There was a bit of frenzy. People standing in the departure lounge of an airport looking up at the big screen, which was giving the headlines of the day. As I observed the people in this departure lounge of a world renowned airport, I realized that most of them were actually girls, and they were looking dismayed and distraught at the headline that was running across the screen: “One Direction Is Splitting Up!” Now, you probably don’t know what One Direction is, but it is the boy band of the era. They were created by Simon Cowell from X Factor about five years ago and they have topped the charts numerous times since then. Their concerts are sold out. Everybody who’s anybody under 15 wants to go and hear One Direction. They are famous. Even this old man knew that. I watched these girls looking gobsmacked at the news, tears welling in their eyes, knees shaking with emotion. A girl was being interviewed and she declared that life was not worth living anymore without One Direction, such was the passion for this band, and the dismay that they were going to break up. We already knew that one of their star people was leaving. There was a conflict about hair styles, but they were getting tired and after having been on the road for five years and wanted a hiatus. They’ll be back in March so hold on. But right now, One Direction has split up into many directions.
The irony in all of this and the sad part is that the very next story was the story of a van parked on the side of the road in Austria where there were dead bodies found. Migrants who had been abused. Who had been taken and forced into this van only to die. An unimaginable horror.
While you can juxtapose these two images and one might seem trivial and trite in comparison to the sadness of the other, nevertheless, they were both sad headlines for human emotion was involved, a sense of loss was felt. One very important, one not so important. One tragic, the other one just unfortunate. Yet, in the eyes and the minds of the people who were experiencing them, it was a traumatic.
Our text this morning from the gospel of Mark is infinitely greater than the breakup of One Direction, but be under no illusion, it is about a potential breakup, a schism. It was a moment of incredible decision, for what we have here is a growing conflict between Peter who was the leader of the disciples and Jesus, the master and Lord. It was such a dramatic moment, so filled with energy and poignancy, that strong language was used to describe it, even by Jesus. It was a moment that would cause anyone to think about the effects and what could have happened.
We usually assume, do we not, that the breakup of the disciples was during the story of Judas Iscariot in the upper room and the kiss that betrayed him, when in fact, much earlier, nearer the beginning of his ministry, Jesus’ ministry with his disciples could have been rent asunder. The one direction of the gospel could have fragmented into many directions. This is how serious this passage from Mark’s gospel is. It is so serious that Mark actually gives a prelude to it and places the story of what happened within the context of Jesus emerging great, wonderful ministry preceding this conflict between Peter and Jesus.
We have Jesus feeding people with the loaves and the fishes. Mark’s own unique account of this miracle where fish and bread were multiplied to feed the masses and people were in awe of Jesus and his miraculous powers. They were in awe of Jesus healing a blind man at Bethsaida and they were overwhelmed again and again by his healing power and the miracles he performed. Jesus’ ministry was on a high. Great things were happening. And Peter then talks to Jesus. Jesus decided to define this moment and he says to the disciples, “After all of this who do people say that I am?” And then they said that some say Elijah and some say Moses and so on. But Jesus then says, “Who do you say that I am?” And then in this famous declaration that is spoken about many times, Peter declares Jesus to be the Christ. Jesus is the messiah. There it is. It’s been stated. But now Jesus, we’re told, wanted to talk plainly to the disciples.
Jesus wanted a reality check on the nature of what it means to be the Christ and to be messiah. He said that the Son of Man is going to be rejected: another name for the messiah. The Son of Man is going to be put on trial, crucified and on the third day he’s going to rise again. He spelled out, in other words, the very nature of his Lordship. Peter’s incensed. Jesus takes him away from the crowd, and while we aren’t given a dialogue between them, you can just imagine what it was like. Peter would be saying to Jesus “Are you out of your mind? You’ve performed all these miracles, everyone’s following you, we’re on our way to glory, you’re the liberator, you’re the messiah, everything is going well and now you tell us you’re going to die, you’re going to rise. Jesus, be quiet.” But Jesus then speaks to the disciples, not only to Peter, and he rebukes Peter in front of the disciples and he says these stunning words. I mean these are harsh words: “Get behind me Satan.”
Jesus knew and understood this was a cataclysmic moment. This was a moment that was going to define his ministry. He knew that what was at stake in this discussion between Peter and himself was, in fact, the whole nature of his mission and ministry, and maybe deep even within himself he was wondering whether Peter was tempting him and to go in another direction from the one that was being set by God. And so Jesus makes it abundantly clear and he says to Peter, “You are not thinking with the mind of God. You are thinking with the mind of humanity.” That for Jesus summed up the moment. Peter was thinking with the mind of humanity and he wasn’t thinking with the mind of God, but in some ways you can’t blame Peter. Peter was repeating what was the wisdom of the age. It was the zeitgeist of the Jews in the first century that the messiah would be royal, the messiah would be political, the messiah would be a liberator, the messiah would be a saviour of his people, the messiah would do God’s things, Israel would be restored to glory, Zion would be renewed, Jerusalem would be set free. This is what he anticipated.
