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Please allow me a moment to do something I rarely do – act like a grumpy, whiney, stuffed-shirt of a minister who does nothing but complain about how things ain’t like they used to be. I’m going to complain about that favourite childhood hymn “Jesus Loves Me, This I know”. The words and the verses have changed since I was kid which were changed from a time before that and if you go on the web and look at the original verses, woah. They’d scare the Hell out of a kid and I guess that was the original intent. Today’s words are much more kid friendly. We’ve only got three verses in our hymnal and the last verse is what really gripes me. I mean, what kind of cheesy, lovey-dovey mouthwash are they trying to brainwash our kids with? Of course, I’m speaking facetiously here, but…that third verse really is problematic biblically, theologically. When I sing it, I have to make my own changes to that verse because I just can’t sing it and feel I’m being faithful to the Gospel.
The verse goes: “Jesus loves me still today, walking with me on my way. Wanting as a friend to give light and love to all who live.” I think that the basic meaning there is that the light of the love of Jesus that I know from his presence with me shines through me wherever I go. Well, I’ve not a problem with that. It’s the “my way” that irks me. Jesus walking with me as I go about on “my” way is hugely problematic. He is with us always but the call is for us to follow him on the way not the other way around where he’s our buddy, buddy tag-a-long as we go about doing whatever it is we want to do. It’s the same sort of misunderstanding of faithfulness that shows up on that “Jesus Is My Co-Pilot” bumper sticker. Jesus is the pilot. He flies the plane and we assist.
If I were to change the lyrics to have it “my way”, I’d simply use the image that all the Gospels portray, “Jesus loves me still today. Walks before me on ‘the’ way. Wanting as a friend to give light and love to all who live.” Such a simple solution with profound implications. We follow Jesus on the way, rather than Jesus tagging along with us on the way we want to go.
Looking at our passage from Mark, Peter’s game changing profession that Jesus is the Messiah and the ensuing conversation; Jesus teaches that as the Messiah he must suffer and die and that anyone who would follow him must also lose their self’s for the sake of him and of the Gospel in order to save their self’s. If we are just living our own lives the way we want to live them believing that Jesus is just along on our ride to bless us, then we are missing the point which is: If we want to be part of God’s solution for his world, we must deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow him. We must be minded on the things of God rather than on the things we humans devote ourselves to as we pursue our own gain all the while hoping God is with me blessing me on my way.
Let’s talk about “the way” here for a bit. In Mark’s Gospel “the way” is an important place. It shows up eighteen times. As “the Sea” in Mark’s Gospel is the place where the Disciples get a glimpse of Jesus being God, “the way” is where Jesus teaches his followers faithfulness. Oddly, we get don’t get our definition of what “the way” is until the very last time Mark mentions it. In Jerusalem the Pharisees and Herodians came to Jesus trying to entrap him over the issue of paying taxes to Caesar. These religious and political authorities came to Jesus recognizing that Jesus teaches “the Way of God” (12:14). “The way” is the way of life that God desires for us. So, to be “on the way” is to be striving at what God wants us to be about. It is while we are on “the way” rather than when we are standing still that Jesus teaches us faith.
Looking at the places where Jesus and the Disciples are on “the way” in Mark’s Gospel we can learn a few things. “On the way” the disciples learn that first and foremost the faithful life, the Kingdom of Heaven life is found in following Jesus and where he leads. They are always following him. That is their modus operandi. At first, “the way” seems to be just going here and there aimlessly. But after Peter’s profession here in our passage where the disciples finally get who Jesus is, the Messiah, “the way” takes a definitive direction. Jesus begins to head to Jerusalem where he will suffer at the hands of the religious and political authorities, be put to death, and then resurrected to new life. On the way’ we catch a glimpse of who Jesus is and it changes our direction. The Way of God is integrally connected to Jesus and the direction of his life.
Jesus points out here that the way of God is following Jesus on “the way” in the faithful life of self-denial and bearing the cross rather than self-actualization and personal gain. The Way of God Jesus had to take as Son of God was to Jerusalem, death, and resurrection. His way was to empty himself of all earthly power to manifest the full power of God. Jesus had to sacrifice himself in love to save God’s creation. Miracles here and miracles there wouldn’t do it. Becoming the most powerful person on earth and assuming an emperor’s throne wouldn’t do it. Instead, the Son of God become human must as a human die and be raised in order to put sin and death to death and begin a new creation that will be filled with God’s Spirit. This self-denying way of faithfulness and sacrificial love is the way we who follow Jesus must also take.
