THE CHARACTER OF MESSIAHSHIP

TERRIBLE JOKE DU JOUR:

The senility prayer: Grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked anyway, the good fortune to run into the ones I do, and the eyesight to tell the difference.

PLAIN FOR ALL TO SEE?

There are people who will tell us that the plain truth of scriptures is there in the open and all we have to do is read the bible and everything suddenly makes sense.

I’d like to suggest to you that this is simplistic - that actually there are lots of things you need to bear in mind when approaching the scriptures and especially the need to think ourselves back into a culture very alien to our own in many key ways.

If we don’t, then this morning’s gospel passage presents us with at least two quite large problems: one is that - at plain reading - we see Jesus being racist, misogynist and rude; the second is that we see Jesus trying to hush up the proclamation of his divinity - suggesting that perhaps he wasn’t sure, or that he wasn’t stable...

So in order to understand what’s going on here it helps us to ask some questions about what Mark was trying to achieve, and what was the cultural context in which Jesus was active and the cultural context in which Mark was writing.

A BIT ABOUT MARK & HIS CHURCH

Mark’s gospel has been attributed to John Mark - the one who travelled with Peter (1 Peter 5.13), probably acting as an interpreter; probably in Rome about 64-67AD - i.e. based on Peter’s first hand reflections and about 30 years after the resurrection. It was as if I wrote an account of what happened in Jude’s life when she was 30, based on what she told me, my interpretation, my knowledge of her and my observing of her lifestyle...

Mark’s community was mixed - there were Jews who had accepted Jesus as the Messiah and there were Gentiles who had become Christians from pagan backgrounds or with comparatively little understanding of Judaism. And we know from other parts of the NT that there were some issues in the Early Church about this: in order to become a Christian did you first have to become a Jew? Which bits of the OT, the Jewish Law, the Torah, the rules and regulations were still binding on Christians? Were Gentile Christians second class compared with Jewish Christians?... So Mark’s mixed community was still struggling to work some of these issues out.

Mark didn’t write without an agenda - but he’s up front about it: the gospel starts “The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” So not much doubt there how things are going to unfold...

THE CROSS & RESURRECTION AT THE CENTRE

And central to Mark’s understanding of who Jesus is is the cross. Mark’s work is not a balanced biography - more than half of the gospel deals with Jesus death and the last third is devoted to his final week. Mark is saying you cannot understand Jesus until you understand him in the context of the cross and resurrection. This is the filter, the lens through which we must look at Jesus. That’s why he starts by telling us who Jesus is, and he underlines it throughout his account.

Some scholars think that the gospels were written down (from the strong oral tradition) as “training manuals” for the next generation of church leaders. Mark’s gospel was almost certainly known by Matthew & Luke and so he may well have had an influence on how a gospel was assembled and the way in which material was used - a kind of historical biography which showed who Jesus was, what he had achieved and how the disciple ought to live.

So we need to bear this context in mind when we look at the two healings in this morning’s gospel.

A GIRL OPPRESSED BY EVIL

In the first story it seems like Jesus is trying to slip on the dark glasses and take five minutes out.

It seems a fair guess that Jesus is peopled-out. He’s sneaked into the house in Tyre for a bit of R and R. Now Tyre is Gentile country - so he can’t be that surprised when it’s a Gentile woman who approaches him.

Very often “throw away” incidentals are significant in scripture: numbers, people’s names, geographical locations etc.

Well here there is significance in his geography - last week we heard how Jesus had declared all foods “clean”, sweeping away the Jewish dietary laws and suggesting that God looks for a purity of heart rather than at who your parents were or where you were born. So this week in the dawning Kingdom of God just as the distinction between clean and unclean foods are done away with, so the distinction between clean and unclean people are done away with.

Here’s an answer to one of the questions facing Mark’s community about which bits of Judaism were binding on Christians; here’s something about the universality of God’s mission.

So Jesus - the good Jew - goes to Gentile territory to relax as a physical demonstration of a teaching he’s just given. Jesus is effectively saying: “God loves Gentiles, salvation is for them, the Law has been fulfilled and the new law of Love is in operation - and see, here I am on holiday in Gentile country...”

