Death, Glory, and the Messianic Secret

Mark 8:31-38

Lent 2

March 1, 2015

So we were talking in our adult ed class

about the Gospel of Mark and about the Messianic Secret.

Do you know about this?

Throughout  the Gospel of Mark

right after Jesus does something great,

he warns various people not to tell anyone about it.

It happens a bit in other gospels,

but it’s very prevalent in Mark.

When Jesus heals a leper, Jesus tells him

not to tell anyone, but go right to the priest

In several places, Jesus tells the unclean spirits

not to make his identity known to anyone.

After he heals Jairus daughter, it says

he strictly ordered that no one should know about this.

When he heals the man who is deaf,

he orders the people there not to say anything.

When he heals a blind man, he tells him to go straight home

and not to talk to anyone.

Later on in chapter 9, Jesus goes up to the mountain

he’s transfigured and he appears with Elijah and Moses,

he tells the three disciples that are there, not to tell anyone -

presumably not even the other disciples -

until after he had risen from the dead.

It’s a curious thing about the Gospel of Mark

it shows up a bit in the other gospels,

but not half as often as it does in Mark.

There are a lot of theories about it,

But there are still debates about what it means.

The Messianic Secret.

In today’s reading we have another instance.

Jesus asks the disciples “Who do you say that I am.”

And Peter shares the revelation that maybe

surprises the other disciples.

Maybe Peter even surprises himself -

He says, “You are the Messiah.”

Which, of course, is Jesus true identity.

But again, “Jesus warns them not to tell anyone about it.”

But juxtapose this with the rest of today’s gospel

where Jesus is talking about his suffering and death.

And about that, the gospel makes the point to say,

“All this he said quite openly.”

So, he works miracles,

he was transformed on the mountain,

he talks to ancient prophets.

The demons, who live in some bad part of

an other-worldly dimension can identify Jesus,

The sky has opened up several times

and God has claimed Jesus as God’s own son.

Jesus is the Messiah, the son of God.

All this, Jesus says to keep a secret, don’t tell anyone about it –

for now at least.

But then when he talks about the fact that he

must suffer and be rejected and killed

by the authorities.

(And after three days rise again.)

That stuff, Jesus says quite openly.

 

Jesus is a PR disaster.

No wonder Peter rebukes him.

What are you doing, Jesus?

It’s like a commercial that gives a drug’s side effects,

but never tells about  the benefit of the drug.

  

Jesus is all secretive about the good stuff,

and the bad part he shares openly.

It’s the opposite of what you’d expect,

And I think it’s very important.

And what I think what Mark’s gospel is showing us

is that we will not understand the glory of Jesus

without first understanding the suffering of Jesus.

Jesus knew that people would naturally gravitate

towards someone who could perform miracles,

who was special, divine.

And he did get crowds of people

who were impressed with him gathereed around him

as long as he was doing these special things.

But that’s not what Jesus wanted,

Jesus didn’t just want people who would admire him,

Jesus wanted people who would follow him

And Jesus always wanted the great and glorious things about him

to be put in the context of the cross.

Jesus glory is not in his power is not in his ability to do miracles.

Jesus glory is found in him giving his life away for others.

As humans, our tendency is to avoid pain,

we avoid conflict and trials, we deny our sorrow and grief.

Our pursuits are pleasure, comfort, satisfaction, fulfillment.

We look away from pain and sorrow,

We try to climb the ladder up the next rung

thinking that we can somehow escape anything

that might lead to suffering.

We equate power with leading an unchallenged life,

with ease, with cleanliness, with a daily dose of happiness.

So we expect God to be found in these places,

We often  worship God in large, ornate cathedrals,

or state of the art buildings with expensive special effects.

But Jesus was not found in a comfortable palace,

or a cathedral, or even in a quiet, peaceful room most of the time.

Jesus was not found on the top of the ladder.

Jesus was found with the people who weren’t able

to run up the ladder of happiness.

Who could not escape suffering,

The Jesus we know best was found on a cross.

That is Jesus true power, and there’s no way the disciples

or anyone else would understand that until they saw it.

This is the way of Jesus.

Death to life. Self sacrifice and resurrection.

But  it’s not just  Jesus story,

Jesus means to take us with him too:

“Those who want to become my followers,

should deny themselves and take up their cross.”

We are called to suffer with other people,

to have compassion, to feel their pain and suffer with them,

We share our lives with our spouses and make compromises

that we would rather not make.

We give up things that we want or need

in order to provide for our children.

We give our lives and time to our communities,

Our hearts break with compassion for people we don’t know.

We purposely go to places of poverty,

of loss, of sadness, grief and illness.

We pray for people halfway around the world

We spend time in hospitals and hospices,

we go to El Salvador, Haiti, Syria,

we help other people carry their crosses.

We don’t choose suffering,  

we would take most those moments back if we could,

But we also know that the worst times of our lives

can  also be the most important times of our lives

when we have truly been in the presence of God.

Suffering is not in vain.

This is the paradox that Jesus proclaims.
This is the meaning of the gospel.

In order to have our life, we give it away.

There is great power in giving our whole lives away.

When I lived in California,

I was at a party and I was talking to someone

he was from like Pennsylvania.

We were talking about the places that I had lived.

At that point, I had been in California for 6 years,

and before that I lived in Texas for about 12.

And he said to me, “So you don’t get Spring”

“What do you mean? we have spring.”

He said, “But it’s not that beautiful.”

“What do you mean? Texas is beautiful,

California is one of the most beautiful places on earth.”

He said, “Yeah, but you can’t really GET the beauty of Spring

if you always have spring.

You only GET spring if you’ve lived through

bone chilling cold for four or five solid months.

Then you GET spring.”

I thought he was just arrogant.

But he was right. Spring is much better after winter.

We follow a crucified savior.

Walking with Jesus means letting our hearts be broken for others.

It means sharing the weight of the cross with others in our community.

It means living through the bone chilling cold together

and really knowing the glory of God in the Spring.