Dying to Live

Based on a recent sermon using the Bible passage Mark 8:27-38 

In this passage we find that Jesus is in the villages around Caesarea Philippi. Before it was Caesarea Philippi it was known as Baal Hermon and Baal Gad in the Old Testament period. Later it was named Panias after the Greek god Pan who was worshiped here.  It was enlarged by Herod Philip, and named after Caesar, with his own name added to distinguish it from Caesarea.

I want to consider this passage under three headings,

They Say

You Say

I Say.

They Say

You know what they say!

Before moving to the Midlands last year I spent 20 years on the south coast of England on Portland. I remember from about year 3 on Portland, every other year it would seem, I would hear reports that I was going to be leaving next year. Well eventually they were right!  If you had ears you could hear what “they say”. Ministers often get told what “they say”.  “They” don’t like that, they are upset.  “They” don’t want the time changed, or the seating changed or another meeting or that new fangled idea!

Of course it is not only ministers that get told what they say.  There is a story of the British Wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill. During his last year in office, he attended an official ceremony. Several rows behind him two men began whispering. "That's Winston Churchill." "They say he is getting senile." "They say he should step aside and leave the running of the nation to more dynamic and capable men." When the ceremony was over, apparently Churchill turned to the men and said, "Gentlemen, they also say he is deaf!"

Jesus in this passage ask what do “they say”?

‘Who do people say I am?’  They replied, ‘Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.’

In Matthew’s account (Chapter 16) there is an addition to that,

 They replied, ‘Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.

On the face of it sounds complimentary. But there are such things as backhanded compliments.  For instance,

“He looks lovely.  I like both his faces”

“I always feel more intelligent after reading your thoughts and ideas”

“Thanks for making me feel better about my own problems”

“You’re extremely reliable sometimes”

Generally both Elijah and John were seen as forerunners to the Christ/Messiah and some people believed they would return to herald the Messiah.  Messiah literally means “anointed”.  Jewish people believed the Messiah would come to bring deliverance to the Jewish nation. So John, Elijah, Jeremiah – it was a kind of compliment but something missing.

Today lots of people compliment Jesus (often their problem is with the Church).  They think he was a good man or maybe a prophet. I’ve met various atheists who respect him.  All kinds of people like Jesus and what he stood for when he helped the poor and oppressed, but that is not enough!

You say

Jesus asking the disciples about what “they say” seems to be the way in to a more pointed question.  ‘But what about you?’ he asked. ‘Who do you say I am?’

The debate and discussion about what “they say” is fascinating but Jesus says to each one – who do you say that I am?

Do you recognise me – as God with you?

Do you realise that I am the one who came to get you out of the mess and consequences caused by sin?

Do you know me?

Who do you say I am?

Today who do you say I am?

As Jesus says those words what is your response?

‘But what about you?’ he asked. ‘Who do you say I am?’

In a moment of revelation Peter says

Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah.’

This was a radical response.  It could threaten the religious establishment and this happens in a region with royal connections.  Could threaten the Roman establishment too.  It is indeed amazing how threatened people can feel by Jesus.

This passage follows the healing of a blind man.  Some scholars think that these passages run together because the disciples are about to have their eyes opened.  Are our eyes open today?

I don’t know our background. Maybe every one of us has confessed Jesus as the anointed chosen one of God who came on behalf of God to bring us back to him. Or maybe not everyone reading this has said to themselves and others.  “You are the one” about Jesus.  He challenges us to choose.  And a prophet or good man or backhanded compliments won’t do. I am impressed by the words of C S Lewis from his book Mere Christianity,

 “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

I say

After this stunning response from Jesus we read “Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.” (Perhaps this was because they didn’t yet understand what being Messiah meant, or maybe even because he wanted people to discover from him and not from the disciples.)

^“He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.” 

