The Unsuccessful Jesus
Sermon
Sermons on the Gospel Readings
Series II, Cycle B
John 6:56-69 is a great passage from John's Gospel. It says, "Many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him." When Jesus noticed this he asked his inner circle if they also were about to leave him. Peter replied, "Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life." This could be the occasion that prompted those memorable words Peter uttered at Caesarea-Philippi, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." There is no higher statement of faith than this. It is a great scriptural moment.
Interestingly, a secondary theme runs along with this sturdy confession, the circumstances prompting Peter's words -- some of Jesus' followers were slipping away. They would no longer go around with Jesus. As much as Jesus had impressed Peter and the twelve, these others found no compelling reason to be part of Jesus' retinue. Jesus was not successful in helping them to sense that in hanging around him, they would find a life so meaningful, it would be worth all the hardships and sufferings of that commitment. So they left, and as far as John tells us, they did not return.
It is difficult for us to think that anyone could miss the saving grace of God coming from Jesus. We can understand why King Herod, Pilate, and some of the religious establishment of that day could find no good in Jesus. After all they had commitments to the status quo to which Jesus was a threat. They would never sense the quality of godliness in Jesus. Jesus did not make any serious impact on their lives. There must be a reason for Jesus' failures.
Jesus Spoke Of A New World
Ever since Albert Schweitzer, great missionary doctor and philosopher, wrote his critical study of the historical Jesus, we know that Jesus proclaimed the immanence of God's great intervention into human history. He believed Jesus proclaimed a day of judgment, and God's judgments would not be welcomed by the earthly powers who provoked the misery of the poor and powerless. Up to that day, the powerful would dominate the masses keeping them in poverty and subservience. But when God's judgment day came, the poor and oppressed would be freed from their marginal living. They were going to receive justice, nourishment, economic stability, and life that would never end. Those who had lived so well, oblivious of the suffering of the masses, would be cast into outer darkness.
Now it is clear that Jesus was wrong. God did not intervene and set up a radical justice system for all. God did not lift up the poor and powerless. Yet this does not disqualify Jesus' vision. In his depiction that the transformation of the world was imminent, Jesus envisioned in a provocative way, the will of God for all humanity. Such an intensity of conviction in Jesus sweeps away the hopelessness of the present until many saw God's future becoming part of our Christian future down to this present day.
What has been added to Jesus' vision is our belief that the kingdom depends upon our becoming God's instruments of the kingdom. The kingdom is not passively waiting until God acts in unilateral fashion. The kingdom begins in the will of God but comes to reality when we give ourselves over to its claims. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, there was a movement in the American Protestant tradition called "the social gospel." Through dynamic and charismatic personalities such as Washington Gladden, Walter Rauschenbush, and Francis J. McConnell, there came a call to establish public justice and eliminate corruption from the larger systems of life, in the name of the gospel. These leaders brought the biblical faith to bear on the social orders beyond personal and individual perspectives. They spoke and organized a critique on the family, the economic and political order, modern warfare, Western imperialism, and the rights of women and racial minorities.
Certainly the social gospels were overly optimistic about the ease with which the present inequities could be changed; but they shared the vision of Jesus, and out of that first-century failure they opened up a new focus for Christian responsibility. We need to remember the social gospel movement and its declaration of a gospel beyond the individual gospel. Today we have retreated from their bold vision and program, restricting the gospel to personal and individual realities. In J. D. Salinger's little novel, Catcher in the Rye, the central character skips out of his prep school, taking in the Christmas program at Rockefeller Center, complete with the Rockettes. His conclusion about that extravaganza to his sister was, "Good old Jesus woulda puked." If Jesus returned to drop in on our success-driven churches he might do just that after he listened to the music, the prayers, and the sermon. There is little in most of the church's worship, giving evidence that the gospel makes a claim beyond our inter-personal relationships. Customarily we judge Christian discipleship on how many worshipers are in the pews, and how large is the church's budget. The gift of Jesus to us might be his failure of scheduling the kingdom, for his error creates a place for our witness to the great day of the kingdom.
Jesus Ran Around With The Wrong People
It is clear from a reading of the gospels that Jesus disturbed folks because he ran around with the wrong people. During the late '40s and '50s the patriotism of many Americans was questioned because they had known communists, or had been participants in groups where there were known communists. The mood of the country was so uneasy that careless accusations about the loyalty of politicians, filmmakers, authors, and clergy became the path to political prominence. Some of those accused were so frightened that they lied about knowing any communists, or having been part of a circle where there were communists. The sad result was that careers were ruined and the silencing of these fine people impoverished us. Like Jesus, they ran around with the wrong people.
