For the Salvation of Souls:
A Preacher's Contribution

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This is going to be a short, simple homily, one point only. . . .

"He gave strict orders that no one should know this and said that she should be given something to eat."

This passage points to what a number of scripture scholars refer to as the "Markan Secret:" often in St. Marks' gospel, Jesus tells those who seem to know that he is the Messiah not to tell anyone about it—but rather to keep his identity secret. Why?

Probably because he was afraid that the title "Messiah" would be misinterpreted, and that he would therefore not be recognized for who and what he truly was. And he was probably right: People always have expectations about what is going to happen, or, in these cases, what someone will be like, and the Jews of Jesus' day were no exception: they all expected a Messiah, yes, but they had many different ideas about the character and role of that Messiah.

  And so some—very much like St. Peter—expected a Messiah who would not have to suffer—and, by extension, a Messiah whose followers would not have to suffer either.

  Others expected the Messiah to lead a violent revolution against the Romans who occupied—and thus profaned—Yahweh's holy land.

  Still others expected that the Messiah would be a king who would rule an earthly kingdom with a reunited Judah in the south and Samaria in the north, just like Solomon did a thousand years before.

  Others yet that the Messiah would intensify those core religious practices that had for so long given Israel its very identity: the Temple Cult, the dietary laws regarding pork and fasting, the ritual purity regulations, and the very strict observance of the Sabbath rest.

  Others, that he would destroy those same markers of Jewish identity in order to welcome all Gentile peoples into God's fold on an equal footing with the Jews.

These—and various other—expectations about Jesus' Messiahship were all in some way or another wrong—they just didn't fit very well the reality of Jesus, but rather led him to be misunderstood.

   Thus Jesus' concern that most people not recognize him as the "Messiah," because they were expecting the wrong kind of a Messiah.     Thus, the "Markan Secret."

And so the simple question of this simple homily is simply this: Granted that we, also, have expectations of what the Messiah should be, what are they? And do they perhaps stand in need of correction by the reality of Jesus himself?

  Perhaps a number of us share Peter's misunderstanding—that the Messiah of God (and particularly his followers)—should not be allowed to suffer; that the life of loving service of God and others that we are called to does not and must not entail the acceptance of suffering in service to that love, suffering even unto death.

  Perhaps we want a Messiah who will confirm—perhaps we use Jesus to confirm—our political beliefs, whether they be Democrat, Republican, Green, or whatever—making those beliefs, as it were, God's will for the country and world, and ourselves God's mouthpieces.

  or perhaps to confirm our social or economic or cultural beliefs or life styles, so that we may be comfortable with them in good conscience, no matter how narrow and even unjust they sometimes might be.

  Perhaps we expect Jesus—and ourselves as followers of Jesus—to be so special and set apart that we should be served by others, rather than to be the lowliest servants of the genuine needs of others.

  Perhaps we expect Jesus—and ourselves in hid name—to wield the authority the Father has given us as power-over-others rather than as power-in-service-of-others.

In sum, perhaps we think Jesus is the kind of Messiah who will simply CONFIRM our pretty conventional outlooks and ways of doing things.

To have expectations of who Christ is, is normal and natural: the trouble begins when we do not allow those expectations to be corrected by the sometimes stark reality of the real Jesus who speaks to us through the gospels,

  The Jesus who commanded us not just to turn the other cheek to our enemies, but to actually love our enemies;

  The Jesus who washed the presumably filthy feet of his disciples in order to show them the humble nature of the service that he called them to;

  The Jesus who said that the kingdom of God belongs to the poor, to the sorrowful, to the hungry, not just the Church going and holy;

  The Jesus who said that those who would save their lives would have to lose them first;

  The Jesus who told his follows that they would have to take up a cross to follow him, that is, to be willing to endure, if it came to it, the worst form of torture human beings had ever devised;

  The Jesus who said that he who divorces and marries another commits adultery;

  The Jesus who said that we must not swear at all;

  And the Jesus who said that if our hand or foot or eye causes us to sin, we should cut them off or pluck them out, because it is better to enter life maimed or lame or blind than to be thrown into the unquenchable fire of eternal death.

I know this doesn't sound very much like me, humanist, Berkeley theologian that I am. And I know that Jesus' actions and statements must be reasonably interpreted and prudently applied to the complex situations of our own day. But I do think that we need to occasionally ask ourselves as honestly as we are able that one simple question: What are our expectations of Jesus and of the Father, and do we allow them to be corrected by the truth of the gospel? Is the Jesus we believe in the real Jesus, or the Jesus that we have constructed in our own image?

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