It’s not about the title.
The stories leading up to this morning's gospel do not paint the disciples in a very good light. In chapter 4 they ask: “Who is this?” In Chapter 6 they mistake Jesus for a ghost. But for us, the reader, Jesus’ identity in the Gospel of Mark is never in doubt. The opening line tells us he is the Messiah and Son of God. We are privy to voices from heaven and declarations from demons, both of which declare Jesus’ true identity as Messiah and Son of God. So there is a huge difference between our knowledge of Jesus' identity and that of the characters (particularly the disciples). They don’t know who Jesus is.. and we do. They don’t get it…. We do.
Just before this morning's reading, Jesus cures a blind man at Bethsaida and this gives us a little clue as to what might follow.
Today, when Peter responds to Jesus’ question with the right answer, that Jesus is the Messiah, we might well breathe a huge sigh of relief. At last, they get it! Or at least Peter gets it. The rift of knowledge between what we know and what the disciples know is at last closed. And you would have thought that was that and we could get on with the rest of the story and all live happily ever after. Hooray! If only it were that simple.
What Peter quickly learns is that grasping Jesus’ identity is not simply about getting the title right. Naming never defines a person which is why racism is flawed and a sin. St. Mark opens the rift between what we know and the disciples know again. This time between the expectations of the title Messiah and the reality of what Jesus’ role as Messiah will be. ie. the day to day grist of BEING a Messiah. Mark’s Jesus immediately discusses how the Messiah must suffer, die and be raised after three days. Jesus says all this with a clarity and boldness that contrasts the secrecy we have come up against all through Marks gospel.
So we have a suffering messiah before us and must try and understand what that means.
Jesus does not suffer and die because suffering is good. Those who espouse the view that suffering is God's wrath blazing out on the naughty have it all wrong. The necessity of the suffering comes from the way Jesus lives — a series of actions that pay no heed to social and religious norms, a life that reaches out to those who are ostracised, the unclean, and the marginalised. Mark has already given us an example of this sort of suffering in the story of John the Baptist’s death. Remember… John is arrested and dies, not because he was wicked, but because he ran afoul of those in power. He spoke out against what was wrong and lost his head because of it. Suffering that results from not complying with human authority is very different from just suffering for its own sake.
And there is a deeper dynamic going on here.
There are human expectations and knowledge. The way the world operates is by getting the superficial title right. But this is often in tension with the aims of God. What is the real job description? How does the role play out in the nitty gritty, ho hum, angst, argy bargy and tedium of every day life? Real messiahship, real kingship we learn is actually selflessness. It is actually becoming impotent and laying down your life in the service of others knowing that it will hurt … a lot, but it will also be the most potent action you can do show to God's love to the world.
Confessing with our lips like St. Peter that Jesus is the messiah is the easy part. We know what the title is. We know how to say the title ‘Christian’… a lot… And it sounds gooey and shiny and squeaky clean.
But the reality of the day-to-day job description, what happens in our lives 7 days a week is something quite different. Again it reaches out to those who the world thinks are grubby and grimy. It's about the hard wrestle of daily prayer and this bewildering book we call the bible. Its about loving the unlovely, it’s about knowing how much we really, deeply need him to heal our brokenness, our piercings through and with His brokenness and piercings. Only the broken bread can truly feed us, sustain us and nurture us.
We can do this in His life, in His brokenness, Him on the cross. We see it in the piercings of his resurrected body. We see all this and we get it. Yet when we turn and look at our lives… can we see the same bruises and muck? And if not why not?
Perhaps it is because we find the title all alluring, tempting and the title is where it begins and finishes for us. We shun the muck. Clergy are good at this. Just ask the Reverend Fr. Canon David Oulton.
Our true identity is never to be found in the title and the expectations of the world. Our true identity must always be found deep in his wounds, close to his heart, where we hurt as he hurt, weep as he wept, laugh as laughed, died as he died and rise as he rose, with him, to glory everlasting.