Who Is Jesus? Mark 8:27-38 Dr. Christopher C. F. Chapman First Baptist Church, Raleigh September 13, 2015 We live in a time when spirituality is in but organized religion is out and for reasons many of us understand. Yet, there continues to be a keen interest in the character of Jesus. Not only people within the church - like pastors, scholars and Popes - are writing books about Jesus, but agnostic biblical scholars like Bart Ehrman whose latest book is How Jesus Became God, Muslim scholar Reza Aslan whose latest work is Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth and Jewish scholar Amy-Jill Levine who wrote The Misunderstood Jew. These books are bestsellers and they are being read by many people outside the church. Some may read to discredit traditional views of Jesus as the Son of God or the Messiah, but underneath the varied motives for reading and writing there remains an enduring interest in understanding who Jesus is. His teachings and actions, not to mention claims of crucifixion and resurrection, are compelling to this day. Perhaps this could be a point of connection with people outside the church, but before we consider that possibility, the question of who Jesus is remains a challenge for those of us inside the church. Today s reading from Mark 8 makes clear that the desire to understand who Jesus is goes all the way back to Jesus interactions with his disciples. The early church struggles with the question of Jesus identity for several centuries, trying to sort out how humanity and divinity go together in one person. Indeed, we are still debating these issues today! But the debate begins while the historical Jesus is living. The setting is Caesarea Philippi, modern day Banias, a site where there are altars to many different gods. It is the perfect place to ponder ultimate questions. So, Jesus asks his disciples, Who do people say I am? Various names are given. Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, still others think he is one of the prophets. But who do you say 1
that I am? Jesus asks, and Peter, ever willing to speak up, says, You are the Messiah (or the Christ, or literally the Anointed One). Our temptation is to think the matter is resolved. Peter has given the right answer. So, there is nothing left to question. If only matters were so simple! Notice what happens next. What does Jesus say after Peter gives his answer? Mark says he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him. Sternly ordered them the language is strong, but not strong enough to translate the Greek word. What Mark says is that Jesus rebuked them so that they would tell no one. It is the same verb Mark uses to describe Jesus actions vis a vis demons. He rebukes them! Jesus asks, Who am I? Peter gives the answer we have been taught is right, You are the Messiah! and Jesus says, Don t tell anyone that! Why? Why does Jesus rebuke Peter? Is his answer wrong? Yes and no. The word is right but what Peter means is wrong. The most common meaning is of one anointed to deliver people from oppression, meaning this-world oppression and delivered by power. As the story continues, it becomes obvious that Peter has this understanding. When Jesus speaks of suffering and death and rising again, Peter says, No way! he rebukes Jesus, and then Jesus rebukes Peter. There is a whole lot of rebuking going on here, lively debate, intense disagreement. It reminds me of the Italian part of my extended family. They are far more expressive than the refined British part and the genteel southern part. When they say hello or express love, they really beat on each other, but when they have a disagreement, they sound like they are going to kill each other! The tension between Jesus and Peter is like this. They love each other, they are family, but this is a heated exchange. The reason is that who Jesus is cannot be understood by one word or set of words. Whether we are talking about what kind of Messiah Jesus is or the question of how humanity and divinity go together, any words we use are subject to misunderstanding because the subject matter is so complex. As the late Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple, once said, If any man says he understands the relation of Deity to humanity in Christ, he only makes clear that he does not understand at 2
all what is meant by Incarnation. Peter hasn t even gotten to incarnation. He is still struggling with what kind of Messiah Jesus is. Jesus is not a Messiah in the sense most people think of in his time. He does not conquer through power and protect his followers from hardship. He conquers through suffering and sacrifice and models a way of service and love. Peter doesn t get this yet, he doesn t understand his answer to Jesus question. His answer will have to be worked out over time in the context of his continuing experience with Jesus, as will ours. Albert Schweitzer put it this way. Christ comes to us as one unknown and to those who obey him, whether they be wise or simple, he will reveal himself in the toils, the conflicts, the sufferings which they shall pass through in his fellowship, and as an ineffable mystery they shall learn in their own experience who he is. Indeed, we learn through experience, over time, and we always have more to learn. So, the question ever remains a question. Having said this, we still need to venture an answer. Perhaps like Peter we might begin with the concept of Messiah. Who is Jesus? He is the Christ, One Anointed by God to free us from oppression. But our forms of oppression include not only the social and political but the spiritual and psychological. In the traditional language of the church, Jesus saves us not only from captivity to foreign powers but from enslavement to sin, from the challenges and temptations of this world, and from ourselves. How he does this is through his death on the cross, though we need to be careful in how we describe this reality. Part of the challenge comes with views of atonement, the worst of which picture a kind Jesus buying off an angry God with a sacrifice of blood, but many others still view what happens on the cross in far too mechanistic terms. The cross expresses God s love for humankind, God s willingness to sacrifice a part of God s own self to extend mercy and acceptance to us, but exactly how this works remains a mystery. Furthermore, the cross isn t just about forgiveness. It s about God s companionship in suffering. If God was in Christ in a unique way, to use Scottish theologian Donald M. Baillie s way of talking about Incarnation, then God was on the cross, even though Jesus sensed God s 3
