Genesis 17.1-7, 15-16, Mark 8.27-38*
Second Sunday of Lent, 25 February 2018
Queen Camel 'Together at Ten' Benefice service
You’d think we’d have given up on messiahs by now. For they always fail us. But we do persist in seeking our salvation by these people.
There was that Messiah who would rescue Germany through National Socialism - who became the Führer of the Final Solution;
There was that Messiah who would abolish class conflict through Communism who became the rigid and repressive ruler of a totalitarian state;
There were those Messiahs who built the great British Empire - but only by brutally exploiting and enslaving countless native people.
These Messiahs let us down. But look around the world today and the peoples of the nations continue to seek salvation through their Trumps, their Putins, their Kim Jong-Uns. The attraction is clear, of a strong leader, determined to use any means possible to progress their interests. Lacking a steer of this sort, at this time, we English are looking backwards to find our way forwards - backwards to the firm leadership of the war years. The one who carries messianic appeal here, who still fulfils the role of saviour for us, is Winston Churchill. But deep down in Brexit Britain we understand that our ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ nostalgia is avoidance; is a blind alley. [1]
Worldwide today it’s clear that those Messiahs who power the economic system which is the idol of our times, have led the destruction of the earth’s finite resources; and are the champions of yawning human inequality.
We thought the banks might save us, investing our wealth - we ended up bailing them out.
We thought the celebrities would save us, filling our hearts with laughter and song - they ended up hiding from us behind high-security fences, and dying alone.
We thought the evangelists and priests could save us, offering us words of comfort to assuage our grief and pain - they ended up abusing our young ones and covering up the evidence.
Have you ever noticed how in the gospels the only people who called Jesus the Messiah were devils?
In Luke 4.41 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.’
In Luke 23.39 the unrepentant criminal hanging beside Jesus at Calvary kept devilishly deriding him and saying, ‘Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!’
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; are speaking Satanically.
Why so? Well, Jesus’ rebuke to Peter makes it very clear. ‘Get behind me, Satan!’ he said, ‘For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’
Why did Jesus say this to Peter?
Let’s recap on the exchange between the two men. It went briefly like this:
- First, Peter named Jesus ‘The Messiah’; and Jesus silenced Peter.
- Then, Jesus named himself ‘The Son of Man’, or ‘The Human One’ - and said that he must suffer at the hands of others who would kill him; and Peter silenced Jesus with a rebuke.
- But then Jesus rebuked Peter, and concluded this frank exchange by calling Peter ‘Satan’.
So this is a dispute between two different views of what a Messiah is; what a Messiah does. Following the popular worldview of the time, Peter’s Messiah was one powerful to save Israel from its Roman oppressor by force; which contrasted sharply with Jesus’ view of himself as the Human One - the one whose power would be revealed through weakness, whose 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; because in Jesus’ worldview the Messiah comes in vulnerable love and forgiving grace.
Jesus warned his followers against false Messiahs who would lead them astray. [2] But Peter had swallowed the lie put out by Satan the father of lies, 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 is to cease searching for a worldly Messiah among those who wield such powers, and to find salvation in him who spent all his time serving those who suffer at the hands of such powers, the One who carries a power of another kind altogether, a gentle, gracious power fostered by the pure force of nonviolent love. The power of life over death.
Let us be clear - that as far as Mark is concerned there is total opposition between these two powers, there is 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 what Jesus requires of his followers 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.
One of the greatest sermons of the late Billy Graham was titled The Offence of the Cross. He would say,
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. And when I see Christ hanging on the cross, I say with Isaiah, “There is no beauty that I should desire Him” (Isaiah 53:2). Paul says that in his day it was an offence.
And I’ve found in my own ministry (says Graham) that I can preach anything else, 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]
In the century in which he exercised his public ministry, with great power and force of conviction, with massive influence, imagine the pressure Billy Graham must have felt to become Messianic. To be the One who would maximise his power to save his followers. And yet look at how he shaped his ministry - look closely, for it is a fine example of one who carried his cross. [5]
Graham could have founded his own church - imagine the size that denomination could have reached worldwide with the millions of lives he touched. But instead he devoted himself to collaborating with churches of all kinds wherever he went; offending many sectarians, opening himself up to deeply personal attacks by fundamentalists. The Congress on World Evangelisation at Lausanne in 1974, which he organised, greatly influenced the strategies and growth of the Christian Church in the last quarter of the 20th century. Despite encountering strong opposition from many quarters, 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.
Graham offended some by refusing to “march”; his preference to work quietly rather than stridently meant he was abused by both sides. This was Graham carrying his cross in society; but his considerable role in the ending of segregation was acknowledged by Martin Luther King and by history.
When some leaders embrace the Messianic status their followers place on them, things start to go badly wrong. 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 distraction of building a personal fortune, Graham and his closest associates 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 a lifetime of awards and honours, in 2001 the Queen bestowed on Billy Graham an Honorary KBE. The British ambassador in Washington invested him with the insignia 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 lesser leaders - in all walks of life - have succumbed. To do otherwise would have been Satanic. He worked tirelessly to direct his audiences to Jesus, the One whose scandalous behaviour was and is to overcome aggression with gentleness, to defy violence with peace, to renounce wealth for generosity and to repay hatred with love.
This is the way of the true Messiah; this is what it means to carry our cross.
Notes
*NB Lectionary gospel is Mark 8.31-38 but this longer extract includes Peter’s crucial ‘Messiah’ confession.
Previous sermons on this gospel passage are drawn on here, in particular On calling God names (Queen Camel , West Camel, Corton Denham, 13 September 2015) and What’s in a name? (Sourton, Bratton Clovelly, Germansweek, 4 March 2012).
[1] Owen Hatherley, The Ministry of Nostalgia: Consuming Austerity is a sharper and more sustained critique of the 'Keep Calm and Carry On' meme.
[2] Mark 13.5-6; 21-22.
[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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