A Caesar Messiah or a Suffering Servant Messiah?

13 Pentecost,  A p17,  August 30, 2020

Jeremiah 15:15-21 Psalm 26:1-8
Romans 12:9-21  Matthew 16:21-28

Lectionary Link

The issues which are found in the Gospel are not limited to the first century; they still are relevant today.

What was a big issue in the first century religious communities of Palestine and beyond?  Was this mythological figure known as the Messiah to be a Caesar Messiah or a Suffering Servant Messiah?

This was one of the crucial issue which led to the separation of the Jesus Movement and the synagogue.

In some ways, the issue has arisen again in the history of the church, based upon the identity which the church has taken with monarchs and other political leaders.

We've been reading the Gospel dialogue between Peter and Jesus.  "Jesus, you are the Messiah, son of the living God."  Well, Peter flesh and blood has not revealed that to you, and on you and this confession the Jesus Movement will be built.  But Peter, let me tell you about the Messiah.  The way in which I will be the Messiah is to suffer, die, and be raised on the third day."  Peter could not accept this; he like many others wanted a Caesar Messiah, not a suffering servant Messiah.  "Jesus, the Messiah does not suffer and die; the Messiah will be great enough to defeat the Caesar, so Jesus, you have to be a Caesar Messiah."  How ironic is this?  Peter telling the Messiah that he does not know the true qualities of the Messiah.   And Jesus said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan who inspires this misunderstanding of Peter.  You are thinking in very human ways but not in the ways of God."

Historically, the Jesus Movement blossomed and took off.  But the Jesus Movement was not an army of people over-throwing the Caesar and the Roman Empire.  Jesus did not have armies to remove the Romans from Palestine.  Jesus was not a Caesar Messiah and the self-understanding of the Jesus Movement was that Jesus represented the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah who spoke about a suffering servant hero Messiah.  The triumph of Jesus, the Messiah,  was an inside job within the hearts of people.  When you control the insides of people, the success eventually becomes a social and external success.

And what happened?  The Jesus Movement eventually became the preferred religion of the Roman Empire after the conversion of the Emperor Constantine.

You and I live in this situation of contradiction.  We believe and confess a suffering servant Messiah even while we have lived as heirs of Empire Christianity.

The Holy Roman Empire and Christendom were essentially expression of Empire Christianity.  When the Church of England separated from the Papal Western Church, it was an Empire Church with the monarch being the head of the church.

The Episcopal Church had to separate itself temporarily from the Empire Church of England during and after the American Revolution.  And even though we supposedly have separation of church and state, all American Christians still live as heir of Empire Christianity.  We have lived as the majority religious group and so the government has functioned more on our behalf than on behalf of people in religious minority groups.

When Empire Christian became colonial Christianity around the world, how ironic that the suffering servant Messiah converted the indigenous people and the natives who were made to be slaves.  What is the result of converting people to the suffering servant Messiah?  Well, the love of God in Christ the Messiah is the offer of equal dignity.  So how can slavery and subjugation be justified in practices of Empire Christianity?  They can't be justified.  Jesus was the suffering servant Messiah so that those who knew his love could walk in wonderful human dignity.

But the power groups of Empire Christianity have not been able to make the adjustment to the true outcome of the suffering servant Messiah.

Today, we live in the aftermath of being Empire Christianity.  We can unwittingly live as though Jesus were a Caesar Messiah.   We assume that we've been on the winning side of history and so it allows a triumphalism which does not really represent the suffering servant Messiah,  Jesus.  

Can you see how the Risen Christ might be repeatedly saying to Empire Christianity, "Get behind me Satan, you are setting your minds on human things, not divine things."

Can you see how we still have before us the issue of the Caesar Messiah and the Suffering Servant Messiah?  In Latin and South American, when priests and nuns were working with the poor, they noted that the official church was actually working on the side of oppressive dictators, keeping people poor.  These priests and nuns read the Gospel and observed that the majority of the Gospel sayings of Jesus were on behalf of the poor, and so they generated what has been called liberation theology. 

In the Manifest Destiny views of the American Colonies, the invaders were Old Testament in their invasion.  They believe America was the new Promised Land.  This is why so many places in America have biblical names.  To achieve Manifest Destiny, indigenous people had to be run off their lands.  To build the colonies, slavery became the main engine of economy and work to help spread their forms of Empire Christianity.  But if you offer slaves and indigenous people the dignity of conversion to Jesus Christ, you have to really mean it to be true to Jesus, the suffering servant.

And for so long, we really did not mean it.  The conquerors tended to believe in a Caesar Messiah, while they were asking the slaves and the native peoples to believe and live the lives of the suffering servant Messiah.  Thus we have been plagued by two classes of Christians, those who inherited the positions of a Caesar Messiah and those who were forced to take the position of the suffering servant Messiah.

And we still live with the consequences of these two types of Christianities in our country today.

But let us be clear:  The true Gospel Jesus Messiah is the suffering servant Messiah.  And this does not mean that we are supposed to just accept servile oppression.  No, Jesus suffered and died in a adequate for us so that we might embrace and offer abundant life to all.   And the abundant life of Christ is the full dignity of the lives of everyone.

The Caesar Messiah and the Suffering Servant Messiah issue is about what is true about freedom.  It is a false hope to wish that some great intervener could end the conditions of freedom and force everyone to become robots of goodness.  And this is why we need to be true to the Messiah as a suffering servant.  We need to be able to live with all the conditions of freedom.  We need to know how to integrate suffering and death into a life of faith of living with the conditions of freedom.

And so what does the suffering servant Jesus the Messiah teach us today?    The power of the suffering and death of Jesus is the mystical power within us to die to ourselves.   And what that mean?  It means that we know that suffering will not go away in the free conditions of life which includes death.  The Suffering Servant Messiah teaches us that God suffers with us.  What else do we learn?  We learn that Christ suffering with us means we do not cause suffering to anyone else.  It is better to suffer that to cause the suffering of others.  And finally how can the suffering servant Messiah be triumphant?  When we use the power of the Spirit to alleviate suffering, when we heal the sick, release the prisoners, feed the hungry, and give the good news of equal worth to every single person.

May the suffering servant Messiah win our hearts today and help us bring healing triumphant power to lives of people who are suffering the most in our world today.  Amen.