One of the things we did at Student Soul was work our way
through the gospel of Luke. We started a lot of explorations with different
pictures of Jesus, Different ways that Jesus is portrayed by Christians and non-Christians
in popular culture: In film, on the net, and art. Here are a few…
We saw ‘Buddy Christ’ a statue from the film ‘Dogma’ part of
an attempt, so the film tells us, of the Catholic Church in America to change people’s
perceptions of who they were. The statue
was an attempt to rebrand Jesus as a
softer, kinder more accessible character. To do away with the cross and have a
bloodless saviour who was more into giving you a boost. It’s a parody of Jesus
as friend. Now I happen to love the metaphor of Jesus as friend, but ‘Dogma picks
up that it can be a plastic presentation of who Jesus is with no real
substance.
Another was this picture of the business Jesus: Jesus the
executive, Jesus totally identifying with the western world. Maybe it is an attempt to acknowledge Jesus’
presence in our twenty first century reality. But I fear it is simply an
understanding of Jesus perpetrated and portrayed in church messages about 5
steps to finding the good life, and the Jesus way to business success. One Cartoon I saw as I searched google had a
man in a suite asking Jesus “how is your Business going?” and it spoke to me
that often people simply see religion in our world as big business.
Yet another is the revolutionary Jesus, it’s based on the famous
1960’s Che Guevara poster. It is an attempt to counter the business Jesus. It epitomizes Jesus as counter cultural as the
champion of change, freedom and the fight against oppression. It was very apt when we read Luke’s gospel
because Luke does grown his theology in some very challenging application
socially and financially.
And I could on… maybe these would be some of the answers we
would give today to Jesus question and who do people say that I am? That we had
at the beginning of our bible reading today. Because these are some of the
answers that are out there, unlike the answers that the disciples gave they are
not formed by an imagination steeped in the scripture of the Old Testament. An
Answer in the words of NT Wright that went for models of prophets both old and
new, from Elijah to John the Baptist.”
We are working our way through the E100 essential Jesus
Bible Reading Challenge. We’ve been working our way through those same Old
Testament scriptures that shaped the imagination of both the crowds round Jesus
and his own disciples. Today we are at a cross road in that journey, A cross
road in two ways we have finished the Old testament section and are starting to
look at significant passages in the New Testament of and about Jesus. Secondly
we are finishing off following the E100 essential reading challenge in our
Sunday services. So when I chose the
passage to preach on for today, and if I was writing a film review I’d say
spoiler alert here, I went to the last reading in the e100 series; The reading
that finishes up, where we started, with that most important of questions ‘But
who do you say that I am?”
It’s also appropriate that we look at this passage at this
crossroad because it is itself a pivot point in the gospel narrative. In all
three synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke it is the first time that
someone has publically voiced in Jesus ministry that he is indeed the messiah,
the anointed one, who all of Israel was looking for as we have seen in our
exploration of the Old testament. Up until know while peter and the others had
followed Jesus they are perplexed about him, now they dear to voice what they
believe. But it’s also a pivot point in the gospel story because it is the
start of the cross road, Jesus road to the cross. Jesus follows Peter’s
confession by starting to talk about the fact that he must suffer and die. It’s
also the pivot point for the disciples, in Matthews Gospel Jesus says on this rock, that is the confession that
Jesus is the Christ, I will build my Church and the gates of hell will not
prevail against it. But it’s also the pivot point because in all three gospels
Jesus says that any who would follow him must also walk the cross road.. deny
themselves, pick up their cross daily and follow him.
It is not a destination… Peter makes the confession and
right away Jesus tells him to be quite, because there are different
understanding of what Messiah means. The prevailing view was that it meant
victory and a new sovereign rule for Israel. Jesus who fully understood the Old
Testament says that the Son of Man, another title from the book of Daniel and
Ezekiel, must suffer and die before being vindicated. That to be God’s anointed
was to walk the cross road. Was to be serve rather than to be served, was to
lay down his life for his flock, not to dine off their backs: That liberty and
freedom and forgiveness and wholeness for us came through walking the cross
road.
To answer the question But who do you say I am? by
confessing ‘Jesus is the Christ, the anointed one of God’ is also for us a call
to walk the cross road. Jesus puts it in three imperatives: To deny ourselves,
to pick our cross daily and follow him.
Maybe we’ve domesticated Jesus imperatives somewhat; We
don’t see people carrying their cross round today. A traitor or revolutionary
in the empire or a criminal would be condemned to death on a cross, and it was
common in Jesus day to see these condemned criminals carrying the cross member
of their own cross, through town to the place of execution. Maybe we capture
some of that in the American penal system, where prison Guards would call out
‘dead man walking’ to clear the way as a prisoner on death row was being taken
to their execution. To deny one’s self and to carry the cross is to put Jesus
and his person and mission first, to have done with this world and to live in
the kingdom of God.
Jesus illustrates that in with two metaphors, which pick up
central themes in western and eastern culture because Jesus invitation is for
all … A financial one of profit and lose… what good does it do to gain the
whole world but to lose our souls, our lives all that we are. The other of
honour and shame… if we are ashamed of Jesus now when he does come in his
kingdom he will be ashamed of us, but if we honour him now he will honour us.
It was over shadowed a bit this week by happenings in the
Ukraine and Gaza, but another possible genoside illustrates the reality of identifying
Jesus calls us to walk the cross road. Behind me in red is a symbol… It is the Arabic letter “N”… “N”
for Nazarene… The ISIS fundamentalists have taken the city of Musal in Iraq
which houses one of the oldest Christian communities in existence. The ISIS soldiers have gone round and painted
this symbol on all the houses of the those who profess to be Christian in that
city. They have bee identified and have been given the choice to flee and leave
behind everything they own which according to the ISIS understanding of Islamic
law is forfeit, convert to Islam, or they will be killed. The writing in black
in Arabic, is cause for hope as it is written by brave muslim neighbour’s and
says “we are all Christians”, very much like the king of Denmark during Nazi
occupation as a Christian saying we are all sons of Abraham and calling on all
his people to ware a star of David. We
need to make sure that this does not slip out of the world’s eyes or their will
be a blood bath.
Maybe even then we cannot identify with what it means to
suffer and walk the cross road like that. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote ‘the
cost of discipleship’ on the sermon on the mount, and was lauded for it all over the world, he only found the fullness of
what it meant and the joy of Christ’s presence on the cross road when he was a condemned prisoner in a
Nazi jail. We wrestle with making decisions each day, maybe with those
insidious ‘first world problems” about what it means to confess that Jesus is
Christ, to walk in the path of one who came to serve and not to be served,
there are many pivot points we daily face and we are challenged to live out our
confession on the cross road. Joel green says “the emphasis on perseverance in
one’s discipleship points to the ongoing character of the journey, one that
begins with momentous decisions but is not content only with good beginnings.”
Finally the thing that gives us hope is that we follow the
one who has Gone before, that there is joy and hope and life itself because of
what Jesus the anointed one has done, that we are forgiven and made whole we
are loved and cared for and consoled and provided for because we follow one who
has gone down the cross road before us. the cross road is the road that leads
to life… It starts at the crossroad, the pivot point of our answer to Jesus
question “But who do you say that I am?”
Here is a change to respond to this message and make this your song and prayer... be thou my vision.
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