Peter saw in Jesus things that were fulfilling this: The miracles, the power, the charisma, the wise speeches of a great guru, faithfulness to the law. There were so many things about Jesus that appealed to Peter that he genuinely believed Jesus was the messiah. The only problem was, it wasn’t the messiah that Jesus knew he was going to be.
Jesus knew that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and that the way of humanity was not the way of God, but they weren’t really listening, and Peter certainly wasn’t listening. Jesus had told him before that the son of man was going to suffer. He had told them in the message right after he’d made the declaration that the son of man must suffer many things, but Peter wasn’t listening.
This summer, I was on board the subway and a very awkward moment occurred, and it’s one of those moments you just know is going to stay with you beyond the event. The subway was busy and everyone getting on had to stand as did I. The train pulled up at Bloor Station and a lot of people got on, including two elderly women with canes. They just managed to get on the train before the doors closed and they didn’t know where to stand. Some of the newer cars don’t have very good poles to hold onto and they were struggling to keep their balance. Bit by bit, they worked themselves until they were in front of the reserved seats for people who need assistance, the blue seats, you’ve all seen them, and very discreetly, very ladylike, they just stood and looked at the seat where two rather young women were seated. They didn’t say anything. They weren’t abusive. They didn’t hit them with a cane. They just stood there and stared at them and the young women stared back. It was a tense moment. Finally, a young woman who was almost parallel to all of this got up and offered one of them her seat and she graciously sat down, but the other one wasn’t budging. She kept looking at these two who were sitting there.
I didn’t know what to do. Should I be the white knight, charge in, get a lot of attention, get these two women out of there and be the hero, or should I just let things unfold as they were going to unfold? Well, I didn’t have to wait very long. Somebody else got up and gave another lady their seat, but then went over to the two women who remained in those seats and excoriated them for being so unthoughtful. Don’t you know you’re supposed to get up and give your seat to people who are in need? Blank looks. Totally blank looks.
Well I, like everyone else around, including the two elderly women, were rather mad at these two people and I thought how insensitive. I mean, it was so obvious that they weren’t doing the right thing. The two women go up at the next station which happened to be College and they got up and again someone went up to them and said – wagged their finger and pointed to the sign behind and the two women started talking to each other in a foreign language. These two dear souls had no idea that they’d done anything wrong. They didn’t know what the sign meant. They didn’t know these were reserved seats, and they didn’t understand a thing that was being said to them. They got up and went out knowing that people were not happy with them. What an awful feeling. You see, they had no intention of being rude or inconsiderate or discourteous. Lord knows what culture they were from and what their subways are like. Maybe they’ve never been on a subway before. They spoke a different language. They didn’t understand. Their intentions were good, but what they were doing was actually potentially harmful to those two ladies.
Peter was like that. He wasn’t intentionally trying to hurt Jesus. He was simply repeating what everybody else thought the messiah should be. He was speaking the word of the people, the vox populi. He was repeating what was the understood practice for the new messiah and the vision even supported in scripture of what the messiah would be like. Jesus then was confronting him with a new challenge. It was as if there was a clash between matter and anti matter at that point. This collision could have caused an annihilation of the church. It could have completely released energy that would have sent the disciples fragmented into a whole other world, but dear Peter didn’t know that. Jesus, nevertheless, had to be firm. He knew that if Peter’s understanding of the messiah, which was the popular understanding of the messiah, was going to enter into the minds and the hearts of the disciples and the people, then his ministry and his mission would not be witnessed by the apostles that were needed to convey his message in time.
Jesus also knew – and this was critical – that what was at stake was the following: if Peter was correct, if the popular idea of what the messiah should be was held out, then Jesus’ ministry would have resulted in the end possibly of the Roman siege of Palestine, might have liberated his people. He might have been a hero for his nation, but he would be a first century relic. Instead, his ministry was profoundly different. It was to suffer on a cross. It was to be raised from the dead. It was to be placed in glory. Not in order that he might be a first century relic, but that he might be Lord and Saviour of all. This is what was at stake. One was the mind of humanity – might have been good – the other was the mind of God, which was salvation.