Similar to these victims of communist hysteria, running around with the wrong people had a painful effect on the life and ministry of Jesus. He included women, moral outcasts, and some of dubious reputation in his followers. Many of these had no connection with the religious systems of that day. They ignored the temple and synagogue for various reasons. Some of them were suspicious of their reception at the synagogue and by the priests in the temple, for they might have an immoral past, or because they had collaborated with the tax collecting policies of Rome. We cannot imagine Zacchaeus slipping into the Jericho synagogues for Friday evening services on any regular basis. Others outside the religious structures were poverty-stricken peasants who had little time for matters of worship and liturgy.
Jesus gladly welcomed these people into his following, but he paid a price for it. He and his message challenged the power system of his day. His followers narrowed to those who had little to lose in the new world that Jesus announced. He failed to win widespread support, but he wasn't deterred. Perhaps -- we don't know for certain -- he felt going up to Jerusalem at Passover time could vindicate him as God's kingdom messenger.
Jesus weakened his cause by hanging around the wrong people, especially some of the great people from the past. One of these might be Amos, teaching that worship without justice was insulting to God. Or Hosea could have inspired him to believe that even the despicable sinner was still within God's forgiving love. The book of Jonah must have given Jesus the sense that God's extravagant love went far beyond the tiny nation of Israel. Moses of the Exodus story would appeal to him, depicting God choosing some unknown to bring a message of hope to the downtrodden. Even the book of Leviticus, so out of touch with many of the ethics and spiritual realities of today, may have influenced Jesus with its commandment to love one's neighbor, foreigner, and slave. Thus Jesus, hanging around the wrong people, doomed his ministry to minority status. Here again, Jesus was the unsuccessful one.
Jesus Said Losing Is Winning
Here is a prescription for losing: insist that losing is winning. Jesus directed his concern toward those most in need of spiritual healing. He said that the way to express our devotion to him was to join him in giving ourselves away to those who could not ever repay us. But the world will hear nothing of this nonsense. The world tells us that the way to win is to be aggressive, round up a large number of supporters, and eliminate all rivals. In high school and collegiate athletics, this is the operating philosophy. Even though contests are played within the limitations of fairness and good sportsmanship, winning means trumping the opponent with no exception.
Occasionally, touching stories come out here. A mentally handicapped high schooler became a member of the high school football team. He went to every practice, suited up on every Friday night game, but had no hopes of ever getting into the game. However, he was the inspirational force of his team. In the last game of the season, with his team seriously behind, his coach approached the opponent's coach and asked if they could arrange something unusual. He told the other coach that he was going to put this loyal player into the lineup. He wanted to give him the ball and let him run for the endzone, as the defensive players stepped aside. The opposing coach agreed, and instructed his players to be in on the plan. The ball was given to the boy; he ran for the endzone, scoring a touchdown. The crowds on both sides of the field roared their approval. Jesus went around talking like this: Losing is winning. Losing through caring brings far more satisfaction than a jealous guarding of our energies, our ambitions, our public approval ratings, and whatever else we are told are the goals of our lives
A colleague's uncle delighted in playing games with his nephew's children. But he played a strange game of checkers. For him, the object of the game was to "give away," which meant moving one's pieces into squares where they would be captured. The first player losing all their checkers was the winner. Uncle John was a master at this style of play and was seldom defeated. The crabby philosopher, Frederick Neitzsche, once complained that Jesus had turned all the world's values upside down. Indeed he did. Instead of honoring force, violence, and power, Jesus preached and lived caring, reconciliation, and mercy. Our world has not yet caught up with Jesus. The front page of any newspaper or the evening television news will confirm. Will our world ever recant its conviction that winning is the only thing that matters, contributing to the destruction, brokenness, and the legacy of turmoil we presently experience?
One hundred years ago, many Christian thinkers were convinced that history was driving toward a grand culmination as the earthly kingdom of God. The violence and destruction since that time have sobered such convictions. Yet we may, with much more humility, hope that this dream is still a viable possibility. As a parable of this possibility, consider the status of Jesus' disciples just after his crucifixion -- frightened, feeling a bit foolish, grieving, and depressed. Their Lord had been a loser. But at some point they began to sense his power and spirit again.
We don't have to argue about the mechanics of the resurrection. Just take whichever explanation best fits your faith, and never disparage another's explanation. All explanations insist that Jesus' message and the attractiveness of how he is remembered as a person were more powerful after those resurrection appearances than they were in life. The resurrection is not primarily about life after death. Rather the resurrection is about the fragile but powerful hope that love, mercy, and forgiveness -- all loser ways in the world -- are guaranteed by God to become winners in God's and our good time. Despite the unsuccessful Jesus, despite the many who turn away from him then and now, and despite the horror of humanity's drive toward survival on planet earth, losing is winning, now and forever.
