Trinity 16 2018: Isaiah 50, 4-9a; James 3, 1-12; Mark 8, 27-end.

Revd. Canon Leonard Doolan

 

In my previous parish in England every year we had a big town centre celebration for the switching on of the town Christmas lights. In fact it always happened on the Saturday that was the day before Advent Sunday. I managed to get them to rename the event from Christmas Market to Advent Market – it made no difference to the fun that we all had, but it meant that Advent got a look in, and we held off the name of Christmas for a few more days.

It was the custom of the Town Council to bring in what they call a ‘big name’ to turn on the lights. What that usually meant was a minor celebrity who had no work except the pantomime at Swindon.

One year they managed to get a rather better known TV actor whom I had always rather liked. He will remain nameless for the purposes of avoiding any libel actions. I was so looking forward to being on the big outdoor stage with him, because the Vicar was always allowed to say a few words about Advent and Christmas, and to bless the town. The said actor, or actress, proved to be a huge disappointment to me, and not at all the sort of person I had hoped for. You must all know what I mean – you build up a picture of someone in your head from what you may have seen or heard and you have an expectation that your image of the person will be exactly what he or she is like. There was and is a lesson to be learnt in this – a lesson for all of us about how we characterize other people.

St. Mark is telling us something quite similar today. No doubt Jesus had been healing and teaching in familiar ground around the Sea of Galilee, where had had called his disciples who were the fishermen. He is travelling north, most likely walking along the banks in the valley of the River Jordan to the district known as the Decapolis, or Ten Cities. Caesarea Philippi is one of the Ten Cities. Some of these have been discovered and excavated, others still lie undiscovered and unexplored.

He is already something of a celebrity, though the word as we commonly use it hardly does Jesus any justice. His disciples have seen the most extraordinary things happening before their eyes, and heard the most powerful of life changing preaching – a unique human wisdom whose source is clearly rooted elsewhere.

Often the best conversations are to be had while walking. Problems are often resolved not by sitting down to talk with someone, but by going for a walk with them. There is a Latin phrase – solvitur in ambulando – a problem or dispute can be resolved in a good walk.

So while they are walking along the Jordan Valley to Caesarea Philippi, in the midst of whatever else was being said in conversations all around him, Jesus asks his closest followers who they think he is. Maybe feeling slightly embarrassed they prevaricate a little by reporting what others have said – John the Baptist (slightly strange as John was still around at the time, but clearly very influential); Elijah (quite possible as he was the great prophet, the only one in the Old Testament not to have died according to the biblical record, for he was lifted up and taken away to heaven – they expected him to return, which was why Jewish families always set an extra place for him at the meal table). Some said he was one of the prophets – well some of his teaching might be in the prophetic tradition, but generally prophets were not miracle workers.

One of them though is impetuous. It is Peter. He goes to the heart of it. You are the Messiah – that is the Christos – the anointed one of God.

To fill the shoes of the one they called Messiah was a tall order. The Jews expected the Messiah to come and overthrow the enemies of the Hebrew people and restore God’s kingly rule on earth. This was what they expected, what they wanted, and they had built up a picture of what the Messiah would be like.

A little bit, but just a little bit, of what I had hoped for with the celebrity who came to turn on the Advent lights.

Jesus begins to tell them what it would mean to be the Messiah. He turns to the authority of no less that the prophet Isaiah who had characterized a very different kind of Messiah to the one they all hoped for – one whose back is struck, whose beard is pulled, who is spat upon and insulted. Too much for Peter – he won’t allow this kind of talk about his Messiah – so he is branded as Satan. It is a sharp rebuke for someone who had simply lived with a naïve misunderstanding.

Jesus goes further –he talks of the cross. A Messiah hanging on a cross – surely a scandalous thing to say. Indeed a scandal of particularity.

So when we come to the Liturgy, or when we tell others that we are Christians, what picture of Jesus are we more inclined to mention. What characteristics do we highlight and which do we prefer not to mention. Do we want to present a ‘fluffy Jesus?’ Do we find it easier to share with people a Jesus who was kind, compassionate, loving – all true of course – but with no mention that to be his disciple will be difficult, dangerous, demanding. Our faith is not just a support to us, though surely it is that, but it is also a challenge to us, for the cross demands a sacrificial way of life, a self giving way of life, a generous way of life, generous in all respects.

So what is your and my expectation of Jesus? What picture have you and I built up in our minds? If you and I were able to share that image with him, what might he say to us? He said to Peter, ‘Get behind me Satan’.