Some more about “the way”. It is a meager way. You won’t get wealthy on “the way”. The Disciples take nothing with them as they go. They have to scrounge heads of grain to eat in the fields as they go. A rich, young man steps into “the way” to ask Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus looked at him and in great love for him (this is the only person Mark tells us that Jesus looked at with great love) told him to give everything he had to the poor and come and follow him on “the way”. The man turned and left grieving because he had a lot of possessions. Attachment to wealth can hinder one’s walk along the way of God, the way of emptying one’s self for others. “On the way” we must rely on God to provide for us and we will be surprised at how abundant something called “enough” is.
There is conflict along “the way”, conflict with religious types who will use threats to try to convince you that the Way of God is keeping rules of outward appearances rather than exercising costly compassion. With great coercive threats of damnation, the religious types will try to convince you that faithfulness is keeping up the appearance of being good, godly people who are all the while just judgers and accusers of others particularly the weak, the hurting, and the outcast. This hypocrisy arises from the bitter, saccharine hearts that they inherited from their father the devil; to quote Jesus.
“The way” is humbling. “On the way” the disciples argue about who among them is the greatest. James and John want to sit on the thrones immediately to his right and left when Jesus takes over. So, three times Jesus tells them that he must suffer and die and they must follow accordingly. If Jesus has to tell us something three times, apparently it’s important and we’re being a little thick about it. Greatness is found in humbly serving one another not in the false power of assumed leadership.
“The way” is also a place of great healing. Blind Bartimaeus sat “alongside the way” unable to follow due to his blindness. Jesus healed him and then he joyfully followed on the way. This healing stood as a sign that spiritual blindness can be healed. Following behind Jesus on his way to Jerusalem is where we see the nature of God most clearly. The nature and power of Almighty God is self-emptying, self-denying, sacrificial love. This love is what powerfully changes everything. To understand this and act accordingly is seeing the way of God clearly.
Well, an interesting thing happens in Mark’s Gospel when Jesus and his Disciples and the rag tag crowd following “on the way” arrive at the destination “the way” leads them to – Jerusalem; the place where the way of God and the way of false religion and political power collide. Those “on the way” did not take up arms. They didn’t get violent. They didn’t try to run the government or take over the courts to impose their agendas. Instead, they threw their cloaks down upon “the way” for Jesus to ride over as he entered town and they cried out “Hosanna” which means “Save Us”. For many of those people that cloak was their only possession and their only protection. Throwing it down onto “the way” symbolized the surrender of their self’s to Jesus who rides humbly on a donkey not powerfully on a warhorse. Also of interest, when Jesus entered Jerusalem, he did not go to the palace of the king to claim it as his own. Jesus and the crowd went to the Temple, the house of God. His home. But apparently, he didn’t feel at home. He looked around and left. Then, the next day he came back and cleared it of the big business and money laundering that the religious authorities had established there and he again started to teach in the temple courtyard. It’s almost like the way that Jesus wages war is teaching the way of God. Do we listen?
In this world, power is being abused by those in power. Twenty years of war in Afghanistan that in the end served no purpose. My heart breaks for this new wave of refugees and for those who cannot leave. They are victims of the Cold War that was supposed to have ended in 1987. In this world, a Pandemic soldiers on, conquering. Its greatest weapon is fear unleashed in a salvo of misinformation and self-oriented life-style choices. Proper medical care and vaccines are available to wealthier nations while poorer nations suffer greatly and we hear nothing of it on the news. Indeed, we have no idea what havoc COVID is wreaking on the weaker, poorer nations. We are more concerned about ourselves. We are headed for a climate crisis that’s also fueled by misinformation and life-style choices that are oriented towards self-gain.
In our reading today, Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do y’all say I am.” Peter, speaking as the representative of them all said, “You are the Messiah.” Jesus is the one who saves God’s good creation from all its oppressors. Peter made that profession after having followed Jesus around on “the way” and seeing many healings, the calming of the sea, the feeding of the 15,000+, and hearing Jesus teach. It was obvious to them who Jesus is. The church continues to make that same profession today, but honestly it is quite hard to say that we are throwing our cloaks down before him on the way. We aren’t giving ourselves to him rather we are content to simply believe that he walks beside me on “my” way. Friends, we need to change those lyrics. Amen.
