I Do Not Think That Word Means What You Think It Does (Year B, 16th Sunday after Pentecost)
The 1987 film The Princess Bride has something of a cult following – especially for those of us situated in GenX. It was chocked full of subtle humor and quotable lines that became something of a code language for a generation.
Throughout the movie, Vizzini, a self-aggrandizing little man, uses big words in an effort to demonstrate he is cunning, intelligent, able. And it turns out, he uses the big words in imprecise ways. The script hones in on his use of the word “inconceivable.” As he’s watching something remarkable take place, he’ll exclaim, “inconceivable!” Clearly, he’s seeing something happen so it CAN be conceived. Eventually, Inigo Montoya turns to him and says, “I do not thing that word means what you think it does.”
In our scripture for today, Jesus is checking in with his disciples about what the crowds are saying. Perhaps he looking for a temperature-read of how people understand him, his message and his ministry.
The disciples respond that the crowds think maybe Jesus is a prophet, one who would speak to the people on God’s behalf, one would who would point to the inbreaking of God’s kin-dom.
But once the disciples have answered Jesus about what the people are saying, Jesus checks in with the disciples themselves for their answer. Jesus and the disciples have been together for a while now – the disciples are well-past first impressions of Jesus at this point. He asks, who do YOU say that I am?
And Peter, ever eager to have an answer and be correct, speaks plainly. You are the Messiah.
A reference to Messiah in that context would draw people back to King David, and the promise that there would one day be another King for Israel – a king who, like David, would be anointed by God. The Messiah would be God’s chosen one, presumably one chosen to lead the Jewish people into a season of freedom, justice, and power.
It must have been something of a shock, then, when Jesus, upon hearing this from Peter, “sternly ordered them (the disciples) not to tell anyone about him.”
You’ll remember last week that Jesus asked the people to tell no one what they had seen after witnessing the miracle which he opened the ears of a deaf man.
So….this “hey, let’s keep this on the down low” seems is something of a habit now for Jesus.
Why might that be the case?
I am beginning to think it is because Jesus knows that people won’t understand. And when they don’t understand, they misinterpret, their expectations change, they might get disappointed or disillusioned.
Jesus goes on from that point to paint a very stark picture with the disciples of how his ministry is going to play out – he’ll suffer, be rejected and humiliated, be killed and then rise after three days.
And judging Peter’s response, what Jesus describes is NOT how Peter has understood the idea of “Messiah.”
Peter pulls Jesus aside to scold him for saying such things. Like Jesus asking folks NOT to tell about what they have seen with their own eyes, in this situation it is as if Peter understands that this explanation Jesus has just offered is not very enticing for followers…that talking about how hard and tragic this work will be and how it will end is NOT the way to build a following, it would seem.
Jesus scolds back…you are thinking in human terms, Peter.
I am the Messiah.
…I do not think that word Messiah means what you think it does….
You are understanding glory and victory through a very human lens. It’s not going to go down like that.
After this exchange, Jesus gathers the crowd again, (and I have to expect at this point Peter is utterly exasperated) and explains what it will mean to follow him. It means following him into the hardest things, taking up the hardship of a cross, which would have been understood as a reference to the Roman practice of humiliating and torturing people through crucifixion.
To follow Jesus and understand what will happen requires looking at the world and judging the world not by human measures, but by divine ones.
Jesus says rather simply, “Those who want to save their life will lose it…”
Jesus is issuing the warning to those who seek to follow him and he is not mincing words. If indeed we embrace the proclamation that Jesus is the Christ, we should not expect glory and honor and reward, at least not in the world’s terms. We should expect to pour out, and to find ourselves utterly changed in that work, gaining something else, perhaps something beyond human comprehension in the process.
Commentator and biblical scholar Clifton Black puts it this way:
First-century Jewish messianic hopes varied, but none of them expected a messiah crucified by elders (lay leaders), chief priests (tall-steeple preachers), and scribes (biblical scholars). Writings like 4 Ezra (11-12), 2 Baruch (40, 72), and Qumran’s Damascus Document (6.7-11) dreamt of idealized rulers who would judge the wicked and restore Israel’s righteous. None of these messiahs handed their followers a cross to be shouldered en route to their own Golgothas. In no Gospel does Jesus say, “It is my responsibility to die for you, while you applaud my heroism.” Instead: “The Son of Man is ordained by God to suffer, die, and be raised. And so are his followers. Are you coming?”[1]
Are you coming?
Take up your cross and follow me.
Are you coming?
No wonder Peter was shushing Jesus –he knows how unpopular following will be if indeed this is what is going to happen.
Peter is not wrong. Jesus’ mission as he describes it here is not an enticing mass-market invitation in worldly terms.
To be the Messiah is not sounding that victorious. And to follow…that sounds like a lot, too.
Working on this text this week, I felt a little bit like I was disassembling some intricate object – like a clock. And I got to this point in my writing and felt like I now had just covered the table with parts and pieces that were interesting on their own and also just a little bit overwhelming.
And now the work is to reassemble the unpacked and scattered pieces into something that guides us forward now that we’ve seen all that there is to see. How do we take the clock parts and make them functional, a compass to guide our next steps, maybe?
I want to begin by encouraging all of us. As we learned over the past year, the work of discipleship, the work of following Jesus is a lifetime journey and the path can be hard in places and we are always seeking the next right step forward.
If we think about how Jesus addresses the disciples in this text and then think about their missteps as Jesus is arrested and tried and crucified, and then think about his return to them, feeding them, continuing to teach them, comforting them and sending them out into the world, it is clear to me that there is much grace in this discipleship path – space to make wrong turns and still be shaped and called to keep building the kin-dom.
And with that encouragement, I want to call us and cheer us forward into the continuing work – the work of continuing to turn our hearts and our service and our witness toward the call to love one another. It will be hard work. It will be painful at times. And we share the work with one another. And the Triune God – creator, redeemer and sustainer – are with us in all of it.
Because if we proclaim Jesus is the Christ, this is how we are called to follow.
If we proclaim Jesus is the Christ, we know following is hard and imperfect work.
If we set our mind on divine things and not worldly things, we are bound to see the world differently – both its beauty and its injustice.
Today, I want to end with words that are familiar to many, because today in this scripture we have been called to proclaim Jesus as Christ with our eyes wide open.
Let’s share the traditional version of the Apostle’s Creed together:
I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth;
And in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord;
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried;*
the third day he rose from the dead;
he ascended into heaven,
and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic** church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.
[1] https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-24-2/commentary-on-mark-827-38-5
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