True Source

The scriptures referred to are Mark 8:27-38.

Sometimes it's easy to tell something from the genuine article. Several years ago McDonald's sued a restaurant named McCurry for copyright infringement. The courts in India decided against the fast food giant, pointing out that no one in their right mind would mistake a small ethnic restaurant for the American burger chain.

Sometimes it's harder to tell what's genuine from what's not. For instance, when you buy honey, you may not be getting the real thing. The FDA defines honey as a single ingredient food. But some honey bottlers have been watering down their honey by adding sweeteners, like sugar, rice syrup, malt sweeteners or the ubiquitous high fructose corn syrup. This is called honey laundering (cute!) and can be done by overseas producers to undercut US prices on honey. It's a federal crime and companies have been fined millions of dollars for doing it. 

So how can you make sure the honey you buy is the genuine article? Avoid any honey labeled “ultraprocessed” or even “pure,” which has no legal definition. Look for honey labeled “True Source Verified,” which means it was independently checked. Also real honey has certain qualities the fake stuff doesn't. Real honey is thick, not runny. Drop it in warm water, put it on your thumb or on tissue paper and it won't disperse or be absorbed; it will stay a lump. Real honey will caramelize when it's heated. If you spread it on bread the bread will harden in a few minutes. Real honey never goes bad but it will crystalize over time.

Why does this matter? Besides tasting better, real honey has health benefits. It's rich in antioxidants, which can help reduce the risk of heart disease. Eucalyptus, citrus and labiatae honey can act as a cough suppressant. It can help with some GI problems like diarrhea from gastroenteritis. Studies suggest it has antidepressant, anticonvulsant and anti-anxiety benefits and can help prevent memory disorders. And medical-grade honey applied topically promotes wound healing, especially with burns.

What does this have to do with today's gospel? As with honey, we are concerned with what's real, true and genuine.

We are looking at a passage from the end of the 8^th chapter of Mark, the earliest gospel. It is at the halfway point in the 16 chapters of Mark. Jesus is looking for feedback. He asks his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” And it turns out that there are quite a lot of answers. Some say Jesus is Elijah. One of the great prophets of the Old Testament, Elijah did not die but was taken up into heaven by God. (2 Kings 2:11) The popular expectation was that he would return at the end of the present evil age to usher in the Messianic age. Jesus, with his miracles and his gift of healing, did seem to fill the bill.

Others thought Jesus was John the Baptist resurrected. John was the first true prophet in a long time and you can see how Jesus, his equally charismatic cousin, could be mistaken for him. Herod, who had John beheaded, was of this opinion. (Mark 6:16)

Others thought Jesus was simply another prophet, one of God's spokesmen, though not a special one. That seems to have covered all the possibilities for most folks. What's really interesting is what people don't say Jesus is. They don't say that he's the Messiah. Messiah means “Anointed One.” In the Bible there are 3 offices for which people were anointed with oil: that of prophet, that of priest and that of king. In Jesus' day there was a debate about which office the Messiah would fill. But the consensus was that he would be a King David redux, a holy warrior who will defeat the Romans and lead God's people into a new golden age. This was what the oppressed nation of Judea most wished for. But was it what they needed?

Jesus presses his disciples: “But who do you say I am?” And Peter, the spokesman for the Twelve, answers, “You are the Messiah.” Now it's out in the open. And Jesus approves of this. In Matthew's version, this is made explicit. In Mark, it is implicit in the way Mark says, “Jesus sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.” He doesn't deny the title. But why doesn't Jesus want his disciples to tell anybody? Why not tell everyone if it's true? Because Rome is not tolerant of liberator kings. Puppets like Herod are fine but the Jews are a rebellious people and anyone proclaiming himself a God-anointed king is just the spark to set things ablaze. Jesus has more to teach before he can be arrested.

Then why doesn't Jesus simply deny the title of Messiah? Because it's not the title that's wrong; it's the popular interpretation of the title that's wrong. When Pilate interrogates Jesus and asks if he is a king, Jesus says that his kingdom is not from this world. (John 18:36) He is not the king of just one people but of all people. He is not the king of just one land but of the whole earth. He is not a king who conquers by force but who woos by love. He is certainly not a king who triumphs by spilling the blood of others. The only blood spilled will be his own.

Or perhaps it's best to say that the emphasis was on the wrong role for the Messiah at this point in time. Kings weren't the only persons who were anointed. Prophets and priests were as well. Now it's obvious that he was a prophet. But the priesthood was hereditary and unlike his cousin, he was not from a priestly family. Would people accept him as a priest? Well, a priest acts as a mediator between God and man. A priest represents his people before God and represents God before his people. Through the offering of a sacrifice, he removes people's sin. But how was Jesus to do that?

What does Jesus say after the disciples declare him to be the Messiah? He says he must suffer. He must be rejected by the religious leaders, including the chief priests. He will be killed...like a sacrificial lamb. Jesus is presenting a new take on the Messiah. He is both priest and sacrifice.

Peter is repelled by the idea. Even Jesus' mention of resurrection doesn't soften what he is predicting will happen to him. Peter pulls Jesus aside and takes him to task on this. The Greek word translated “rebuke” has the sense of “forbid.” Peter is forbidding the man he just called the Messiah semt by God to talk like this. It sounds bizarre but we frequently tell God he's wrong. We act like we know reality better than its Creator does.