So the Messiah has been confessed and Jesus has acknowledged he is the Messiah by telling the disciples not to tell anyone.  If it is important that the disciples see him as the Messiah, the Christ, the anointed one, then it is also important that they recognise him as God appointed and not appointed by humans.  And here Jesus is pointing at the sort of Messiah he is.  He doesn’t fit in with our ideas and opinion about salvation.  IT was understandable that the Jewish people who lived under occupation wanted a Messiah who would bring release and freedom.  But Jesus did not come to bring political salvation, or military salvation.  He came to bring something far deeper.  He came to bring spiritual salvation, which in turn brings freedom in the other areas of our lives.  The challenging thing is that the way to that is a way of suffering.  Well Peter is unhappy with the idea of the Messiah suffering.  Maybe because having recognised Jesus as Messiah Peter has some preconceived ideas about what that means. Maybe we have preconceived ideas about how God should interact with this world and our lives.

Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. ‘Get behind me, Satan!’ he said. ‘You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.’ In Matthew’s account there is a little extra.  (Mark is often short to the point.)

Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’

Jesus replied, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. ¹⁸ And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.

Then Matthew’s gospel continues, Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. ‘Never, Lord!’ he said. ‘This shall never happen to you!’

Jesus turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling-block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.’

One minute Peter is going to be a rock for Jesus and then he is a block, a stumbling block to Jesus.  Rock or Block – what are we for God?

Have you been on a white-knuckle ride?  I think the worst for me was the Big One in Blackpool. What a roller coaster ride for Peter.  The highs of being pointed to as foundational in Christ’s Church and a moment later being called Satan.

Be careful lest we think we can tell Jesus how he should do his work.

Maybe we do.

Maybe we criticise Jesus.  Why did that have to happen?  Why couldn’t there be an easier way?

Such questions are natural, but there is a difference between a question and telling Jesus how to do things.

Maybe we know exactly how the work of Christ’s Church should be done rather than waiting on Christ.

Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: (in other words “I say”) ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ³⁵ For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?  Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? ³⁸ If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.’

Not only is the way of the Messiah one of suffering but those who follow the Messiah find it is their way too. This is not a comment about suffering generally. Followers of Christ do not have a monopoly on suffering.  This is about suffering persecution, taking up the cross related to our faith and because of our faith. That is the offer today. Follow Jesus – and suffer.

That’s a difficult sell! But paradoxically it is the way to life.

In dying to self we live.

In losing life we find life.

There is a lot of searching going on out in the World. People looking for satisfaction, fulfilment, or maybe trying to numb their self to the world.

What about today?  You?

Discover who Jesus is.  Find in him life. It is as we let go we receive life now and for eternity.  What do we need to let die today?

‘If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.’

Jesus would say – “I say” – lose your life and find it.

Follow me.  Life will never be the same again.

Mark 8:27-38 

²⁷ Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, ‘Who do people say I am?’

²⁸ They replied, ‘Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.’

²⁹ ‘But what about you?’ he asked. ‘Who do you say I am?’

Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah.’

³⁰ Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.

³¹ He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. ³² He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

³³ But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. ‘Get behind me, Satan!’ he said. ‘You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.’

³⁴ Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ³⁵ For whoever wants to save their life^[a] will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.³⁶ What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? ³⁷ Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? ³⁸ If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.’

Gone Fishing

I’m no fisherman.  I dabbled when I was younger.  I caught some flatfish off the beach at Ramsgate with my Grandfather and was very excited about it.  I think they were flounders, but it was a long time ago now. Truthfully that was probably the pinnacle of my fishing career.  Other attempts consisted of boring days with little or nothing to show, unless you count a little skill with sticklebacks and a small net on a pole!  Mind you the photograph accompanying this blog shows a more recent success!

Despite this abject failure at fishing I know, like so many people know, that the method of fishing one should use depends on the type of fish you are trying to catch.  So shark fishing requires different equipment and methods to fishing for trout.  Fly fishing is different to Spearfishing.  Line fishing can happen in a variety of ways and styles, and Netting is different again.

Jesus called his first followers and said “Come, follow me, and I will send you out to fish for people” (Matthew 4:19).  This was put in a way they could understand since some of those first followers were fishermen.  Different fish require different fishing techniques.  Different people require different ways to reach out to them with the good news of Jesus.  Sometimes this is a very gentle one to one conversation, being alongside someone, building a relationship with them over a long period of time, and sometimes what is required is reaching out with challenge offering a point of decision.  When the good news of Jesus is heard there is no one way of response but instead God draws people to himself in a variety of different ways.

