Rev. Tom Lenhart
Sermon September 17, 2006
“Who Do We Think He Is?”
Mark 8: 27-38

Let us pray.

              In your bulletin there is a blue sheet. Please take it out and look at the side that has Figure 1 on it.  You will see what looks like two vertical parallel lines -- making what could be a tree trunk.  Each of these two lines in turn has a line intersecting it. Now some of you will look at those two partial lines intersecting each side of the trunk and will see two lines that -- were they extended through the trunk -- would themselves be parallel. If you flip the sheet over you will see figure 2, which shows that in fact there are not two parallel lines bisecting the vertical trunk but one line. Those of you who saw two lines, not one, are experiencing the Poggendorff illusion. A visual illusion first identified by a physicist named J.C. Poggendorff in 1860. Scientists -- psychologists, physicists, and medical researchers in human vision -- confirm that this illusion is real -- that is that people are really describing what they believe to be the reality before them, namely two interrupted parallel lines not one line whose middle section is obscured. Of course, what they are seeing is not what is in fact there. Research on this and other optical illusions has demonstrated that the very process by which we see affects what we see. We do not, therefore, always see what is there rather sometimes we see what we think is there or expect to be there.

            Experiments have been done with drivers about what they see and don’t see when driving. I recall hearing of a study years ago where they took drivers who had driven the same route to and from work for many years.  The researchers secretly added a stop sign in plain sight at a street corner on the route. Only a very few of the regular drivers reported seeing the sign until it was pointed out to them. In another recent experiment a group was asked -- while watching the film of a basketball game -- to count the number of times a particular basketball player passed the ball in the game. When it was over each observer was asked if anything unusual had occurred during the game – most said “no”. When the film was run again at a slower speed all saw that a person in a gorilla suit had run out on to the floor for several moments during the game before returning to the side lines. Few saw the gorilla the first time.  The point is that we see what we expect and often don’t see the unexpected.

            Some years ago I was involved in a case that turned on the condition of a helicopter immediately prior to its crash into the crowd at a Labor Day Fair at a church. The key question was --were the helicopter and its engine functioning properly or not at the time of the accident.  In other words had there been a mechanical failure or was it perhaps pilot error that caused the crash? There were many, many eyewitnesses. As it turned out there were dozens of different reports of the final events of the flight. All from people who had no reason to be anything but as honest and truthful as possible. Some saw the helicopter doing loops others did not. Some heard the engine running to the very end, others did not. There are many explanations for the different observations but at least in part people saw what they expected to see based on their prior experience. So it was that the Viet Nam veterans, supported in combat by low flying helicopters, had a certain version of the events. While more detailed--these descriptions were in the end no more consistent with the actual facts than the others.

            Our experience and our expectations affect not simply what we see and hear-- that is our sensory observations -- but also what we understand to be true or what we believe to be true. The old cliché about looking for the best in people and finding it, is an example of this phenomenon and highlights that it is not always a bad thing.

            Now why this brief and simplistic tutorial on optical and other illusions? Our text from Mark, I believe, involves these phenomena --that is seeing and believing that which we expect -- that which fits with our experience -- but not necessarily what is really there. Today’s passage from Mark represents a turning point in this Gospel. It contains the first explicit prediction by Jesus of the Passion. The events from here on as reported in Mark    inexorably point towards Jerusalem and the Cross. The crux of the passage deals with Jesus’ identity. He first asks, “who do they [the people] say I am?” (Mark 8:27) The people – that is the crowds that have heard Jesus and witnessed   his healing of the sick and other miracles -- answer that question based on what they expect. To these ordinary Jews steeped in the prophesies of the Hebrew Bible, Jesus is the herald of the one to come – whether it be Elijah who is to come in the words of Malachi before the “day of the Lord” (Malachi 4:5) or   John the Baptist who -- in the words of scripture -- is the one to prepare the way of the Lord.  (Malachi 3: 1).   They understand   Jesus in the terms that they expect; they see him as a special prophet.  Though they get it wrong Jesus does not react in    surprise or anger.   Jesus reaction is, I believe, a recognition that the people simply were doing the best they could and were not going to understand, if at all whom he was until his death and resurrection. He was, you see, the unexpected one.

Having not gotten the right answer, Jesus next turns to those who know him best -- his disciples. “But who do you say I am?  It is Peter who seemingly gets it right, when he answers, “You are the Messiah.” Messiah is, of course, correct for it means “one anointed by God.” And yet Jesus does not compliment Peter on his answer – no instead he tells the disciples to be silent -- tell no one. For in point of fact Peter does not get it fully right. Jesus proceeds to tell the disciples that he is the Son of Man and will be rejected by the elders and chief priests, will suffer and die and then will rise in three days. It is not by accident that Jesus refers to himself -- not as the Messiah -- but as the Son of Man. The term Messiah is accurate. It does not, however, convey what the title "Son of Man" does as used in Hebrew bible. That phrase describes one who shall ascend to God and judge creation but also shall suffer along the way.  So it is that the disciples, including Peter, are given the correct  description  -- it is as if Jesus  put up a sign saying this what is going to happen to me -- this is who I am, and yet they do not see or believe it.

Perhaps even more astonishingly, is the fact that Peter is not simply skeptical of Jesus’ predictions for his future but rebukes Jesus for getting it wrong.  Think how extraordinary this act is; the student not simply challenges the teacher but rebuke him for being wrong about the teacher’s own identity. Peter passionately reflects the popular expectations of his time. He suffers from what one might call a “Messiah illusion.” Peter wants a new David. One can almost hear Peter saying, “Jesus you have done these miracles, you have healed the sick – you have divine power. The people are beginning to notice and to follow. Time will come when you, the Messiah, will lead us to victory over the Romans.   You will restore the chosen people of God – the people of Israel -- to their land and the life God has promised. Get a grip on yourself, Jesus, the future is yours.”

