lives of their friends. Is this how we identify Jesus – a personal hero who gave his life for our defense? This, too, is true.
But there is another description of Jesus used in our text for this morning, one that Jesus is recorded as using to refer to himself – the “Son of Man.” Many people have, throughout the years, understood this term as a polite way of Jesus referring to himself as a human being, the son of Mary. But as Ramshaw and others point out, in the two hundred years between the writing of the Old Testament and the life of Jesus, that a “semi-divine, human-like figure would appear “to represent God to the people and the people before God.”
Again, according to Ramshaw, “That all three Synoptic Gospels link the titles Messiah and Son-of-man in this story, indicates that early on in the Christian movement, the notion of a Davidic messiah was overlaid with the very different idea that Jesus was more than human. We recognize this as a primitive version of the Christian understanding of the two natures of Christ.” End quote.
Thus, from this simple passage in Mark’s Gospel, not only does it signal a transition in Jesus’ ministry, as he begins to focus on Jerusalem and his coming crucifixion, but it also helps us to understand that Jesus is not simply a human hero who gave his life for his friends. It is a passage that foreshadows the climactic statement at the end of Mark’s Gospel, by the centurion who was in charge of our Lord’s crucifixion. Observing the manner in which Jesus died, we finally hear the words from this officer’s lips, “Truly this man was God’s Son!”
This is the identity of Jesus, affirmed by the Christian church. Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, God acted to atone for our sins, and give us new life in his kingdom through his redeeming grace. And it is into act of God, that Mattson John Lucabaugh will be baptized this morning, uniting him to Christ’s death and resurrection as a child of God. Amen.