Jesus responds in 2 ways. First he calls Peter “Satan”! The word literally means adversary. And Peter is working against God here. Peter is looking at the situation from a human standpoint. What good is a dead Messiah? Peter would probably agree with General Patton that you don't win a war by dying for your country, or in this case, kingdom. You win it by making the enemy die for his country or, in this case, empire. That sounds rational. But, as we have seen, it's the reason we keep fighting wars. Because killing others doesn't kill the hate; in fact, it gives hate a new lease on life. Kill one enemy and you've just made more enemies out of his family and friends.

Next, Jesus says something really startling: “If anyone wants to come after me, let him renounce himself, take up his cross and follow me.” This is not generally the way you attract people to your cause. You promise them good things, not pain. You depict your way as the path to glory, not the last mile to a shameful death by execution. You ask them to carry a banner, not the instrument of their own death. You promise people that they will be all that they can be, not that they must say “No” to themselves. Jesus is not even saying “Die for me that I might live and reign.” The word translated “follow” also means “accompany.” Jesus is saying “Join me as we walk my road to the cross together.” In the context it sounded like an invitation to march off a cliff, arm in arm.

And lest anyone thinks that Jesus is merely using hyperbole here, he underlines what he means by saying that obeying the natural impulse to save oneself will in fact cost you eternal life. Being willing to lose this life for Jesus and his good news is what saves you. And those who are ashamed of Jesus' way of self-sacrifice and the cross will find that Jesus is ashamed of them when he returns.

If you want to know the essence of real Christianity, the signs of genuinely following Jesus, it is here. It consists of belief in Jesus as God's anointed prophet, priest, sacrifice and risen Lord as well as the action of imitating him. Both parts are necessary, just as both trusting your surgeon to fix your broken hip and doing physical therapy afterwards are necessary if you want to walk again. Too often people act as if Christianity is just a matter of belief or just a matter of behavior. The two are not mutually exclusive; in fact, you need both, just as you need both wings of a plane. Behavior without a firm grounding in the proper belief inevitably loses its direction. Belief that does not motivate us to behave differently is just intellectual B.S. Again if you are going to fly a plane, you need both the right knowledge in your head and to demonstrate the right skills or you will crash. And if I may mix metaphors, here's the cause of the train wreck of much of modern Christianity.

Surveys of those who don't go to church show that a lot of people like what they see in Jesus but they don't like what they see in Christians. They see us as judgmental, hypocritical, self-righteous, out of contact with reality and too political. And all too often they are right. When we only make press releases that condemn someone for something they do or say, when we say we stand for one thing but do the opposite, when we refuse to admit our own sins and mistakes, when we get sidetracked on issues like evolution, and when we align ourselves wholeheartedly with a political party or movement, we play right into these stereotypes. We come across as just another group of power players in the world, with our own agenda and our own spinmeisters. We alter our stated beliefs or behaviors when it suits us. We want the crown without having to go to the cross.

The essence of Christianity is centered in the cross. Unfortunately, we tend only to talk and preach and sing about the cross of Jesus. But Jesus said we all have a cross to pick up. And the cross we have to bear is not, as popularly thought, our own problems. If my chief burden is my own sin and my own grievances, how does that make me different from anyone else? If I assert my own rights, why should I be commended? Jesus did not bear his cross for any faults of his own but for ours. So the cross he wants us to bear is the sins and burdens of others. That's hard. That takes real love for others. That takes real faith in God. That takes daily, even hourly reliance on the Holy Spirit for strength, encouragement and wisdom.

The essence of the faith isn't “God loves me and Jesus died for me so that I can live a life of warm, fuzzy psychological comfort.” The BTK killer, who turned out to be the lay president of his congregation, has that kind of faith. Along with his revolting confessions of being a serial killer for decades, he spoke of being confident that God forgives him. What is missing is any kind of remorse for what he'd done or repentance, that is, a change in his way of thinking or way of life. That's the kind of theology that turns people off to Christianity.

It also blurs the distinction between Christianity and other religions. It makes it just another source of personal comfort and a way of blessing the status quo. It also makes it a refuge for the lazy, the self-satisfied and even the scoundrels. I'm tired of people caught red-handed who invoke the name of Jesus without expressing humility, without admitting their sins, without resolving to change.

The essence of the faith, as laid out by Jesus himself at the heart of this gospel, is this: “God loves me and every other person on this planet. Jesus died for me and for every other human being. As part of his ongoing mission to bring those other people the good news of forgiveness and redemption through him, my prophetic, priestly king expects me to say 'No' to myself, and 'Yes' to him as I shoulder the burdens of others, and live the kind of self-sacrificial life he did. My comfort is his companionship on this journey and the presence of his Spirit in me and in all who are really following him.” Anything else is a misrepresentation, and an adulteration of the gospel. Everything else in our faith flows from the true source of spiritual health, Jesus, God's Anointed, crucified for our sins and verified by his resurrection to new life.

First preached on September 9, 2009. It has been revised and updated.