The home that I grew up in was at the top of a hill. A fairly steep hill at that. That same hill is where I learned to drive a 5-speed. My Father owned a small sized pickup truck called an Isuzu P'up. Just a bit smaller than a Ford S-10. The truck had manual steering as well as transmission. As soon as I had my learner’s permit my dad put me behind the wheel of his truck.
While driving with my Dad we were going up the steep hill that we lived on. About halfway up the hill my Dad told me to stop. He then told me to put the truck in first gear and to set the hand emergency brake. That way I could take my foot off the brake and only mess with the gas and clutch pedals. He told me that I needed to learn to start on a hill. Well I freaked out and stalled out a lot. Like a lot of times. Like a lot, a lot of times. Eventually we made it home which was only about 50 yards away!
Among the things learned that day was that often you and I have all the resources we need to solve our problems. Don’t expect your problems to become other people’s problems. Only you can fix your issues.Yet there are some issues that are big and we need some help. Like dealing with the issue of poverty. That is a big issue and you can’t fix that on your own. Racism is a big issue that you can’t fix on your own. Other big issues like sex trafficking, clean water and political partisanship are things too big to try and fix on your own. Partisanship is different from having divergent opinions over policies. Partisanship takes those differences of opinion and adds animosity.
What I am pointing out is something that you already know. We live in a society in which we truly are looking for someone else to save us. Or at least help us. Believe it or not but we are not the first people to want someone to come and save us.
If you were walking around in first century in Judea you would see that the place was in a shambles. An unpopular governor who adopted the title King named Herod ruled the area. When Herod died one of his sons took over who was not an improvement over his father. The religious temple system was corrupted. The High Priest was not from the Levitical line of Aaron. Instead Rome had appointed Annas and then eventually Annas’ son-in-law Caiaphas as high priest. These were political appointees. They did the bidding of Rome first and foremost.
The exile that the Jews experienced under the Babylonians in 586 BCE was still an ongoing national experience and the Israelite people wanted their land back. Not just their land they wanted their country back. Hoping and wishing that someone would come and save them. And the situation that they were in, no one person could solve on their own. They were looking for a savior to enter into their story and to bring about God’s desired change. They were looking for a Messiah.
When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” 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. 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. Matthew 16:13-18
This is a rare good moment for Peter. Often Peter comes across as more of a hot head that has more to do with his piety then grasping what Jesus is teaching and doing. Yet, at this moment Peter is right on the money. Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus is the one they, the disciples as well as the Jewish people, have been waiting on. Which is why Jesus’ response to Peter is so odd.
Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah. Matthew 16:20
So Jesus doesn’t want anyone to know that he is the Messiah. There might be lots of reasons for Jesus to request that his disciples keep this Messiahship on the downlow. For one thing, the concept and societal longing for the Messiah was a big deal. It can not be overstated just how much of a big deal the concept of the Messiah played in the life of ancient Israel. The word Messiah actually means the "anointed one." The Messiah was the person who was the special “anointed one” that was to bring about God's rule not only to Jerusalem but all over the world.
This is moment with Peter is what theology students and professors call the Messianic secret. Jesus reveals himself to his disciples that he is truly the Messiah. But then he tells them to keep this revelation just between them. In ancient Israel there were all kinds of theories as to who the Messiah would be and what the Messiah would do. Yet there was a general agreement that when the Messiah would come he would lead a revolt against all the nations and military forces that opposed Israel. All the powers and forces that held Israel captive would finally get their just consequences. In other words, the general consensus was that the Messiah would lead a revolution.
About 30 years before the time of Jesus there was Jew, living in the northern area of Israel, named Judas the Galilean. He started an uprising against Roman rule. He gathered up a large force in the hopes of defeating Herod and bringing about God’s rule on earth. Guess what? It didn’t work. Herod’s forces defeated Judas and his men. This is the same Judas that is referred to in Acts 4. In Acts 4 the Pharisees blow off this claim that Jesus as the Messiah because they have witnessed others who claimed to be a the Messiah that end up dead.
So, when Peter says that Jesus is the Messiah he is tapping into all of those expectations about what a Messiah would do. Jesus is the one who is supposed to bring about the Kingdom of God or God’s rule on earth as it is in heaven. Which in the minds of Jewish folks meant that Jesus is supposed to light the fire of revolution, raise up a mighty army and end the exile by sending the Romans back to Rome. Yet Jesus is quick to say . . . ya I’m the Messiah but not the one everyone voted for.