This brings us all into the story. For those of us who claim to follow Jesus, maybe the same temptation that faced Peter faces us as well. Maybe there is this temptation for Christ’s followers to think that being popular, or ascribing to the wisdom of the age, or simply going along with the mores and the morals and the values of the way that the people popularly think is the way to go, is the answer. But when we start to think like that, we need to listen again to Jesus’ strong words to Peter: “Get behind me, Satan for you are thinking with the mind of humanity and not the mind of God.” It is not popularity that should be our guide. It is not accepted wisdom or the temptation to find acceptance that should be our guide. Rather, the cross and the resurrection are our guide. Why? Because sometimes, oftentimes, the prevailing culture can get it very wrong.
I was reading a story not long ago about something that happened years ago to a man called John Gutierrez who wrote a very famous book called, Heat, the story of being a steelworker in Pennsylvania many years ago. One of the stories he writes – and it’s been recounted, I think, by other preachers – is, “Snow Dust or the Snow Dance in August,” something like that. It is an account of people being attracted to the steel mill and given tours of the site. One of the spectacular parts of the mill was when the steel was rolling in the cooling towers. Sparks would fly and bright white shards would fill the sky like fireworks going off. It was spectacular. At night, the lights of the factory would shine, and children would be invited to stand and watch this incredible display of sparking light. Everyone thought it was tremendous. It was bringing revenue to the company. The people had visitors to the town. Children were being entertained. Everyone thought it was the greatest thing. The only problem was, those shards that were rolling off were made of what? Asbestos. And the people in the town, including the writer, suffered from asbestosis and lung disease.
At the time it seemed a reasonable, economically viable, wonderful thing to do, but it was killing people. It seemed the wisdom of the day when in fact it was the very antithesis. So often if we put first that which is always acceptable or that which seems to be the norm or the human wisdom deems to be the right thing, we too can get seduced and moved into a certain way, and even Christians. I see this happening in some churches today and I hear it in the way that the gospel is often being watered down. People somehow want to entertain and please and titillate for the sake of some acceptance at the expense of the message of the cross and the resurrection.
The great Karl Barth saw this coming. In an incredible passage he wrote more than 50 years ago about temptations facing Christians he said the following:
There is another temptation for the church and that is that Christians become squint eyed.” The light of God’s word shines upon Christians and they see it too, but they also look elsewhere. They have no idea of denying God or being disobedient to God. Perhaps they want to serve God with great zeal, but they seek also that which pleases themselves and other men and women as well as that which pleases God, and they will not entertain the thought that these are two different things. Somewhere along the way they’ve fallen in love and become involved with themselves, perhaps in the interest and corresponding morality of their surrounding society. Perhaps in just the natural and usual human way it happens in this country or that. Perhaps out of a dominant optimism or pessimism or what is yet worse and more dangerous, they may have fallen in love with themselves in the form of their own form of Christianity.
In other words, like Peter turning the gospel into that which is acceptable or that which we find comfortable. It’s a temptation that is always there for us and Jesus knew that temptation. That is why he was so strong and strident with Peter. There is always before us this temptation as individuals living our daily lives to feel the pressure, the enormous pressure, of what is socially acceptable as opposed to that which is of God. That we find ourselves caught going – between the Scylla and Charybdis of a world that’s continually pulling us in one direction and the gospel that is causing us to live in another direction. I thought about this over the last few weeks, with the terrible plight of these refugees, and my mind turned not only to them but to refugees who are in camps in Israel and Uganda and the Congo, people fleeing from countries all over the world and have been living in refugee camps for months or even years. The movements of people is something that is ongoing and desperate, some 59 million people. That is why I wrote about it in Church News last September. It breaks your heart, does it not? No matter who these people are, to see them running away frightened, terrified, homeless, landless. But here’s my point: If the messiah that Peter wanted had actually been Jesus, then Jesus wouldn’t have any engagement with this current situation. He would be a liberator with good teachings who did a good thing for his own nation 2,000 years ago. He would have been frozen in time and we’d go to museums and see what he was like and say maybe yes or maybe no, this issue of the refugees is something that may or may not bother us, depending on what we read into the words of that Jesus. But if he is who he claims to be, if he is the one who was crucified and risen, if he is the Lord and the Saviour of all, if he is God’s actual son raised from the dead, then the plight of the world is no longer just a casual interest to someone who lived 2,000 years ago and did good things. It is passionate in the heart of the Risen Lord who lives right now and cares for this humanity that is so broken and so wounded. Therefore, it is up to us to seek as we should in every circumstance, and to discern the will of the crucified and Risen Lord. Not as a mythological concept or a historical quest, but genuinely on our knees before a living Lord. That’s what was at stake when Jesus and Peter encountered one another. It could have led in the wrong direction and the one direction of the gospel could have split up. Thank God it didn’t. It is for us now to live in the light of that truth. Amen.