Interestingly, a secondary theme runs along with this sturdy confession, the circumstances prompting Peter's words -- some of Jesus' followers were slipping away. They would no longer go around with Jesus. As much as Jesus had impressed Peter and the twelve, these others found no compelling reason to be part of Jesus' retinue. Jesus was not successful in helping them to sense that in hanging around him, they would find a life so meaningful, it would be worth all the hardships and sufferings of that commitment. So they left, and as far as John tells us, they did not return.
It is difficult for us to think that anyone could miss the saving grace of God coming from Jesus. We can understand why King Herod, Pilate, and some of the religious establishment of that day could find no good in Jesus. After all they had commitments to the status quo to which Jesus was a threat. They would never sense the quality of godliness in Jesus. Jesus did not make any serious impact on their lives. There must be a reason for Jesus' failures.
Jesus Spoke Of A New World
Ever since Albert Schweitzer, great missionary doctor and philosopher, wrote his critical study of the historical Jesus, we know that Jesus proclaimed the immanence of God's great intervention into human history. He believed Jesus proclaimed a day of judgment, and God's judgments would not be welcomed by the earthly powers who provoked the misery of the poor and powerless. Up to that day, the powerful would dominate the masses keeping them in poverty and subservience. But when God's judgment day came, the poor and oppressed would be freed from their marginal living. They were going to receive justice, nourishment, economic stability, and life that would never end. Those who had lived so well, oblivious of the suffering of the masses, would be cast into outer darkness.
Now it is clear that Jesus was wrong. God did not intervene and set up a radical justice system for all. God did not lift up the poor and powerless. Yet this does not disqualify Jesus' vision. In his depiction that the transformation of the world was imminent, Jesus envisioned in a provocative way, the will of God for all humanity. Such an intensity of conviction in Jesus sweeps away the hopelessness of the present until many saw God's future becoming part of our Christian future down to this present day.
What has been added to Jesus' vision is our belief that the kingdom depends upon our becoming God's instruments of the kingdom. The kingdom is not passively waiting until God acts in unilateral fashion. The kingdom begins in the will of God but comes to reality when we give ourselves over to its claims. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, there was a movement in the American Protestant tradition called "the social gospel." Through dynamic and charismatic personalities such as Washington Gladden, Walter Rauschenbush, and Francis J. McConnell, there came a call to establish public justice and eliminate corruption from the larger systems of life, in the name of the gospel. These leaders brought the biblical faith to bear on the social orders beyond personal and individual perspectives. They spoke and organized a critique on the family, the economic and political order, modern warfare, Western imperialism, and the rights of women and racial minorities.
Certainly the social gospels were overly optimistic about the ease with which the present inequities could be changed; but they shared the vision of Jesus, and out of that first-century failure they opened up a new focus for Christian responsibility. We need to remember the social gospel movement and its declaration of a gospel beyond the individual gospel. Today we have retreated from their bold vision and program, restricting the gospel to personal and individual realities. In J. D. Salinger's little novel, Catcher in the Rye, the central character skips out of his prep school, taking in the Christmas program at Rockefeller Center, complete with the Rockettes. His conclusion about that extravaganza to his sister was, "Good old Jesus woulda puked." If Jesus returned to drop in on our success-driven churches he might do just that after he listened to the music, the prayers, and the sermon. There is little in most of the church's worship, giving evidence that the gospel makes a claim beyond our inter-personal relationships. Customarily we judge Christian discipleship on how many worshipers are in the pews, and how large is the church's budget. The gift of Jesus to us might be his failure of scheduling the kingdom, for his error creates a place for our witness to the great day of the kingdom.
Jesus Ran Around With The Wrong People
It is clear from a reading of the gospels that Jesus disturbed folks because he ran around with the wrong people. During the late '40s and '50s the patriotism of many Americans was questioned because they had known communists, or had been participants in groups where there were known communists. The mood of the country was so uneasy that careless accusations about the loyalty of politicians, filmmakers, authors, and clergy became the path to political prominence. Some of those accused were so frightened that they lied about knowing any communists, or having been part of a circle where there were communists. The sad result was that careers were ruined and the silencing of these fine people impoverished us. Like Jesus, they ran around with the wrong people.
