In this morning's Gospel lection, Peter makes a mistake. Jesus says that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer, be killed, and on the third day be raised from the dead. Peter protests. In Mark's version, Peter begins to rebuke him. In Matthew's version, Peter's words are "God forbid it, Lord, This must never happen to you." Peter discovers he has made a mistake when he hear's Jesus' response: "Get behind me, Satan."
As I spent time with this story, three questions came to mind. What is Peter's mistake? Is it a mistake we might make? What hope is there in the face of such a mistake?
Peter is a fisherman on the Sea of Galilee in Israel's north. The largest city on the lake is Capernaum. Jesus moved there when he began his ministry.
We can assume Peter, like many others of his time, is an angry man who is ready for a change. In 30 A.D. Tiberius is Emperor of Rome and in this remote corner of the Empire, Herod Antipas is Tetrarch of Galilee and Perea. These leaders function like a large corporation making its profits off the labor of the poor. Herod Antipas pays Tiberius for the right to tax his kingdom and in turn sells to his underlings the right to tax their areas. At the bottom of the heap are the tax gatherers who watch the people earning their livelihoods like a farmer watching his corn grow, and whenever the tax gatherers think there is something ready to take, they take it. Local militias and guards backed up by Roman soldiers commanded by centurions are the brutal enforcers. For common people who live in this world, life is difficult, arbitrary and short. When Jesus comes along preaching "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand,"(1) Peter joins him. People eagerly await the Kingdom. When the Messiah comes, the rule of the House of David will be restored. An army will overthrow the Romans and their Jewish collaborators. Jesus says, "Follow me, and you will fish for people,"(2) and that is enough for Peter. He will be a recruiter for General Jesus.
We know Peter keeps a weapon and is prepared for violence. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Simon Peter drew his sword and cut off the ear of Malchus, the slave of the high priest.
We know Peter is daring. When the disciples were in a boat on the sea of Galilee and Jesus came walking across the water in the midst of a storm, it is Peter who sets forth to meet Jesus until in fear he begins to sink.(3)
We know Peter believes Jesus is the Messiah. When Jesus asks the disciples, "who do you say that I am?' Peter answers, "You are the Messiah, the son of the living God." And Jesus says, "Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, you are Peter, a rock on which I will build my church."(4)
When Peter thinks of the Messiah, he probably thinks of a mighty general, because that's what most everyone thinks. The Messiah will come with armies of men and perhaps angels, too. The Messiah will fight the Romans and defeat them. The Messiah will establish his rule and exercise power and dominion.
Peter expects a leadership role in this army of Jesus the General. He asks, "Lord, we've left everything--what will we have? Jesus says they'll sit on 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel. (Mt: 19:27-29) Peter's mother has similar thoughts. She comes to Jesus and asks that in the kingdom, her two sons sit at Jesus' right and left. (Mt: 20:20-23)
But Jesus' sermons must have started to make Peter nervous, because they don't sound like the words of someone focused on power and domination. After Jesus talks about forgiveness, Peter asks how many times one should forgive. Jesus answers, not seven times, but seventy times seven. (18:21)
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus blesses the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, and the merciful. "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God!"(5) Then, toward the end of the sermon Jesus says, "Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile." (6)
That must give Peter pause -- it was the Romans who make you walk the extra mile. Are we going to drive them out or appease them?
All the world has ever known is a system of domination in which there is always one person dominating another, one nation dominating another. Peter can't imagine anything else; the best he can hope for is that the new Messiah's domination will be better than Caesar's.
By contrast, Jesus sees the domination system as wrong and realizes he must hit it head on. He must go to Jerusalem and suffer, be killed, and challenge death itself. Jesus tells that to the disciples.
You can imagine Peter feeling kicked in the stomach. This is not what he has dreamed about, hoped for, worked for. What of this new kingdom? What about ending Roman domination and beginning the dominion of the Messiah? What about being Colonel Peter in the army of General Jesus? Surely this means the end of everything Peter has worked for. Peter takes Jesus aside and rebukes him, saying, "God forbid it, Lord, This must never happen to you." (Matthew 16:22).
Jesus hears Peter's rebuke. I think Jesus' reaction is so harsh because Peter's words are very tempting. Jesus knows how much Peter - like thousands of others - is counting on a Messiah coming with a mighty army to dominate the world. The thought is attractive, too. Get this over with and have a regime change. End the Roman evil and bring in the reign of God right away. Perhaps at that moment Jesus remembers the temptation in the wilderness. Satan offered him the same thing, and in Peter's mistake, he sees Satan's temptation.
Reign of God when people support the new Messiah's regime out of fear? Reign of God when unwilling citizens hide their dark anger at having something imposed on them? Reign of God when its price is massive ruin and widespread slaughter of the innocent? No, armies can bring a new Rome, but they cannot bring the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus knows the source of this temptation, because he has experienced it before. He turns to Peter. "Get behind me, Satan!" he says. "For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.(7)
As I lived with this scripture over the past three weeks, the drumbeats of war with Iraq have gotten louder and louder. I don't think it's possible to read this scripture and not see today's leaders rushing to make Peter's mistake.
During the three years I served on active duty as an Army Chaplain, I never killed anyone, but I remember taking a life. When I returned from Vietnam, I was stationed at Fort Lee. One day I was assigned to do a death notification. With a sergeant and driver we got in a green Army sedan and drove west to a country town in Virginia. We found the address and parked the car. We walked up to the door. The family inside saw us and they knew the message before any of us spoke it. Before we arrived, as far as they knew, their young man was alive. After we left, he was dead. Tell me I didn't take the life of that mother's son.