And just to underline that message Jesus is approached and asked to provide salvation - rescue, wholeness, peace - to a person who is at the bottom of the pile in terms of the thinking of the day.

LOWEST OF THE LOW

The subject trying to illicit Jesus’ attention is a quadruple-whammy underdog!: possessed by evil (unclean), a child (unimportant), a Gentile (scum!) and a female (not important). You couldn’t have got much further from the model of Jewish purity - a holy old wise man.

So far so good. But the exchange between Jesus and the desperate parent isn’t quite what we might expect... He effectively tells her to buzz off because she is Gentile scum; she answers him back with wit and faith and this shocks Jesus into granting her request. Or that’s the way we read it today.

JESUS: RUDE DUDE?

“Let the children be fed first”

he says - meaning the Jews (the proper “children of God”) are more important than the Gentiles and that they should have access to God’s healing first...

“for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs"

 - in other words there is actually an issue of justice that the Gentiles - the dogs - should not have what belongs to the Jews (presumably God’s favour, God’s gifts of healing and wholeness).

So Jesus calls the woman and her daughter “a dog” and implies that her request is against the nature of the way things should be. The term “dog” today might indicate either a faithful and loved companion with a leg at each corner - perhaps the best word today is “bitch”: not pleasant when applied to people.

To her credit the woman is having none of this racism and banters with Jesus - “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs”: in other words she says that may be true - we know that the Jews are God’s chosen people, but we also know that blessing comes to those who bless God’s people: the Jews may have the lion’s share of blessing, but she’ll take the leftovers with gratitude.

And either her persistence, her courage, her wit or her perception shock Jesus into granting her request.

Jesus doesn’t seem to come out of this encounter is a glowing light, whereas the woman does. But for Mark’s community, the “children” (the Jews) may have had first offer of the meat of the gospel, but they had rejected Jesus, so the “dogs” (the Gentiles) would indeed enjoy the blessings of God. The woman represents to Mark’s community the Gentile world who so eagerly seized on the bread of heaven which the Jews rejected and threw away.

Was Jesus being rude? Depends on how you read the story. If we’re right in saying it’s a second half of last week’s reading about the gospel coming to the non Jewish world, then actually it doesn’t matter because that’s not the heart of the matter. What the story so vividly illustrates is how the gospel is for all: how God’s salvation is not dependent on age, gender, ethnicity, ritual purity or whatever. Whether Jesus is supposed to represent the Jewish Christians who think they’re superior and gently have their bubble burst, and whether the cocky faithful woman represents the enthusiastic Gentiles is not the prime point of the story - Mark doesn’t use this story to suggest that it’s OK to be rude, or that it’s OK to discriminate against certain types of people - he uses it to show that the gospel is Good News for all.

THE DEAF MUTE

After this excursion into Gentile territory Jesus and the disciples wander about a bit more taking a very circuitous route through more Gentile territory back onto safe Jewish ground where he’s faced with a deaf mute.

Why does Mark include this story? Because it tells us something about who Jesus is.

Think back a moment to the Old Testament reading this morning.

The prophet Isaiah tells of what will happen when God comes to save his people: blind eyes will be opened, deaf ears unstopped; the lame shall leap; the mute will sing; the barren desert will become fertile...

So what do we see Jesus doing? The very stuff we expect to see God doing when God visits his people. You don’t have to be a genius to work out the connection. This healing tells us something about who Jesus is. It’s Christological.

So Jesus intervenes physically, he does the stuff God does... but then he apparently wants to hush people up. What is Jesus saying? - “Look I’m doing God’s stuff in God’s way - could I be the Messiah? But don’t tell a soul!”

If Jesus is the Messiah, why shouldn’t people shout it from the roof tops? In other parts of the gospels Jesus berates his disciples for not understanding, yet in passages like this he seems to want to keep a lid on his identity. This has been referred to as “the Messianic secret”. Why? What is Jesus about?

In order to understand what was going on again we have to step out of our culture and back into 1st Century Jewish Palestine as seen through the eyes of a second generation mixed Jewish/Gentile groups of Christians in Rome.

If we don’t do that we can draw some rather bizarre conclusions - for example

REVERSE PSYCHOLOGY?

- is it reverse psychology? Jesus wants to advertise himself, so he thinks the best way to be talked about is to tell people not to talk about him?... That seems to be the effect if not the intention.