This week Billy Graham died.  I was privileged to share in some of his ministry in the United Kingdom when he held big rallies and also privileged to see him in a slightly more intimate setting of a press conference.  I found him a humble and gracious man who sought to be a servant of God. It would be wrong to characterise Billy Graham’s ministry as only large rallies, but these did form a great portion of his ministry and many people over the decades responded to the call to follow Jesus that he offered.  Of course some of those who will have responded will have turned away eventually, perhaps having been caught up in the moment.  The parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:1-23) makes it clear that Jesus knew this would be one result of reaching out with God’s Kingdom. It is not confined to evangelistic rallies.  However, there are so many in the churches across the world today who can point back to an initial commitment to Jesus being made at a Billy Graham Crusade.

Such crusades became very unpopular in Britain for a while.  Some people still argue that they do not “work” (whatever that means).  But I want to say that different fish require different forms of fishing.  I want to thank God for all that he did through Billy Graham.  I want to say that we should not dismiss means and methods of outreach, mission and evangelism, maybe just because they do not appeal to us and our inclinations.  Instead we should celebrate that God reaches out through the followers of Jesus, who he calls to fish for people, in a variety of ways.

Today I celebrate that Billy Graham has been one of those fisher folk and I pray for many more.

Through the Eyes of a Stranger

Strangers are both noticed and notice things.  Having moved to a new area in 2017 I have been a stranger in a new area.  I have noticed things.  Of course it may be that many others embedded in the communities I have engaged with have noticed the same things, but my gut feeling, and from conversations with others, is that things I have noticed may not be in the consciousness of others.

I’ll tell you what I have noticed in my new area in contrast to where I moved from.  Institutions and people within them seem genuinely more determined to help rather than a “jobs worth” attitude.  There is stunning countryside and scenery.  It is a great contrast to living by the sea, but that is the right expression – a great contrast.

Then some other interesting observations (well to me anyway). People seem to routinely park on pavements with consequent problems for pedestrians.  This happens rather routinely and very very frequently.  Second I am stunned by the number of metal shutters on shops, metal bars inside windows of offices and businesses, and the number of burglar alarms.  Third I am amazed at how often I see motorists run red lights. It has happened enough for me to expect it now when I see a red light.

All this may be of no interest to anyone, but I share it to make the point that it is important to see through the eyes of the stranger.  The stranger often notices things we have got used to.  This is why it is so important to listen to strangers that interact with the Church. I am particularly thinking of those who come along to our worship or to our church events.  They often notice things that those on the inside have long ceased to see.  It is one of the reasons why many churches think (genuinely) that they are welcoming when in fact all they are is a comfy club for the insiders.  For the outsider, the stranger, they are assault courses to be negotiated with little or no help.  If you want to know if you are welcoming ask the stranger not the club members.  Hospitality is so much more than thinking it nice that new people have dropped in.

The stranger is important in the Bible. We are reminded there in many places that we are to welcome the stranger and to be hospitable to the stranger.  This is as relevant to the Syrian refugee who may be one of a larger group as it is to the individual who wanders through the door of a church on a Sunday.  Indeed Proverbs 5:10 is extreme in its direction to God’s people “Let strangers feast on your wealth and your toil enrich the house of another”.  Jesus likened himself to a stranger when he spoke about the sheep and goats on judgement day and effectively said he had been treated as a stranger and not welcomed through his followers being rejected (Matthew 25:31-46).  The idea of Jesus being treated as a stranger by us is a fascinating one, since as the one through whom we were created (Colossians 1:16), he will know us more intimately than any human could.

Be careful of shunning the stranger.  The stranger may know us better than we think.

So next time we want to see something clearly maybe we should stop looking with our own eyes for a moment and try to look through the eyes of the stranger.  We might learn a lot.

Maybe as we enter 2018 we can use the opportunity that the New Year brings to determine that we will welcome the stranger. Like Abraham, who was visited in Genesis Chapter 18 by three men at Mamre, we might never know how much of the Divine we are encountering and how far our lives might be transformed through the encounter.