As long as the United Nations inspectors are doing their work, there is nothing that can justify any family or any chaplain having that experience today.
Objecting to an invasion of Iraq is not a matter of supporting or not supporting our troops. We must support our troops. And the best way to do that is to bring them home and keep them home!
Let me share with you a simple parable.
Let's say we had someone in this congregation who was truly awful. They lied, they stole, we knew they beat their family, they were an offence to the neighborhood. So one day [name] and [name] and I are talking about this person and we decide we really have to do something about this. This person has to be stopped. "Well, should we go to the police?", [name] asks. "No," the others of us say, "the police wouldn't understand, and besides, it's too much trouble. We've got to fix this ourselves." So one day we all go over to this person's house, and we break down the door and we beat the person up and we destroy half the furniture in their house, and we send the children screaming through the neighborhood. And then, because we're satisfied that we've done good, and it's been a long, hard, day, we go home and take a nap.
What do you think we will find when we wake up? What do you think our good deed will sound like when we read about it in the newspaper? What do you think our explanations will sound like when the police cars come up our driveways? And will we really have anything to say at all, when the judge looks down and tells us, "you know, I really expected more from you than this!"
III. Hope
If our nation seems hell-bent on making Peter's mistake, what hope does God have for us? We know God want fullness of life for us all, including our service men and women. The same force that keeps our hearts beating while we sleep wants life for all those facing each other in the middle east. And there are specific words of hope.
First, the future is not closed. The future is not pre-determined. Jurgen Moltman, a German world War II veteran who became a theologian and wrote the Theology of Hope, said that it is despair that is an illusion, because despair assumes the future is closed. Only hope is realistic, Moltmann says, because only hope understands that the future is still open.
Think about this week. There was a family in Utah which by every reasonable standard should have given up hope. It had been nearly a year since their daughter Elizabeth had been kidnapped. Who could have predicted that she would be found alive, healthy, and close to home? The future is not already written. We do not know what tomorrow will bring, and sometimes what it brings may be better than we expect.
Second, God can help you frame the news in terms of peace, not war. Look through the eyes of 80-year old Dr. Robert Muller, a former Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations, who had witnessed the United Nations' founding. At a recent ceremony honoring him, he stunned those around him with his upbeat outlook. "I'm so honored to be here," he said. "I'm so honored to be alive at such a miraculous time in history. I'm so moved by what's going on in our world today."
"Never before in the history of the world has there been a global, visible, public, viable, open dialogue and conversation about the very legitimacy of war." The whole world... is asking -- "Is war legitimate? Is it illegitimate? Is there enough evidence to warrant an attack? Is there not enough evidence to warrant an attack?
What will be the consequences? The costs? What will happen after a war? How will this set off other conflicts? What might be peaceful alternatives? What kind of negotiations are we not thinking of? What are the real intentions for declaring war?"
This discussion, he noted, is taking place in the context of the United Nations Security Council, the body that was established in 1949 for exactly this purpose.
Dr. Muller was almost in tears in recognition of the fulfillment of this dream. "We are not at war," he kept saying. We, the world community, are waging peace. It is difficult, hard work. It is constant and we must not let up.
"We're in peacetime," he kept saying. "Yes, troops are being
moved. Yes, warheads are being lined up. Yes, the aggressor is
angry and upset and spending a billion dollars a day preparing to
attack. But not one shot has been fired. Not one life has been
lost. There is no war. It's all a conversation."
Third, what we do does make a difference. Here's a story that came across my desk. I probably shouldn't share it with you because as United Methodists, we oppose gambling and our Baltimore-Washington conference leadership is actively opposing slot machines today. Gambling is destructive, slot machines are destructive, write or call your member of the Maryland Senate or House of Delegates and tell them how much you don't want slot machines in Maryland. But this story makes too important a point to pass up.
In this story, Billy is in financial trouble and he prays to God, "Lord, I haven't asked for much in my life but I'm in terrible financial trouble. Lord, if you could just help me win the lottery, that'll be the boost I need and I won't trouble you any more." Billy waits a week and nothing happens. Next week he prays again. "Lord, can't you understand how I really need this help. If you just let me win the lottery, I'll never trouble you again." Next week, still nothing. Third week, Billy is starting to pray again when the sky suddenly grows dark, a cloud rolls up, there is thunder and lightning, and voice comes from out of the cloud. "Billy, Billy, work with me on this. You've got to buy a ticket."
I don't know if God would help Billy win the lottery, but I am sure God doesn't want a single person to get killed in Iraq. But we have to work with God on this. What we do makes a difference.
Pray to stop this war from happening, but also call your legislator. Participate in a demonstration. Email your friends. Let our troops know you are doing this in support of them and you hope they'll be home soon. Fill your hearts with passion for God's shalom, the peace that passes understanding but can permeate our entire world.
Let us join in prayer of thanksgiving to the God who created all humanity for this moment of peace in which we live, and pray to the God in whom the future is not closed that we as a nation may turn back from Peter's mistake, and that today's moment of peace, though filled with noisy discussions, may bring a tomorrow that is peaceful, too.
2. Mt 4:18, Mk 1:16, Lk 5:1-11; Jn 1:35