You are the Messiah 13/9/15 LJB

‘You are the Messiah’, 13/9/15, Cygnet, LJB

Mark 8: 27-38, Proverbs 1: 20-33, James 2: 18-26

Today’s gospel reading marks an important turning point in the life of Christ:

for the first time, he is recognised by one who knows him well, as the Messiah

sent by God. The Messiah was also called the Christ, meaning God’s chosen,

anointed one, so we call him Jesus Christ, Jesus the Christ, God’s anointed one.

Unfortunately immediately after this wonderful moment of discovery it all

went wrong when Christ started to explain the consequences of being

Messiah: that he would be suffering, rejected, and killed, but he would rise

back to life after three days.  O No! said Peter, surely not! Yes, says Jesus. And

what’s more, he said, this will be the road for all the true followers of the

Messiah. In your lives there will be suffering, rejection, and for some even

death as well. In Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Nigeria today, followers of Christ are being

killed for being followers of Christ.

Why must it all be so difficult? It does not sound like a great advertisement for

the life of a Christian, does it? I remember reading of an advert the missionary

order the Jesuits placed when they were concerned about declining numbers

joining them. It ran something like this:  In the last 100 years, over 100 Jesuits

have lost their lives following God’s calling. Come and join us!  What do you

think was the response? There were more applications than ever before!

Young, idealistic Christians are attracted to a challenge that sounds like the

challenge of Jesus to his followers in today’s gospel. Sadly, young idealist

Muslims are being attracted in the wrong way, by the evil that is Isis.

I think we can understand the problems Christ had in his ministry as Messiah

when we look into what being Messiah meant.

We see that acting out his conviction of what Messiah should be brought him

up against many of the rules and the power structures in society.

In Jesus’ time and earlier, there was an expectation that God’s Messiah would

come to deliver Israel from oppression, from the Romans who had invaded

their country. However, there was some diversity of thinking on how the

Messiah would bring about this delivery from oppression. Some expected a

new ruler, a king, like the mighty King David of their history. Some expected

Messiah to act as a military leader, and others by miraculous acts to achieve

power. We know this from writings of the times, for example the writers of the

Dead Sea scrolls expected a new ruler, a Messiah king.

We know that no-one expected the kind of Messiah, the kind of saviour, that

Jesus was. When he told his disciples they were shocked, disbelieving and I’m

sure disappointed. They expected something much grander! Yet since we are

unencumbered by their expectations of earthy power display, we can see that

he actually did come to deliver all of God’s people from oppression, in ways

that were completely unexpected in the Messiah, at the time.

Firstly he came with the good news that we are loved by God. God is not angry

with us for all the wrong things that we do! We are God’s beloved children, all

of us. This was particularly good news for the unloved, the poor and the

outcasts of society.

They were always put down, blamed, shamed and unwanted, but Jesus turned

that around. He proclaimed that he, God’s only son and Messiah, had come to

save the poor and the outcasts first, not the rich and powerful.

As God’s beloved children, he said, God will forgive all of our sins, all of the

wrong and stupid things we do, whatever they are, and free us to start anew.

The burden of carrying around our sins and our guilt is lifted-the oppression of

sins past is taken away. Carrying around a burden of guilt from the past and

worry about the future, we know, takes the joy out of life, and can lead to

mental illnesses. Removal of this burden is personal liberation, freedom, as

we’ve never experienced before. It is more meaningful and lasting than the

sort of political liberation Israel was yearning for. They wanted another violent

revolution against the Roman authorities. The people of Israel had rebelled

against the Romans before, and failed. 40 years after Jesus’ death, in 70 AD the

rebellion came, and brought massive retaliation which included the

destruction of the temple and slaughter of many of Jerusalem’s inhabitants

including most of the religious leaders. As we know, Israel remains a centre of

conflict to this day. And still hopes for the Messiah.

