The scene in the Gospel of Mark where Jesus is with his disciples at Caesarea Philippi reminds me of Family Feud. Let’s start with the Apostle family. Who do people say that I am: John the Baptist. Survey said: X. Who do people say that I am: the prophet. Survey said: X. Who do you say that I am: You are the Christ. Good answer, good answer. Okay, let’s go to the Satan family, the tempters. What does the Christ do? Drive out the Romans and become our king. Survey said: X. What does the Christ do? Restore our fortunes like torrents in the southern desert. Survey said: X. What does the Christ do? Reform the worship in the temple. Survey said: X. Satan, the tempter even with Peter playing the lead role, does not understand what it means that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the beloved of God. Peter did give a good answer – “You are the Christ” – but he simply had no idea what that meant. Notice the description that Jesus gives on what he must endure as the Christ. He will be physically abused by the priests. He will be suspected and rejected by the leaders. He will suffer greatly and be killed. Jesus understands himself to be victim. A willing victim, surely; an aware victim, but a victim nonetheless. The only way Jesus could be the Christ, the Messiah was by a willingness to be a victim.
Why is that? Why the way of suffering and not the way of triumph? First of all, Jesus places himself in solidarity with all of those who have been victimized, all those are were used, misused, abused, and just generally messed up. The ancient principle was that Jesus was able to save humanity by becoming human. That which is assumed is that which is redeemed. Similarly, Jesus is able to redeem those who have been victimized by assuming the role of victim himself. There isn’t anyone out there who lies beyond the reach of Jesus’ compassionate mercy. He knows what they are going through because he went through it himself. That helps us to understand the gift of the Eucharist. On the night before he died Jesus invited us to partake of his body which was broken for us and his blood which was poured out for us. “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the Blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the Body of Christ?” Our own body and blood mingles with his so to form a bond so tight it can never be broken.
Second, Jesus did not let the abuse he suffered at the hands of the priests and elders define him. He knew that he was God’s beloved Son. He heard that message loud and clear at his baptism. What anyone else did to him did not take away or diminish the dignity he possessed as precious in God’s sight. All other victims can join with Jesus then in not letting what happen define them either. At our baptism God named us and claimed us just as he did Jesus. Each one of us are made in God’s image and likeness and nothing anyone does to us can take that away.
Third, Jesus understood that his being a victim did not get the last word, that he had a future. Yes, the priests abused him and the elders rejected him and, yes, he suffered and died. But he had the blessed assurance from God that he would rise after three days. That same assurance is extended to us. The past is there. We can’t do anything about what happened to us back then. But what happened in the past, what is happening now, does not determine our future. God does that and nothing can inhibit God’s desire for us to enter into joy, to experience life, life to the full, to become Easter people.
Jesus tells us how this deeper understanding of who he is impacts the life of faith. He names how we should respond once we understand divine victimhood, that the Christ of God must suffer: we, like Jesus, deny ourselves and take up our cross. What are some of the crosses we must take up? Certainly in our families we must deny ourselves. It is not about me but about us as a family. That can be a cross we must bear, particularly in times of tough love. Students must deny themselves and take up their cross. I like to joke there is no heavier burden than a great potential but it’s true. Each individual has been given gifts by God to be developed and nurtured. The sick must take up their cross. As the saying goes, growing old is not for sissies. To age gracefully without griping is a challenge.
But there is one cross that each one of us gathered here today must bear in a particular way – the cross of being a member of a Church which is sinful. I have heard, you probably have heard, people say that they won’t belong to Church because it is full of hypocrites. People see Church-goers faults and failings, particularly in these days the failures of priests, bishops and those in leadership, and say they cannot be part of such a group which professes on thing and does another. We, I, feel the sting of truth in that indictment. But there is another way of looking at it. The Church is not so much full of hypocrites as it is full of those who know our need of God’s grace and mercy. I used to have a banner when I was in college – if you find the perfect Church by all means join it. Just realize that the minute you join it, it ceases being a perfect Church. It is a cross to belong to a Church which contains the selfish and the greedy, adulterers and abusers, the angry and the anguished, the proud and the pompous, the envious and the slothful. For the reality is that means I have to put up with people remarkably like me. We must deny our desire for the ideal community and take up the cross to accept what God has given us – brothers and sisters to forgive and be forgiven by. Yes, we mess up, we hurt others, others hurt us, others disappoint us and we disappoint ourselves. But God isn’t finished with us yet. “We fall down, but we get up. For a saint is just a sinner who fell down and then got up.”
