Genesis 17.1-7, 15-16, Mark 8.27-38*
Second Sunday of Lent, 25 February 2024, Austwick, Clapham
Surprising to notice how in the gospels, the only people who called Jesus ‘the Messiah’ were devils.
In Luke 4 Jesus performs a series of exorcisms and ‘Demons … came out of many, shouting, ‘You are the Son of God!’ But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Messiah.’ [1]
In Luke 23 the unrepentant criminal hanging beside Jesus at Calvary kept devilishly deriding him and saying, ‘Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!’ [2]
And here in Mark’s gospel today, his most devoted disciple Peter calls Jesus ‘the Messiah’ - and shockingly, to Peter, and to our ears, Jesus says, ‘Get behind me, Satan!’
Those who call Jesus ‘the Messiah’ are devils; Jesus rebuked Peter for ‘setting his mind not on divine things but on human things’, challenging his view of what a Messiah is and what a Messiah does; and showing Peter that although he might be the world’s saviour, he did not have a Messiah Complex.
Jesus was teaching Peter that he had no intention to use superhuman power to save Israel from its Roman oppressor by force; but that his power would be revealed through weakness, in vulnerable love and forgiving grace, that his victory over the forces of evil would come through his suffering.
Peter couldn’t countenance a Messiah who would suffer and die at the hands of others. Jesus couldn’t countenance a follower who wanted him to rule through force in vengeance.
Jesus warned his followers against false Messiahs who would lead them astray. [2] He wanted them to be alert to the devilish lie that there is no alternative to the violent competitive forces of the world, their Messiahs ruling by fear of death. Jesus wanted his disciples to see that following him meant finding salvation in serving those who suffer at the hands of such powers. He wants us to see that from Pharaoh to Herod, from Hitler to Netanyahu, messianic leaders turn bad; and he wants us to seek the One who carries another kind of power altogether, a gentle, gracious power fostered by the pure force of nonviolent love. The power of life over death.
As far as Mark is concerned there is total opposition between these two powers, and no accommodation to be made, no compromise to be had, between the power of death in the world of Satan and the power of life in the love of Jesus. To follow Jesus means to oppose the Messiahs of the world. And so the expression, ‘Take up your cross and follow me’, which has been greatly spiritualised and taken out of context over centuries of preaching: as a statement of the way that Jesus requires his followers to live, it cannot be clearer. [3]
‘Take up your cross’ was a scandalous thing for Jesus to say to Peter, for it was an offence against Peter’s view of who his Messiah was, and of how he should live as a disciple.
The late Billy Graham would preach a sermon called ‘The Offence of the Cross’ in which he said,
This expression “the offence of the cross” sounds strange to our modern ears. Because, you see, we have a beautiful cross on our churches. We have crosses in the lapels of our coats. We have crosses around our necks. We have crosses embossed on our Bibles. We never think of it as a scandal and as an offence. And yet the Bible says it’s a stumbling block. It’s an offence. It’s a scandal among men. It’s a base and despised thing. The cross was a place to execute criminals. It was a place where the vilest died.
(Graham went on to say that) I’ve found in my own ministry that I can preach anything else (but the cross), and it’s called popular. It pleases the ear. But when I come to the heart of Christianity, when I come to the cross and the blood and the resurrection, that is the stumbling block. That’s the thing people do not want to hear. That’s the thing that is an offence, and yet it’s that very thing that is the heart of the Gospel. Without the cross, there is no salvation, there is no forgiveness. [4]
Now, Billy Graham, who died in 2018, was a massively influential church leader of his time. How easy it would have been for him to develop a Messiah Complex. To believe that he was the one with the power to save or redeem people. And yet if we take a good look at his ministry we find it was a fine example of one who carried his cross. [5]
Graham could have founded his own church: with the millions of lives he touched, it could have been a massive worldwide denomination, with him at the head. But instead he devoted himself to collaborating with churches of all kinds wherever he went; thus offending many sectarians. He suffered deeply personal attacks by fundamentalists. Despite this strong opposition, he was a profound force for Christian unity. This was Graham carrying his cross in the church.
Graham could have avoided controversy in public issues - and indeed he was criticised early in his ministry for doing just that - but in violently segregated America, Graham’s crusades in the South were integrated: from 1957 onwards he always had black team members. When atrocities occurred as at Clinton, Tennessee or Birmingham, Alabama, he would hold a rally of reconciliation. He was criticised for preferring not to “march” but to work quietly towards integration. This was Graham carrying his cross in society; and his considerable role in the ending of segregation was acknowledged by Martin Luther King and by history.
It’s increasingly clear to us that leaders with a Messiah Complex can become abusers. So, to avoid falling into sexual misconduct Billy Graham made it his rule that he would never dine alone, or travel or meet alone, with any woman, besides his wife Ruth. This offended some people - but this was Graham carrying his cross in his relationships.
To avoid the pitfalls of building a personal fortune, Graham resolved to avoid financial abuses and play down requests for donations from supporters. Embedding tight rules of accountability was not the norm for travelling evangelists. But this was Graham carrying his cross financially.
In 2001 Queen Elizabeth bestowed on Billy Graham an Honorary KBE. The British ambassador in Washington invested him at a dinner in the Embassy for Graham’s family, close associates, and friends. In his speech of response, Graham said: “I look forward to the day when I can see Jesus face to face, and lay at his feet any honour I’ve ever received, because he deserves it all.”
Graham fought hard to avoid the Messiah Complex to which so many, in all walks of life, have succumbed. To do otherwise would have been Satanic. He forever fixed his audiences’ attention on Jesus, the One whose scandal is to persist in overcoming aggression with gentleness, in defying violence with peace, in renouncing wealth for generosity, and in repaying hatred with love.
This is the way of the true Messiah; this is what it means for us to carry our cross.
Notes
A revision of The Scandal of the Cross and What it Means to Carry Ours in Somerset, 2018, which in turn drew on On calling God names (Somerset 2015) and What’s in a name? (Devon, 2012).
*NB The Lectionary gospel is Mark 8.31-38 but this longer extract includes Peter’s crucial ‘Messiah’ confession.
[1] Luke 4.41
[2] Luke 23.39
[3] Ched Myers, Binding the Strong Man: A Political Reading of Mark's Story of Jesus. p.244
[4] Billy Graham, Why Does The Cross Offend People? Decision Magazine, March 3, 2016.
[5] Sources for Billy Graham biographical details: Obituary: William Franklin Graham, Church Times, 22 February 2018; Harriet Sherwood, Billy Graham, famed Christian evangelist, dies aged 99, Guardian, 21 February 2018; John Sharman, What is the Billy Graham rule?, Independent, 21 February 2018; Bob Smietana, The Other Billy Graham Rules: They have nothing to do with sex, Christianity today, 31 March 2017.
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