Jesus forgave the sins of people who asked him and that brought him into

conflict with the religious authorities. After all, he was trespassing on their

territory, their jobs: people came to the priests at the temple with sacrifices

and payments to intercede with God for forgiveness.

But Jesus did more than forgiving our sins. There are more kinds of oppression

from which our Messiah, Christ, liberates us.

Christ liberates us from the oppression of slavery. Many of us live do in slavery.

Jesus liberated people from mental illnesses, thought to be due to evil spirits.

He can liberate us from slavery to addictions, to other people’s expectations,

from drudgery and exploitation. The good news of God’s love can reconfigure

our minds from the mindset of slavery and despair to the freedom of a

beloved, free person. God’s gift of liberation comes with the gift of the

strength and will to name our slavery and to do something about it. Sometimes

we don’t realise we are slaves. It’s worth think about who or what exerts

undue control over us and our decisions and naming it. Then we can ask for

Jesus’ help to deal with it.

Some of us live in exile, like the ancient Hebrew slaves in Egypt, distanced from

those we love. Christ led exiles back to community and family life. Christ spoke

of the joy in God’s house when one who has been far away returns. He told the

parable of the prodigal son, and the joy of the father when his scruffy,

bedraggled son returned home from self-imposed exile. Jesus released

prostitutes and tax collectors from the rejection of the community and lifted

them up to being his dinner companions, sharing friendship with him. The

authorities and the good people of the towns did not like that. Jesus healed

lepers of their disease, but importantly in doing so returned them from exile

outside their villages, back to their families and communities. He came to bring

us back from exile too-his love flowing through us can mend broken

relationships, remake estranged families and communities. Loneliness is

oppressive, and Jesus offers freedom from loneliness and a way back into our

families and communities. It’s not easy, and usually involves forgiveness and

humility. Jesus modelled for us how to act that way.

Jesus freed people from blindness, an affliction which reduces freedom and

options in life. He can free us from blindness too. Is there something I am

refusing to see about myself? Or my family?  Is my country being blind?          

He could not cure the blindness of those who refused to see, those such as the

Pharisees questioning his healing of a blind man on the Sabbath. He accused

them of being blind, more blind than the man who had been born blind. They

hated that, and from that time on they vowed to stop him. To be cured of our

blindness we must acknowledge our blindness and want to see more clearly

what is real. That can be painful, but it enables us to see the truth and to act

on it.

Jesus the Messiah did not collude with the power structures of religion and

government to achieve his aims. His power came from his humility, his honesty

and his preparedness to do whatever it took to obey God. So it was inevitable

that he would suffer, as it is inevitable that his followers suffer when they act

as he did.

When we cut through the blindness and spin of society and tell the truth about

its evils, we can cop abuse, discrimination and in some places, martyrdom, like

our Lord.

Liberating ourselves and our loved ones from slavery to addictions, or to

expectations is daunting and painful, and we suffer.

Seeking to bring exiles into our communities, to offer hospitality to refugees,

to prisoners released from gaol, to invite friends and neighbours back into our

church community is hard work, and can make us quite unpopular.

Reaching out to members of our families who have been estranged, cut off for

some reason is hard, often involves swallowing our pride, and can hurt us if our

attempt is rejected. Yet, it is the work of the followers of the Messiah.

Peter rebuked Christ with the words of the world: No, don’t talk about

suffering and death, it scares us! Think of your reputation, your work, your

position. We hear words like that too, when we go out on a limb to act as the

Messiah did. Think of your position, your family, what will people think! And

they are right, we will suffer as did our Lord. But Peter’s words did not daunt

Christ, and neither should we be daunted or put off by the so-called wisdom of

the world, the sensible, politically correct, the comfortable road.

To be a true Christian, a true follower of Christ is daunting and Christ himself

warned us what it would be like. He shocked his followers with his hard words

and his warnings.  But as Peter later said: yes, Lord, but where else shall we go,

for only you have the words of eternal life.

May the Lord be with you, Amen.