From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Matthew 16:21
If you're a disciple and you are hearing Jesus say these things about his death you might start to wonder just what is he talking about? This is crazy talk. Everybody knows that saviors don’t suffer. Delivers don’t die. Yet, the disciples just don’t get it. Their imaginations are not capable of taking in what Jesus is saying. What Jesus is saying goes against everything that the disciples know to be true in their bones. Did their parents, grandparents and priests give them false information?
Let's just take a moment and consider, are you and I better and or smarter than Peter and the disciples? Do you really believe that saviors can suffer? Consider for a moment the men and women that you want leading you. Those people who head up the team at work. The leaders who offer the vision and direction at your job, on your favorite sports team or in your community. How many of us actually want to win the battle rather than suffer? Cause suffering sucks. A lot of us can’t even get on social media without seeking out someone to win a battle against. How many of us truly believe that a leader who defeats his enemies is better than a leader who dies for his enemies? That is what Peter believes. Have you been looking for a Messiah more than Peter? Do you understand the concept of the Messiah better than Peter?
Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” Matthew 16:22
Peter takes Jesus aside and scolds him! Can you imagine this moment? Peter is taking Jesus (God in the flesh) aside and giving him a verbal spanking. Peter wants Jesus to know that this is never going to happen. This is not the job description of a Messiah. Peter was willing to say to Jesus I see you as the Messiah, accept you as the Messiah but I don’t like how you are going about being a Messiah. Jesus isn’t the kind of Messiah that Peter wanted. It is not the kind of Messiah that Peter would have voted for.
About 100 years after the time of Jesus there was a guy named Simon Bar Kosevah. He rose to popularity in Judea and got large crowds to come and listen to him. A respected rabbi, living at the same time as Bar Kosevah, named Rabbi Akiva announced that Simone was the Messiah. Simon was the one that the Jews had been waiting to arrive. Simone raised up an army of about 200,000 fighters. In the year 132 CE Simon and his army defeated many Roman legions that had been sent to crush his rebellion. And the dream of a Messiah among the Jewish people was alive and well again.
Simon was the kind of Messiah that Peter wanted. That is the Messiah that would get Peter's vote. Heck, most Americans would vote for this kind of a Messiah. Because our world has real problems. Even when we can identify and agree on what those problems are and how to address them, Simon seems like the kind of guy that we need. We don’t need some Sunday school teacher. We need someone who is willing to break a few eggs to make that omelet. We don’t need kindness, humility or patience. We need someone who has the guts to do what Simone has done.
We want Simone Bar Kosevah as Messiah. Wouldn't the world be a better place if we had a Simone kind of Messiah. Wouldn’t you want to live in his version of the story? Morality would be legislated and enforced. The dirtiest sins and the dirtiest sinners would be punished. History would get back on track and Christians wouldn’t live in the margins but in the center of power and control. If it means getting things back on track for God then lets just have a revolution. The truth is that many Christians confess Jesus as Messiah but behave like Simone Bar Kosevah. Listen to how Jesus responded to Peter's rebuke.
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.” Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. Matthew 16:23-25
Jesus wants his disciples to know that the task of the Messiah is to suffer. The mission of the Messiah is to be killed and to rise to life by the power of God. Being a disciple of Jesus is to behave the way Jesus behaves. Following Jesus means to believe the solution to the problems we face in our world are brought by a Messiah who is willing to suffer rather than win a battle. The cross is not just an event. It is a blueprint.
Just take a read of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. The Sermon on the Mount is not about a Jesus who extols an esoteric or naive or idealistic ethic but is one whose instruction sets forth the way of life that he himself embodied, the way of life that manifests God's own life.
Gene Davenport, in his book on the Sermon on the Mount, Into the Darkness, reminds us that:
When the first hearers of Matthew's Gospel heard Jesus' call to suffer rather than to inflict suffering, to accept death rather than to inflict death, to reject all efforts to save themselves from their plight by military action and to leave their deliverance to God, they knew that the one who gave such scandalous instruction had himself lived and died in accord with that call.
About 58,000 people, that is the number many scholars believe died during the revolution of Simeon. And that is just those in the battle. Determined not to have this happen again the Romans deported hundreds of Jews from Israel to other locations in the Roman empire. They even renamed the area Palestine in the hopes that people would forget all about Israel and the Jewish people.
Here is what you need to know. When we fall prey to the belief that the world is changed by power and enforcement then that is not the way of Jesus. That is a lie. And the Jesus we serve is not ignorant of the problems that we face. He is not surprised by the people that we are and all the ways that we mistreat and harm one another. If you want to solve this problem. Then take up your cross and follow Jesus. It is through suffering and God’s power that our transformation and that of the world actually happens. Would you vote for Jesus now?
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