Don’t Tell A Soul
Why does truth need to be hidden?
Gospel Reading: Matthew 16:13-20
For Sunday, August 21 , 2011: Year A—Ordinary 21
This is some kind of powerful, charismatic, traveling Rabbi.
I mean, with the miraculous production of food from almost nothing, the controlling of the winds and the waves, the walking on water, any one would find him hard to resist. Too good to be true?
Con Artists
Because I have been alive for a while now, and because I like people and I like stories, I have run across quite a few con artists. I have been victim to some, but mostly not. After about three or five or seven or twelve experiences, I began to develop a sensitivity to the art. Or, at least, I can kind of recognize the moves they make.
Short and Long of It
There is the short con. You are hailed by a stranger, gregarious or apologetic; they introduce themselves, touch you, either shake your hand or touch your shoulder, offer some sort of complement and then begin to tell you a story.
It is usually about three quarters of the way through the story before I realize where it is going. He is going to his mother’s funeral in Chicago, he ran out of gas on the freeway, his wife and kids are in the car right now on the side of the road, he only needs twenty dollars, to get him to his cousins in Madison.
Then there is the long con. It’s by someone you actually develop a relationship with. It is always kind of an intense and important relationship that draws you in closer and tighter, through demands of loyalty, secrecy and special knowledge.
Our Special Secret
When I read this week’s text, I get the same uneasy feeling I get when I am in the presence of a con artist. All the signs are there. Jesus asks the disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” Then he continues, “OK, that’s the rest of the people, but we have a special relationship—who do you say that I am? That’s right, The Messiah.”
He goes on to say to the twelve that you alone know the truth; you understand. And because of your special status you have special abilities. “I grant you unprecedented power, what ever you bind or loose on earth will be bound or loosed in heaven!” Cool. But here is the thing, you cannot tell anyone what you know about me—that is our secret. Our special secret.
I am a little less suspicious of the Jesus who says what is done in the darkness will be exposed to the light.
The Hardest Question
A con artist swears you to secrecy because if you tell other people what he has convinced you is true they will laugh at your gullibility. Why does truth need to be hidden?
Russell Rathbun is a preacher at House of Mercy in St. Paul, Minnesota, the author of Midrash on the Juanitos (Cathedral Hill Press, 2010) and the curator of The Hardest Question.
The way I understand it (and I think I got this from N.T. Wright), Peter was the first disciple to realize that Jesus was the “Christ”, the anointed, the Son of God. If that truth got out too early, Jesus would have been killed before the third Passover. Jews were required to return to Jerusalem at least once every three years. If we was killed too early, not all of Israel would have had a chance to hear the Good News.
August 15th, 2011 at 9:29 pmThe lectionary is a blessing in that we get to read and hear and experience a lot of the Bible in worship over the course of time. Also, it is a good discipline to read a variety of texts, chosen by someone else, even if it is a committee
Unfortunately, this is one of those times when the lectionary has a big weakness. The Gospel for this week and the Gospel for next week belong together as one story. They should never be cut in two.
If you only come to worship this week, you might get the idea that Peter “got it right.” Yes, Peter correctly identified Jesus as Messiah and Son of God. Unfortunately, as we shall see next Sunday, his understanding of these titles was “satanic.” Therefore, Jesus was certainly right to instruct his disciples to “say nothing to anyone,” because they would be spreading a sick interpretation of what Jesus was all about.
It is only after we see the titles Messiah and Son of God defined through the non-violent, vengeance rejecting Lord who forgives following his death and resurrection that we can have a “Godly” understanding of Jesus. At this point in the story, Peter does not have it!
August 16th, 2011 at 11:58 amWhat is truth?
August 18th, 2011 at 12:22 pmTimothy is spot on. While Peter received divine revelation to recognize Jesus as the Messiah, the son of God, it is clear from the following rebuke that Peter still does not fully comprehend what God is doing in Jesus.
For Peter and the disciples, Jesus knows they must first witness his entire ministry (life, death, resurrection and ascension) before they can adequately communicate to others a suffering/servant Messiah.
August 19th, 2011 at 9:53 amWe’ll be singing Spirituals throughout the our worship this Sunday. So that will impact the sermon. The Spirituals were songs sung by people who were horribly, and it seemed hopelessly, enslaved. Despite the horror of their enslavement, these songs declared that their hope and confidence were rooted in a deeper identity that they keep hidden from the view of their masters. Their slavery did not define them. Their identification as children of God defined them.
When Jesus asked, “Who do you say that I am?” He was not only asking about his identity. Included was an implied question directed at the disciples. If Jesus is Messiah and Lord, to whom will they give their allegiance? We have many allegiances, after all. I don’t know the allegiances of the Twelve, but I know some of ours – Apple or PC? Vikings or Packers? Chevy or Ford? Democrat or Republican? In my sermon, I’ll mention our nation’s Pledge of Allegiance.
I do not hesitate to pledge my allegiance to our nation and will do so gladly and proudly. I do not hesitate to contribute to the well-being and success of our nation. I regularly pray for our nation, participate in civil society and pay my taxes gladly and proudly, for without prayer, participation and taxes from the citizens, our nation will surely fall to pieces.
But if you are sitting near me at an event that begins with a pledge or the national anthem, you may notice that I do not place my hand over my heart. The reason is plain and simple – my heart belongs to Jesus. I profess my highest allegiance to Christ. If my allegiance is tested, I’ll side with Jesus.
A couple of hard questions for me are: How is my life different because of my allegiance to Christ? What do I need to sustain that allegiance?
August 19th, 2011 at 11:46 amOne of the reasons that these are hard questions for me is that when we say “Jesus is Lord”, we are saying something subversive. Maybe that is why Jesus asked the question on the outskirts of Caesarea Philippi. It is a profession that got early Christians martyred because Rome insisted that Caesar is Lord. The profession that “Jesus is Lord” exposes our allegiances and requires us to make hard choices – choices that we’d rather not have to make, especially when they are political or financial or when they challenge our treatment of others, our treatment of God’s creation or our buying patterns. Which brings up another hard question for me: Will people hear these questions as Good News? Where is the Gospel in these questions?
August 19th, 2011 at 12:06 pmMaybe if the disciples told others that Jesus was the Christ, it would just be one more opinion floating around in public about him. Maybe the point is that it’s not an opinion poll or a question with one right answer from the catechism… There’s a song called “Could you be Messiah” that asks if Jesus can “be Messiah to me?” “Could you be brother, the one who knows better?” “Can you be teacher – to a mind of confusion?” Maybe the reality is that Messiah is never the same for me as it is for you. Same word, different meaning – because we’re different people with different needs that have to be met if we’re to be set free for the kind of salvation we usually think is the goal of a relationship with Christ.
August 20th, 2011 at 7:56 am