Similar to these victims of communist hysteria, running around with the wrong people had a painful effect on the life and ministry of Jesus. He included women, moral outcasts, and some of dubious reputation in his followers. Many of these had no connection with the religious systems of that day. They ignored the temple and synagogue for various reasons. Some of them were suspicious of their reception at the synagogue and by the priests in the temple, for they might have an immoral past, or because they had collaborated with the tax collecting policies of Rome. We cannot imagine Zacchaeus slipping into the Jericho synagogues for Friday evening services on any regular basis. Others outside the religious structures were poverty-stricken peasants who had little time for matters of worship and liturgy.
Jesus gladly welcomed these people into his following, but he paid a price for it. He and his message challenged the power system of his day. His followers narrowed to those who had little to lose in the new world that Jesus announced. He failed to win widespread support, but he wasn't deterred. Perhaps -- we don't know for certain -- he felt going up to Jerusalem at Passover time could vindicate him as God's kingdom messenger.
Jesus weakened his cause by hanging around the wrong people, especially some of the great people from the past. One of these might be Amos, teaching that worship without justice was insulting to God. Or Hosea could have inspired him to believe that even the despicable sinner was still within God's forgiving love. The book of Jonah must have given Jesus the sense that God's extravagant love went far beyond the tiny nation of Israel. Moses of the Exodus story would appeal to him, depicting God choosing some unknown to bring a message of hope to the downtrodden. Even the book of Leviticus, so out of touch with many of the ethics and spiritual realities of today, may have influenced Jesus with its commandment to love one's neighbor, foreigner, and slave. Thus Jesus, hanging around the wrong people, doomed his ministry to minority status. Here again, Jesus was the unsuccessful one.
Jesus Said Losing Is Winning
Here is a prescription for losing: insist that losing is winning. Jesus directed his concern toward those most in need of spiritual healing. He said that the way to express our devotion to him was to join him in giving ourselves away to those who could not ever repay us. But the world will hear nothing of this nonsense. The world tells us that the way to win is to be aggressive, round up a large number of supporters, and eliminate all rivals. In high school and collegiate athletics, this is the operating philosophy. Even though contests are played within the limitations of fairness and good sportsmanship, winning means trumping the opponent with no exception.
Occasionally, touching stories come out here. A mentally handicapped high schooler became a member of the high school football team. He went to every practice, suited up on every Friday night game, but had no hopes of ever getting into the game. However, he was the inspirational force of his team. In the last game of the season, with his team seriously behind, his coach approached the opponent's coach and asked if they could arrange something unusual. He told the other coach that he was going to put this loyal player into the lineup. He wanted to give him the ball and let him run for the endzone, as the defensive players stepped aside. The opposing coach agreed, and instructed his players to be in on the plan. The ball was given to the boy; he ran for the endzone, scoring a touchdown. The crowds on both sides of the field roared their approval. Jesus went around talking like this: Losing is winning. Losing through caring brings far more satisfaction than a jealous guarding of our energies, our ambitions, our public approval ratings, and whatever else we are told are the goals of our lives
A colleague's uncle delighted in playing games with his nephew's children. But he played a strange game of checkers. For him, the object of the game was to "give away," which meant moving one's pieces into squares where they would be captured. The first player losing all their checkers was the winner. Uncle John was a master at this style of play and was seldom defeated. The crabby philosopher, Frederick Neitzsche, once complained that Jesus had turned all the world's values upside down. Indeed he did. Instead of honoring force, violence, and power, Jesus preached and lived caring, reconciliation, and mercy. Our world has not yet caught up with Jesus. The front page of any newspaper or the evening television news will confirm. Will our world ever recant its conviction that winning is the only thing that matters, contributing to the destruction, brokenness, and the legacy of turmoil we presently experience?
One hundred years ago, many Christian thinkers were convinced that history was driving toward a grand culmination as the earthly kingdom of God. The violence and destruction since that time have sobered such convictions. Yet we may, with much more humility, hope that this dream is still a viable possibility. As a parable of this possibility, consider the status of Jesus' disciples just after his crucifixion -- frightened, feeling a bit foolish, grieving, and depressed. Their Lord had been a loser. But at some point they began to sense his power and spirit again.
We don't have to argue about the mechanics of the resurrection. Just take whichever explanation best fits your faith, and never disparage another's explanation. All explanations insist that Jesus' message and the attractiveness of how he is remembered as a person were more powerful after those resurrection appearances than they were in life. The resurrection is not primarily about life after death. Rather the resurrection is about the fragile but powerful hope that love, mercy, and forgiveness -- all loser ways in the world -- are guaranteed by God to become winners in God's and our good time. Despite the unsuccessful Jesus, despite the many who turn away from him then and now, and despite the horror of humanity's drive toward survival on planet earth, losing is winning, now and forever.
