How Do We Respond To Jesus?
Homily for Twenty-Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B
In the film called “Pay It Forward,” Trevor, a eleven-year old, responds to the call of his Social Studies teacher to come up with a plan to change the world for the better, and act on it. Trevor comes up with something called, “Pay it Forward,” where the plan is to find three people who need some help in a “really big” way. Then one helps these three, with the understanding that if they are helped, they will pay it forward to three more people. The plan works in wonderful ways, setting in motion a whole series of good which touches the lives of many people. In the end Trevor sacrifices his life for someone else. After his death, we learn his idea really did change the world when crowds of people show up to a candlelight vigil in his honour .
This Sunday we go to the heart of Jesus’ identity and mission, and we consider in real terms what it means to be his disciples. The first reading is from the Suffering Servant poem in the book of the prophet Isaiah. It was written 500 years before Jesus’ birth and it describes the messianic servant king, who through his suffering, would bring redemption to the people of Israel. In the part of the song that we read today, the suffering servant speaks of giving his back to those who struck him and his cheeks to those who pulled out his beard. The servant says he did not hide his face from shame and spitting. We hear how resolute he is, how determined he is to fulfil his mission. He says that he has set his face like a flint stone. So, who is this suffering servant that the song speaks about? The Gospel makes it clear .
Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” His disciples report the rumours and talk among the people of the time. People must have been intrigued by Jesus, and his reputation would have provoked all kinds of gossip and speculation. And so the disciples tell Jesus that the people think he is John the Baptist, or Elijah or one of the prophets.
To suggest that he is John the Baptist was an easy mistake to make. We know from the Fourth Gospel that John the Baptist was preaching at the same time as Jesus, and stories about John would have gotten mixed up with stories about Jesus. To say that he was Elijah suggests that Jesus was not only a prophet like John the Baptist, but he was also the one who was ushering in the end of time because Elijah, who went to heaven in a fiery chariot, was expected to return at the end of the world. To say that he was a prophet was quite a positive thing really. It says a lot about how the people perceived that Jesus was speaking in God’s name.
But, when the disciples answered, ‘John the Baptist, or Elijah or one of the prophets,’ Jesus moved the question closer to home, by asking them who they, themselves, say that he is. Peter answered on behalf of the Twelve, “You are the Christ”. The title, Christ, is the Greek for the Anointed One, the Messiah. By saying that Jesus was the Christ, Peter was claiming that Jesus was much more that what the crowd were saying about him.
After Peter acknowledged Jesus’ true identity, Jesus taught them that his identity as the Christ was intricately linked with a suffering and death that would bring salvation. Hence the first reading today from the Suffering Servant poem in Isaiah. Jesus understood himself as being the fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecy.
This teaching of the suffering Messiah was difficult for the disciples to accept. At the time of Jesus, there were many expectations of what the Messiah would be like. Many would have favoured a great warrior king like King David who would come and free Israel from Roman oppression. Peter tried to remonstrate with Jesus, to convince him otherwise. And Jesus was extremely firm with Peter about him thinking by human standards rather than with the mind of God.
There are many opinions about who Jesus is, these days. A good number of people will acknowledge that he is a great religious and moral teacher. And many people might actually acknowledge that Jesus is who he said he is, the Christ, the Son of God, but their lives show no real response to this truth of the identity of Jesus. CS Lewis, the great Christian author, responded to what he said was the foolish tendency of people these days to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but not to accept his claim to be God. He said, “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us.”
As we listen to this Gospel this Sunday, Jesus asks us the same question that he asked his disciples: “Who do you say that I am?” This is a fundamental question that every human being will have to answer at some point, in this life or the next. Who do we say Jesus of Nazareth is? We have to respond to this question individually and personally. A second-hand faith is a watered-down faith. We cannot live only by what others say or believe.
We should be cautious about replying too quickly, too easily, because to answer this question is to commit ourselves to being radically challenged and transformed. To acknowledge the identity of Jesus Christ, is to be set on an extraordinary journey of bringing our lives into conformity with what it means to say that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. We cannot just acknowledge Jesus as the Christ from a neutral, disinterested, or distanced viewpoint.
To answer the question of Jesus’ identity is at the same time to consider who and what we are. If this Gospel is about Jesus’s identity, and our identity based on our acknowledgement of who Jesus is, then we ought to challenge ourselves by answering the question, “Who am I?” By default people often speak of their identity in terms of their work or their profession. It is as if by hearing that they are a doctor, or a nurse or a teacher or an artisan, we can discover all we need to know about them. Another way in which we identify ourselves is by our relationships. To say that you are a son or daughter, a sister or brother, a mother or father, or a husband or wife, and then to name your relatives, situates you in a particular family from which you give and receive life.
But, in addition to these ways of answering the question, “Who am I?, and even more fundamentally, we need to consider our identity in terms of our relationship to Jesus and what he has done for us. Our acknowledgement of who Jesus is has real implications for who we are and how we live and act. We can prayerfully ask Jesus the same question that he asks us, “Who do you say I am?” ... So, who would Jesus say we are?
Often, in the mixed values of our time, in our busyness and interaction with the secular world, we are ambivalent or ambiguous about our true identity. And if we are ambivalent and ambiguous about who we truly are, this spills over into our actions. Our thoughts and actions flow from who we know ourselves to be. St James talks about this in the second reading today. He writes about a faith made perfect in loving works. True faith expresses itself in works of love. If our true identity is about being people of faith, then it can expected that this will flow into the way we live our lives. ‘Pay it forward,’ if you like.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus promises us everlasting life but says it is only by losing our lives that we will save them. This means following Jesus as disciples. Being and living as disciples of Jesus may mean encountering opposition from others, or it may mean accepting the suffering that comes from loving the way that Jesus loves. Being a disciple of Jesus means showing mercy and compassion. It means serving the poor and marginalised. It means struggling against our own weaknesses and selfishness. This is what Jesus means by denying ourselves and taking up our crosses. Today we acknowledge that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, and we ask for the grace to live as his disciples.