Mark 8:27-35

The Elephant Speaks

Confession of St. Peter

January 18, 2015

 

Four blind men are out for a walk and come across an elephant.  Not knowing what it is, they each decide to touch it to figure out what they had come across. The first one felt the trunk and declared, “it is a snake.”  The second grabbed a leg and declared “it is a tree.” The third grabbed the tail and said, “it is a rope.” The fourth touched its side and said, “it is a wall.”  Now, the four men begin to argue over who is right and who is wrong as they try to describe this animal to one another.  The problem is, they couldn’t agree. They argued over and over again about what this animal looks like.  

This is a metaphor that is sometimes used in relationship to Christianity and to God.  We look around in the world and have so many different opinions about who God is, so many different denominations, so many different ways to worship. It is sometimes hard to figure out what is going on, why there is so much division and arguing.

This is nothing new, and it is this sort of thinking that is the backdrop for our Gospel reading today.  As Jesus and His disciples are going about, He asks them this question, “Who do people say that I am?”  They answered, “John the Baptist; and others say Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.”  It seems as though there is no real way to know who this Jesus is.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the elephant has spoken.  We are not left groping around in the dark trying to figure out what God is like. He tells us what He is like. This is the point of Epiphany season that we are in.  We are not left guessing who Jesus is. Instead, Jesus speaks. He reveals Himself.  Not just in the red letters of the Bible, but also in the black.  He comes down into the darkness of the world and reveals Himself to us.

The question faced with us today, then, is the same one that Jesus then asks of His disciples, “But who do you say that I am?” There is a right way to answer that, and there is a wrong way.  The wrong way is to simply describe what we feel, or add up what everyone else feels to try to get an understanding.  The Christian faith is not based upon feelings.  The right way of answering this question is by confessing back to God what He speaks to us.  This is in part why our worship service is made up of almost completely Scripture.  Because the Bible is God’s Word that He speaks to us, then there is nothing else better to hear and to speak God’s Word.

There’s a lot that we can say and talk about as Christians.  But ultimately what we say, what we confess, is what God has revealed to us about Himself.  This is what Peter says in response to Jesus’ question, “You are the Christ.”  This, this, is the answer, and the only answer to the question that Jesus poses, as well as the foundation of our faith.

Jesus is the Christ.  Though Peter makes this bold and true confession, he doesn’t completely understand what this means.  So the elephant has to speak once more, teaching that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.

But this doesn’t sit well with Peter, just like an elephant telling blind men what he looks like doesn’t sit well with them when they cannot see. We have this problem sometimes too.  We don’t always understand God’s revelation to us, or worse, we simply don’t like it.  We only want to focus on one part of God’s revelation to us, like focusing on the love of God without talking about His wrath. Or calling sin “sin” ought of fear that it might offend.  Our sinful selves don’t want a crucified Christ.  We don’t want One who suffers, but only the One who can overcome my suffering.  And yet Christ crucified for the for the forgiveness of sins is the Church’s one foundation and our cornerstone.

Jesus’ identity as the Christ who must suffer and die for the life of the world turns everything upside down.  Temptation to avoid the cross is great.  Both the cross of Christ and the cross you must bear as His follower.  But rest assure, there can be no case of a mistaken identity.  For Jesus has come into the world, proclaiming this Good News that sins are forgiven and eternal life is won by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone.  And this is now your confession as well, and the truth on which our faith is founded.  For whoever would come after Him must deny Himself and take up His cross and follow Him.  Where does this Christ go?  To suffering.  To rejection.  To the cross.  To the resurrection.  So where should we expect to go?  To suffering.  To rejection. To the cross.  Only through following Christ to the cross can we then follow Him in the resurrection. 

His Spirit works in us the faith of that claim.  Such a confession is the point of the Creeds, and why we say them each week.  To define the faith, to answer Jesus’ question “who do people say I am?” correctly.  To defend the faith against wrong belief, of answering Jesus’ question wrong.  Jesus is not just another prophet. He is not just a man teaching morality. He is not just God pretending to be a man.  And to declare the faith, like Peter preaching to the people of Jerusalem in Acts 4. This Jesus is the One who was crucified, who was raised from the dead, is the cornerstone of the church, there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.