Mark 8:27-38

“Final Jeopardy”?

  I have a confession to make, Yvonne is a huge fan of the TV game show Jeopardy, and she has been a fan and I a sort of fan since long before Ken Jennings won two and a half million dollars. Two weeks ago on reruns we saw the show where Jennings lost. You know how it works: contestants are given an answer to which they must formulate a question. For example: I was thrown from a ship during a terrible storm and a big fish swallowed me. Who am I? (Who is Jonah?) I was out in the field and saw a bush that was burning and not being consumed. Who am I? (Who is Moses?)

 One of the things we like about Jeopardy is that they emphasize the questions more that the answers. Many Christians seem to think that the Christian faith is largely about having the right answers. I wonder if they have an edition of the Bible with the answers in the back. If so, I would like to know where they got it, because I have been looking for that one all my life.

 Now, don’t misunderstand me. The Christian faith does offer answers, but it also offers us questions that we are supposed to struggle with. And it may offer us some questions that are meant to lead not to answers but to further questions. Once in a cartoon there was a man bound and gagged and seated in a chair. The caption read something like this, “The trouble with religions that have all the answers is that they won’t let you ask questions.” How True! Jesus’ mission was not just to give the right answers, but also to give us questions that would lead us ever deeper into the truth of God, which, I believe, can never be completely fathomed.

 Today’s Gospel reading would make for a great Jeopardy game. The first answer is “You are the Messiah” (verse 29).  The question, of course, is: “Who do you say that I am?” (Verse 29). Peter got the words right. Jesus really is the Messiah. But what Peter said next reveals that although he had the words right, he had the meaning wrong. As soon as Jesus started to tell the disciples that he must suffer and die, the text tells us that Peter rebuked him. We can imagine Peter saying, “This must never happen to you!” And at that, Jesus rebuked Peter in the strongest possible terms and said, “Get behind me, Satan, for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things” (Verse 33).

 How would you answer Jesus’ question? Who do you say that he is? If you say that he is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, you are right. But that is only the beginning of the journey, not the end. You must answer the follow-up question, “What does that mean in your life?” Have we wrestled with these questions until the words have become a living reality?

 At this point, Peter was unable to see beyond the cultural convictions of his age. In some groups, the proclamation that Jesus is the Messiah is a kind of “shibboleth” or code phrase that admits us to the inner circle. It may have been something like that for Peter. The Messiah he sought and thought he had found in Jesus would be the point around which Jewish Nationalists would rally and fight Roman oppression. But Jesus was not that kind of Messiah.

 Jesus may not be the kind of Messiah we expect, either. We may expect a Messiah, who will comfort, but not challenge us; who will save us from our sins, but not demand holiness of life; who will demand only personal piety, and let us overlook the public dimensions of sin. Jesus may have to say to us what he said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan, for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things” (Verse 33).

 Let us move on to “Double Jeopardy.” The answer is “Take up your cross and follow me.” The question is “What does Jesus ask us to do?” If we are serious about believing that Jesus is the Messiah, then we are obligated to follow the way of the cross. We cannot restrict his Lordship to a narrow sphere of life that we call “the spiritual.” Jesus is not that kind of Messiah. Jesus is Lord of our weekdays as well as our Sabbaths. He is Lord of our pocketbooks as well as our prayers.

 When President Bush was seeking the Republican nomination, the moderator of one of the debates asked the candidates to name the philosopher who had the greatest impact on their lives. Mr. Bush answered, “Jesus Christ,” Very well then; let us imagine that the philosophy of Jesus was rigorously implemented. Would there be a growing gap between the rich and the poor? Would our schools be underfunded and our prisons overcrowded? Would one of the 100,00 poor people have been stranded in New Orleans when the water started to rise?

 If we believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, then we can differ about how to deal with poverty, bad schools, and decaying cities. But we must agree that to follow Jesus is to care for those with whom Jesus identified so closely – the poor, homeless, and hungry.

 The “Final Jeopardy” answer is “Gain the whole world.” The question? “What happens if we commit our lives to the cause of the gospel?” On Jeopardy the best that we can hope to do is to double our winnings, but Jesus offers to give us the whole world. It is an outrageous promise. But as C. S. Lewis once observed, God “finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased” (C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory and other Addresses).

 What did we risk in “Final Jeopardy”? The paradox of the Gospel is that if we risk nothing, then we lose everything, but if we risk everything, we gain everything. Do not be “easily pleased.” Amen.

 PRAYER: Compassionate and loving God, we are in awe of your goodness. Your patience with us is beyond our comprehension, and your love is life giving. Guide us to think and speak so well of one another that our thoughts and words might ripple out to transform a tired and hurting world. Help us to build up one another and experience the joy that you may give us, we pray in Jesus’ Name. Amen.