What would the Jesus campaign for president be like?

Let's be clear - Jesus is no politician (thank the Lord).  But if he was, I think his campaign, at least from Mark's perspective, would have been pretty interesting.  Peter might have thought things were going pretty well through the first half of Mark's gospel, but then Jesus takes the message in a different direction - straight to the cross.

Transfiguration of Our Lord (Year B) – Sunday, February 19, 2012

Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church, Lancaster, PA

Texts: Mark 9:2-9

So apparently it's an election year. Have you heard anything about that? The campaigns haven't come to Pennsylvania in full force yet, but just wait a few months. All those nasty TV and radio ads will smash into us before too long. But elsewhere in the country the primary season is in full swing! Candidates are being picked by voters and picked apart by the pundits in the 24-hour news cycle. Handlers are on the backs of their presidential hopefuls, telling them how to walk and stand and smile, who to talk to, where to pause, and definitely, what to say and what not to say. 

 

Jesus is no politician (thank God)! But if Jesus was a candidate for office today, from what we've been hearing in the gospel of Mark recently, you'd have to say Jesus was running a pretty good campaign! Let's recap what we've heard in these weeks after Epiphany. Right off the bat he scores a major endorsement from a big-time local figure, John the Baptist. Hasn't even rolled out a platform yet. Then, he gets a pep talk from his Father, who happens to be God, reminding him, “you are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” Not bad. After a little hiatus in the wilderness, Jesus hires his top advisers, Simon and Andrew, James and John. They can't wait to get on board. Hopping on the Good News Express, Jesus hits the campaign trail with a blitz of impressive exorcisms and healings, stump speeches and rallies, one right after the other. No evil spirit can stand in his way, this Jesus is unstoppable! He's a media darling! Now Jesus tries very hard to stay in control of the message. He'll do the talking. Remember, he tells everyone he's helped not to say anything. But despite this facebook and twitter are lighting up with people telling stories about what Jesus has done: “My mother-in-law is up and going again! My leprosy is gone [hash tag Jesus]! My friend the paralytic took up his mat and walked away! Who is this guy? We've never seen anything like this! What's this kingdom of God he's talking about? Wait, is this really happening – is he feeding the whole crowd with those five loaves and two fishes??”

If you were Peter and you were running point for the Jesus campaign, you'd have to say things were going pretty well! Occasionally, Jesus would do something weird like heal a guy with his spit, or say an “off-the-cuff” remark. And his candidate's earliest supporter, John the Baptist, had met an untimely end after he upset the king's wife, but these things happen, right? He was way ahead of his rivals in the polls and he was crushing his Pharisee opponents in the debates! Crowds were following him wherever he went! Peter the campaign manager thought things were more or less on track.

Until one day outside Caesarea Philippi. Jesus asked Peter “who do you say that I am?” Peter proudly proclaimed, “You are the Messiah!” He'd gotten it right! Surely he'd be chief-of-staff after the election. But then Jesus lost it. First, he said, you can't call me “Messiah” out on the campaign trail. What candidate doesn't want people to know he's the only one qualified for the job! Then, he went totally off the deep end, totally off-message! He said right out in front of the whole staff that he “must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.” What? What candidate says he's gonna lose! So, of course, Peter told Jesus he was out of his mind. Sometimes that's gotta happen behind closed doors. And for that he got from Jesus, “Get behind me, Satan!” and “take up your cross!” He'd have to reel his candidate back in soon before everything was lost.

So when Jesus summoned him and James and John for an executive summit, just them, up on the mountain as we heard about today, Peter breathed a sigh of relief. The three of them would have the chance to talk some sense into their guy and get this campaign moving again. 

 

But Peter had no idea what was in store for them up on the mountain peak. In the blinding light of the transfigured Jesus, with Elijah and Moses (founding fathers, if you will) conversing with their candidate, Peter was scared out of his mind. But his eyes were filled with glorious potential. If Jesus really was a candidate for the American presidency, it was as if Washington and Lincoln were standing beside him, granting that invaluable presidential aura. Peter didn't know what to say. Then came the voice from above, “This is my Son, the Beloved!” “Yes, Father, I know! We're gonna win!,” he thought. “If we can just keep up the dazzling white transfigurations and go on another lightning-quick series of healings and miracles, and keep Jesus' non-scripted remarks to a minimum, this is in the bag!” But the Father had more to say, and it concluded “listen to him!”

“Listen to him?!?! The man's gone off the edge! What do you mean?” The glorious light and the heavenly visitors faded away, and so did Peter's delusions of grandeur. Only Jesus stood before them, and as they trudged back down to the same old crowds full of hurting, desperate people, Jesus once again ordered them to be silent, until he'd risen from the dead. Suffering, death, and rising from the dead were not part of their plan – no wonder Peter and James and John wondered “what this rising from the dead could mean.” It didn't make sense. They had been on the road to victory! Why was their candidate leading them to defeat, to Jerusalem, to trials and tribulations, to the cross??

I think we can identify with Peter the confused campaign manager. Jesus wasn't running a political campaign, but his gospel campaign, his kingdom of God campaign, was beginning to look like it was heading toward disaster. Peter and the disciples expected a restoration of the glory of Israel. Peter wanted to stay up on that mountain. He asked if they could build dwellings and move in up there. Sometimes we want Jesus to stay up on the mountain. We want Jesus to stay dignified. We want Jesus to bring us closer to the dazzling white light of a glorious religious high. But Jesus won't be managed, and he won't be scripted. He won't stay far away. He won't take you up out of this world to some perfect, private little spiritual paradise. He won't fill up your bank account and set you on a beach for the rest of your life.

But I'll tell you what Jesus will do. He will come close to you, so close he can wash you of your sins in this bath of forgiveness. So close he can give you his very self in this bread and wine. He will enter your real life, and suffer with you as you face the real hardships in front of you. He will take all the criticism, and the fear and anger and sadness of the world and be crucified with it on the cross so that you will be free to walk in newness of life. He will constantly remind you that he is the crucified God, the One whose life is found in death and whose victory emerges from defeat.

Healings and exorcisms and miracles and all are parts of God's kingdom which Jesus brought into the world. They are certainly good things, things we get to be a part of as citizens of God's kingdom through Christ. But they are not everything. Christ came to do more than to bring those things. Christ came to free us from our own sin. Christ came to destroy death. And he did so by dying. This Transfiguration story is part of the turning point in Mark that began with Jesus' politically incorrect prediction of his destiny to suffer and be killed in Jerusalem. We hear it today as we turn from the dazzling light and glorious deeds of Christ in Epiphany toward Lent, and the reality of our own sin which Christ meets face to face. From here on out, Jesus is heading directly to the cross, and his power which seemed so invincible just a few chapters earlier becomes weaker and weaker, until the point when he draws his last breath to utter, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” It's only then that out in the open, of all people a Roman soldier says, “Truly this man was God's Son!” It isn't the moments of success or glory that reveal to us the Son of God. No, our Messiah, our Savior is revealed to us only on the cross, completely powerless. But this Christ whose power is made perfect in weakness is the real Christ, the One who saves us. This Christ wasn't out to win an election, he was out to win you to himself, and that's exactly what he did. He's still doing it now. That's something worth celebrating. And before we set aside this word of celebration and praise during Lent until that truly most glorious Easter morning, let's say it now, “Alleluia, Alleluia, thanks be to God!” Amen.