A Sermon preached at the Family Service on Lent II, February 28, 2021 at St. Augustine’s, Wiesbaden
Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16, Romans 4:13-25, Mark 8:31-38
Our quiz nights have been quite popular, most recently during our Shrove Tuesday celebration, so I have some simple quiz questions for you. You just have to say whether this statement is true or false:
- When Ronald Reagan said “tear down this wall” he was referring to the Great Wall of China? [No, Berlin Wall]
- Tutankhamun was one of the longest reigning kings of ancient Egypt? [No, died when only 19]
- A lion’s roar can be heard up to 8 km away? [Yes]
- Is Jesus the true Messiah? [Ha, trick question!]
Well Peter was not certain anymore. He was very confused. Just a short while ago he had been praised for giving the right answer to Jesus’ question, “Who do people say that I am?” His friends had avoided a direct answer: “Well you know Jesus. Some say you’re John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the other prophets.” But Peter had said loudly and clearly, “You are the Messiah.” (Mark 8:27-29)
But now the things Jesus says will happen to him do not fit Peter’s image of a messiah at all. How can one anointed and chosen by God suffer and die? And surely if Jesus is the one sent to save Israel its leaders will recognise him and follow him, and not reject him. Look Jesus, he says, you can’t say that. A true messiah will not be killed, that would be like losing. Well, as it turns out that Jesus is not a false messiah, Peter’s image of the messiah is false.
Peter is still thinking in terms of human power, of victory by means of wealth or violence, of a messiah as someone who leads to win for himself. These are the very things that Satan tried to tempt Jesus with when he was in the wilderness. It is therefore no wonder that Jesus turns on Peter with the words, Get behind me Satan! It is not that Peter is Satan, but that Jesus sees Satan tempting him again through Peter. Mind you, I am glad I was not in Peter’s position at that moment. I bet he hoped the ground would open and swallow him up.
And I understand Peter. His view of things was – and still is – the conventional view. How can you win by losing? How can you live by dying? That seems impossible … in human terms yes, not in divine terms. As the angel Gabriel said to Mary: “For nothing will be impossible with God.” (Luke 1:37)
We heard about one of those impossible promises in the Old Testament reading. A 99-year-old man and his barren wife will have a son? He shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her? (Genesis 17:4, 16). Our Old Testament reading this morning stopped at verse 16, so we did not hear that “Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said to himself, “Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” (17:17) It seems that Abraham first found it difficult to believe, just like Peter. But then he did and through all those who share the faith of Abraham – not just the Jews but also those who, in Paul’s words, believe in the God who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead (Romans 4:25) – God’s promise was and is being fulfilled every day.
The problem is not that God or Jesus always speak in riddles, or that they hide the true meaning of discipleship. It is more that we don’t believe them when they do. Like Peter! Jesus is brutally honest: “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” (Mark 8) The modern saying that comes from this passage, that we all have a cross to bear, meaning to have a responsibility or a difficult situation to tolerate, is far too weak in comparison to what this really means – it is a warning of the risk of execution if we follow Jesus, and not a guarantee of prosperity!
The sayings that follow may sound like riddles or paradoxes, but they are not. They are about the choice between short term or selfish goals on the one hand, or long term and selfless goals on the other, between serving God and serving ourselves, about values. God gives us a life to spend, not to keep. Rather like in the parable of the talents, the servant who are praised are the ones who spend the talents who live and abundant and generous life, not the one who hides them away to keep them safe from harm. As the theologian William Barclay says, it is possible to sacrifice honour for profit, principle for popularity, lasting for cheap things, and eternity for the moment.[1] That is what Jesus means by gaining the world while forfeiting their life. It is not the life we are supposed to live, the life for God and for one another.
It
often sounds as if Jesus is turning the world upside down when he speaks of
winning by losing, or being saved by dying (to self), or that the first will
come last and the last, the despised, come first. But actually, Jesus is
putting the world back the way it should be, the way it was intended, in our
best interest, both as individuals and for all of humanity and, remembering last week's covenant with Noah - for all creation.
So yes, Jesus is the true Messiah who suffers with and for us, who dies for us, and who is raised for us to a new life that we share. If we put our minds to divine things, if we see things God’s way, as Jesus did, we will see this truth clearly and in faith trust in the only seeming impossible.
Amen.
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