Peter has a fundamentally different vision of Jesus than the one Jesus had described for himself. What Peter believed was that God had anointed a figure that would insure that good prevailed—that justice was meted out so that the righteousness prevailed and the miscreants were punished and he saw this in terms of the victorious exercise of power by a new David in this world.  Mark leaves no doubt that Peter gets it wrong and that the true identity of Jesus is crucial,-- when he reports Jesus now famous words to Peter –“Get behind me Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”(Mark 8:33) Satan is, of course, the embodiment of evil – it is often the demon Jesus casts out. Peter’s mistake is not just a small matter -- a minor misunderstanding.  It goes to the very essence of who Jesus is and how he was to transform history.  Significantly, it is not until the death of Jesus that his true identity is recognized. Even then the first to truly see is not a disciple but the Roman Centurion at the Cross, who at Jesus’ death says, “Truly this man was God’s son.” (Mark 15:39).

Who do we say Jesus is? Do we perhaps at times suffer from a Messiah illusion? We, of course, have the benefit of the full story of Jesus life, death and resurrection and of the subsequent reports of the actions of the disciples and apostles, especially Paul. And yet, I think, at times we too have difficulty answering that question.  While we do not see Jesus as a new David –  isn’t there a sense at times that we would be more comfortable if Jesus wore a gold crown rather than one of thorns. Ours is a world that is premised on success. From the games we play, to the entertainment we watch, to the advertisements that bombard us – we are engulfed in a world focused on winning and defeating the other or others.  Here we have Jesus who at least from a human vantage point lost in the most profound way. Though the Son of God, he lifted not a finger to save himself from the forces of evil.  This is hard for us to understand because we, like Peter, have our mind on human things. Yet think about a different Jesus. What do you imagine would have been Jesus’ impact on his time and on human history if he fought back – used his power to vanquish his opponents and thereby restored the lot of the chosen people.  Would we have recognized him as anything other than a new David? What would it have meant to follow him?

 Athanasius, one of the early fathers of the church described Jesus as serving as God’s transforming gift to us. He used a painting metaphor. Humanity was created in God’s image – yet that image had gotten blurred for humanity and humanity did not act in accord with that image.  In Jesus -- God was sitting again for a portrait so that the divine image could be retouched for us to see. That image reflected in Jesus was of the Son of Man who lived a life of love – not of power -- and sought to transform people not things. A new David could not have done these things. Jesus could and did, but suffered and died in doing so.

The challenge, of course for us is that we are to follow in Jesus footsteps. – We are in Mark’s words to “take up the cross and follow [Jesus]. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for [Jesus’] sake, and for the sake of the gospel will save it.” (Mark 8:34-35) It means eschewing so many things – seeing life in terms of winning and losing, for example. It means at times exhibiting self-sacrifice. It means love of neighbor not only when lovable but when most unlovable and it means love of enemy. To me that means that no matter what -- we are challenged to see behind the actions of others and to remember that they too are creatures of God. It does not mean we ignore the consequences of another’s actions but that we temper our need for justice with mercy as Jesus did to those who persecuted him. It means that there may be pain and suffering along the way as there was for Jesus. By that I am not saying that Jesus should be seen as glorifying suffering; I do not believe that. What I do believe God -- through Jesus' life and death -- is saying to us is that there are things more important than the avoidance of suffering. Who here if need be would not give up an organ for a family member or a friend even though there would be pain and some suffering. It happens all the time – thank God. Avoidance of pain, receipt of pleasure and winning over others -- while not wrong or to use an old fashioned term sinful -- are nonetheless not the highest values to live for.

 I find reality TV about as insidious as any aspect of modern culture. Why? Because it turns our world upside down. Shouldn’t the people on the island or wherever they are sequestered try to survive as a group? Each giving a little here and there so that all will survive –indeed thrive in the inhospitable surroundings into which they have been thrown. But of course that would not garner a particularly large audience share so we have show after show in which we see the devious machinations of the contestants as they seek alone  to survive and win and have the others thrown off the island or out of the house. The very fact that this genre is so popular suggests to me that there is a little Peter in all of us. We like winners. Perhaps we should all pause and ask how would such a game look if Jesus were running it?

As Theodore Ferris, Rector at Trinity Church in Boston, observed many years ago “they expected a Christ who would make life easier, reduce taxes, increase … employment, bring prices down. He didn’t. If anything he made [life] harder. He talked about crosses, not crowns.” [1] You see what Jesus was about was changing people not their surroundings. If the former happened then the later would occur. The challenge of course is we see what we expect and not the unexpected. Jesus is the ultimate unexpected gift. Let me end with a poem from George Macdonald, a Scots poet of the 19^th century:

                        They all were looking for a king

                        To slay their foes, and lift them high;

                        Thou cam’st a little baby thing

                        That made a woman cry.

                        O Son of Man, to right my lot

                        Naught but by thy presence can avail;

                        Yet on the road thy wheels are not

                        Nor on the sea thy sail!

                        My fancied ways, why shouldst thou heed?

                        Thou com’st down thine own secret stair;

                        Com’st down to answer all my need

                        Yea, ev’ry bygone prayer. [2]

In short expect the unexpected and then you will truly see and live. Amen.