But that is to assume that our 21st Century culture is identical to that of Jesus’ day. Today one of our aspirations seems to be the cult of Celebrity. People want to be famous for being famous. Some people will do anything to be on TV...

But you don’t have to read very far in the gospels to see that if Celebrity Status is something Jesus was after he goes a very strange way about it: he says the first will be last, he washes the feet of his disciples, he holds up a child as the model for discipleship, he avoids the cities and goes to the villages and farms in a rural backwater of the Roman Empire. He writes nothing, he leaves 12 followers with some rather vague guidelines. (St Paul on the other hand sticks to cities and forges his way to Rome - capital of the known universe. Paul writes letters, Paul sets up communities with careful teaching and practice)

IS JESUS UNCERTAIN?

- is it that Jesus doesn’t really know who he is or what he’s about? Is he frightened by the “success” of his actions and wants to avoid being swamped or draw the authority’s attention to him?

Again you don’t have to read very far in the gospels to be aware that Jesus has a very clear idea of who he is: he is the Son of Man, he calls God “Abba” - daddy - Father; a voice from the heavens acknowledges him as God’s Son; his miracles and teachings ring such bells with his people that they want to take him and make him king by force. And then this man “sets his face towards Jerusalem” where he knows his destiny lies - his suffering death and resurrection (which he not only tells his followers about before it happens, but in the Eucharist gives them a way of re-membering him and understanding the events that are about to unfold...)

DON’T MISS THE MEANING!

- is it that he doesn’t want the miracles to over shadow the meaning? Remember that for Mark to understand Jesus is to understand the cross and resurrection - this is the primary vehicle for interpreting his actions and presence. By the time John’s gospel was written (which scholars say was the last of the four we have) Jesus is shown doing 7 (significant number!) “signs” - (healings or miracles) which point out or flag up something about Jesus’ identity.

For Mark Jesus is more than a physical healer of selected individuals... his identity is most fully expressed and set forth in the cross and resurrection.

The Messiah in the minds of some was to be a military hero - which we know was not Jesus’ intention, although the Romans killed him as a seditious political rival (The “King” of the Jews). Messiah was a loaded term - perhaps Jesus was trying to help people work out for themselves how Messiahship worked rather than just feeding into popular misconceptions. Labels can sometimes be unhelpful.

AUTHORITY

But there is also an issue of authority. In Jesus day and thought patterns, what would be the honourable and authoritative way of affirming Messiah-hood? Who can say “This is the Messiah?” The OT answer to that is: God. And so is the NT answer.

Look who proclaims Jesus as Messiah - those who have the Holy Spirit - John the Baptist (upon whom the spirit rests before birth); the Blessed Virgin Mary (who is overshadowed by the most high); a voice speaks at his baptism; a voice speaks at the Transfiguration. For the rest of us that authority to proclaim Jesus the Messiah will come at Pentecost when all of us receive the Holy Spirit of God, as the Spirit leads us into all truth and brings glory to God... This is certainly not a job for demons or evil spirits!

If somebody who has no knowledge of music tells me I’m a brilliant singer it does not carry as much weight as if the Professor of Music tells me.

So maybe we do better to understand the so called “Messianic secret” not in 21st Century psychology terms, but in terms of unhelpful labels, of encouraging people to work things out for themselves and in terms of authority to make those proclamations coming from God.

WHAT KIND OF MESSIAH?

For Mark and his community it is after the cross and resurrection that the character of Messiahship is actually seen. Jesus, the Christ reigns not from a throne, but from a cross. The use of brute force by the emperors and kings of Rome, even the seditious behaviour of the Jewish Zealots, or military campaign cannot achieve salvation or peace. For Mark this come through the sacrifice of the cross.

And our role - the role for Mark’s community too - was to discover the meaning of life and salvation in the cross and resurrection, the will of God in sacrifice, love and service. Only then will we begin to grasp the true nature of who Jesus is and what he asks of us. St Paul sums it up - almost certainly before Mark wrote his gospel - by saying

“the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God”

(1 Corinthians 1.18)

Fr. Andrew Perry
Rector, St John the Evangelist, Pevensey Rd, St Leonards on Sea