absence. What might this say not only about who Jesus is but what his identity means for us? Sacramental theologians differentiate between signs and symbols. A sign means one thing. For example, a red octagonal sign with the letters S-T-O-P on it means one thing or is supposed to mean one thing, even if some people translate Yield or Slow down a little. A symbol has many different meanings. For example, a dove can represent peace or the coming of the Spirit or baptism or hunting season for some The cross is a symbol, not a sign; it has many meanings; and all of them point to the identity of Jesus and how he saves us, what he brings us forgiveness of sin, companionship in suffering, God s identification with human experience, not to mention a picture of servant leadership. So, Jesus is the One Anointed to free us from all that enslaves us through his death on a cross. But does Jesus death define him? Civil Rights historian Taylor Branch told us a story about one of the first interracial ministers meetings when the Caucasian minister preached a sermon on the cross as an instrument of salvation. Martin Luther King, Jr. s predecessor at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Vernon Johns, got up and said something like this. That s the problem with white churches. You always talk about Jesus death. You don t talk about his life, his teaching and healing, his ministry with the poor. It was a blunt word, but it was not unfounded. Sometimes we reduce the Jesus story to the passion narrative. His life is just as important as his death. It serves as a model for how we are called to live. Jesus teaches and heals, preaches and loves, forgives and disturbs the people of his time in fulfillment of God s calling in his life. In the process, he provides an example for us, a kind of salvation, a way of making us whole. In The Imitation of Christ Thomas a Kempis suggests that all the study of our heart be from now on to have our meditation fixed wholly on the life of Christ, for His holy teachings are of more virtue and strength than the words of all the angels and saints... Indeed! But if we are answering the question of who Jesus is, we cannot stop here, with Jesus life and death; we also have to talk about his resurrection. For in the more confrontational part of his exchange with Peter, Jesus talks not only about suffering and death, but also rising after 4
three days. This is the part of the traditional view of Jesus that proves problematic for many. Even in the church, some believe that the resurrection is an historical event while others view it as a myth which conveys ultimate truth life prevails over death. Still others dismiss it altogether. It is not an easy claim to embrace, but not only is it the claim of the early church, it provides the only explanation for how disciples terrified at Jesus death find the courage to stand up for their faith, and it dramatically alters the way we view his life and death. If death is the end for Jesus, his story is tragic. He is just another misguided spiritual zealot thinking he can make a difference. But if death is not the end, Jesus story is powerful and transforming. Love wins out in the end, life prevails over death, Jesus not only saves us from sin, he delivers us into a whole new life. Who is Jesus? He is the Messiah, one who saves us from all that would hold us captive, and how he does this is through his life, death and resurrection. All three dimensions of his story matter and are central to his mission and our salvation. So, the question of who Jesus is remains a question even for the faithful as we seek to grow in understanding, we can venture an answer for what we believe, and once we have, what remains is to live with the consequences. Genuine faith involves more than intellectual assent. It involves trust and devotion. It means giving our hearts and lives to the One we call Messiah. And in the story we have read today, Jesus spells out what this means. It means denying self, taking up a cross, and following him in paths of service and love. From a certain perspective, this is a consequence of belief, but such a life is what belief really is. In his book Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time Marcus Borg describes this truth with great clarity (p. 17). He says that, as a child, he was taught that believing in Jesus was very important, and this involved believing certain things about Jesus, things the Gospels and the church said were true. Over time this became increasingly difficult. But now he sees that believing in Jesus means something very different. The most basic understanding of belief in the early church was not about the acceptance of certain doctrines. It was not belief that The 5
root of both the Latin and Greek words for belief means to give one s heart to. We re talking about belief in Jesus, trust in his ways of life, giving our heart to him. Clearly what we believe about him matters, but that we believe in him matters more. English minister Leslie Weatherhead put it this way in his book The Christian Agnostic. I believe passionately that Christianity is a way of life, not a theological system with which one must be in intellectual agreement. I feel that Christ would admit into discipleship anyone who sincerely desired to follow him, and allow that disciple to make his creed out of his experience; to listen, to consider, to pray, to follow, and ultimately to believe only those convictions about which the experience of fellowship made him sure. (p. 16) It is difficult to read the Gospels and disagree. In the final analysis, as we reflect upon the identity of Jesus, perhaps we should end where the Gospel According to John ends. But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the book that would be written (21:25). If the world cannot contain the story of Jesus, we will never know him completely. We can only love him and live faithfully in response to what we come to believe is true and then invite others to join us on this journey. 6