Scripture Readings (September 12, 2021)
Jesus was a failure. Just look at the facts. They speak for themselves. Where is Jesus’s wealth? Did he live in a McMansion in an upscale neighborhood? Did he dress in the latest designer streetwear? Did he drive a top-of-the-line tricked-out chariot with thoroughbred horses? What was his favorite five-star restaurant? How big was his staff? When he traveled abroad, did he stay in the best resort hotels? How much property did he own? Was he a good landlord? How big was his portfolio? Did he enjoy a comfortable care-free retirement?
How about his influence. Did he have the ear of Emperor Tiberius? Did he enjoy a prestigious position in Herod’s court? What civic offices did he hold? Did he win any elections? What year was he High Priest? Which synagogue was he president of? How many legions were under his command? Was he at least a centurion? Did people come to him to resolve their legal disputes? Was his word as good as law? Could he arrest people and put them in jail? Could he decide their fate?
If not money or power, did Jesus’s success lie in his prestige? After all, people came from all over to hear him speak. His events were sell-outs. He filled the stadiums. When he invited people to be a part of his posse, they dropped everything to join him. People deferred to him on the streets and in synagogues. He was seldom without dinner invitations to some of the best homes. He was frequently quoted in the press. His public was enthusiastic. They had high hopes and big plans for him. He was certainly a celebrity—“local boy makes good.”
Yeah, but did it last? He was only on the scene for about three years—a kind of “flash in the pan.” Right? He was often misquoted, and he said things that upset people. He needed a good PR man. You don’t want to anger your fans—they’ll turn on you. He wasn’t politically savvy. He stepped on the wrong toes and, when they came after him, his fans weren’t there to support him. You might say that killed his popularity.
Okay, but what about those he left behind? Didn’t they do a great job popularizing his message, or at least keeping it alive? Didn’t they start a fan club that’s still going strong today? Really? Which one? Which one’s the authorized fan club? And what’s the message? I guess it depends on which fan club you belong to. See, they can’t even agree on who he was, what he said, what he did, or even if he’s already had a return engagement. It’s a mess. Yup. Jesus was a failure alright. He didn’t accomplish a single thing that we consider important. Not one.
“Who do people say that I am?” Listen to the news. Listen to the talking heads. Listen to the preachers. Watch the Jesus documentaries on the Discovery Channel.
Fine. “But who do you say that I am?”
“You are the Christ.” The Messiah. The anointed king who’ll save us. You’ll make everything better. You’ll supply us with money, power, and prestige. You’ll lighten our burdens, cure our diseases, and bring our dead back to life.
“Get behind me, Satan!” You are the prosecuting attorneys who make me out to be a fraud. You’re going to show the jury just how big a miserable failure I am. I don’t answer your prayers. I don’t fix all your problems. I don’t tell you what to do, I don’t correct your mistakes, I don’t make you feel good about yourselves, and I don’t make life easy for you. I don’t give you anything that you want.
The problem isn’t with me, child. The problem is with what you want. You want a modicum of success—something I never had. The problem lies in your expectations: what you expect out of life and what you expect out of me. You want all those things. Everybody wants those things. I wanted those things. I wish I could have had them, and I wish I could give them all to you. That was my greatest temptation, and it still is.
But, despite all the hoopla—the secular and religious advertising—that’s not how it works. That’s not how any of it works. You don’t get to create for yourself the life you imagine, because you don’t know how it all works. Look around you at all those who have what you want—all those people you envy. Do you call that “success”? Look at the mess most of them have made of their lives, their culture, our world. That’s what you want?
I achieved none of that. Yet, despite my apparent failures—even death on a cross—I actually succeeded. I surrendered to the will of my Father. I accepted reality exactly as it is without expectations and without trying to make it something it isn’t. I lived life on life’s terms. I accepted a future I didn’t see and didn’t understand, and I surrendered to it. In that surrender, I found the Power that created the universe and that drives it still, the Holy Spirit whose only message is to let go and let God. The Spirit is Holy because it does not know failure, it does not know death. My mission yesterday, today, and forever is to show you how to find that living Spirit who will never abandon you, never fail you, and to become one with him. How? Just do what I did. Become a failure like me and you will have what I have. “Take up your cross and follow me.”