Who Was That Masked Man?

"Who Was That Masked Man?
Matthew 16:13-20

Comedienne Lily Tomlin once said, "I've always wanted to be somebody, but I see now I should have been more specific."  Funny.  But nonetheless true.  Too many people have not been specific enough about the somebody they've always wanted to be.  Too many settle for something less than they should or could have been.  Or chase after being someone that just doesn't fit who they really are.

And some, in the pursuit of becoming that somebody, lose sight of who or what that is.  In a biography of the actor Peter Sellers titled, The Mask Behind the Mask, Peter Evans says that actor Peter Sellers played so many roles he sometimes was not sure of his own identity. Approached once by a fan who asked him, "Are you Peter Sellers?" Sellers answered briskly, "Not today," and walked on.

Don't you feel like that some days?  In the push and shove of life, some days our identity does get lost.  There are days our anger goes full flush and we lose who we are in that red, hot-faced state.  There are days we may be so depressed that self-identity is hard to come by at the bottom of that kind of well.  And there are days we are putting out so many fires, trying to take care of so many people's needs, we forget who we are and that we need to remember to take care of ourselves.

When we think of the identities we have, the kinds of persons we are, the kinds of people we think we are, we must realize that a good part of that identity is not of our own making.  That's often a painful realization especially in the teenage years.

What we soon realize is that others have just as big a part in shaping our identities as we do.  We may not want to admit that, but it is true.  Alistair Cooke was, prior to his death, best known in America as the stately host of the PBS show, "Masterpiece Theater."  But in his native England, Cooke's fame rested largely on his "Letter From America," a 15 minute essay broadcast weekly over BBC radio to more than one million Britons.  When asked hew he felt he was perceived by his two across-the-pond audiences, Cooke responded, "It's comical but true.  I seem to be seen in America as a benign old English gentleman, and in England as an enlightened American."

The point is, no matter how we think we really are, people will have their own perceptions, and act towards us according to those perceptions.  Montaigne once said that, "A man is hurt not so much by what happens as by others opinions of what happened."  That's the sad truth.

We can expand on that statement in terms of our identities.  A lot of times it is not so much who we are as it is people's opinions of who we are that shape our identities.  That's what Jesus is wrestling with in this story that was read from Matthew.  Jesus knew who He was.  But He is not sure anyone else does.  Other people seem to have charge of His reputation and identity through their opinions and conversations with each other.

Jesus can't find that out by Himself.  When people have opinions about others, that have to do with their perceptions of those others, the others are usually not in on those kinds of conversations.  We do not tell others, to their face, how we perceive them to be, what kind of person we see them to be.  We talk about those kinds of things behind others backs.  But Jesus has 12 spies—the disciples—who can infiltrate the crowds and find out what the people are saying about Jesus.

Jesus found out from his opinion poll taking disciples, that there are three general perceptions being held about him by people.  Everyone is looking at Jesus, but coming up with different perceptions.  Those visions of what kind of person they thought Jesus was were attached to two figures from the past history of the Jewish religion, and one who is a contemporary of Jesus.  All three were larger than life kinds of people.

They were Elijah, Jeremiah, and John the Baptist.  They were people who any of us would be proud to be associated with.  Certainly Jesus must have felt that way.  Or would he of?  Why did the people choose these three men around which to focus their perceptions of Jesus?  Why not Moses?  Or Abraham?  Or David?

There are interesting qualities of Elijah, Jeremiah and John the Baptist that may be coming into play from the people's perspective.  I want to highlight those qualities because I think they are still being used in our current evaluation of Jesus.

Let's look first at Jeremiah.  He was, without a doubt, one of Israel's greatest prophets.  He was a spokesman for God during some of the darkest hours in Israel's history.  But this opinion of Jeremiah is one gained looking back on things.  It is after the flow of history has shown us that what Jeremiah said was true, and came about, that we hold him up as a great voice of God.

But what is interesting, yet tragic, is that while Jeremiah was alive, and trying to be a faithful witness of God's word, not many paid attention to him.  And those who did, tried to avoid him.  He was imprisoned.  He was thrown down old wells and left to die in the mud.  But more importantly, no one took him, or his words, seriously.  He was ignored.  No one understood who he really was.  In the end, Jeremiah was stoned to death by his own people.

So, when people said they thought Jesus was another Jeremiah, are they really saying, "Here is a person who is fun to watch, but for the most part we can ignore"?  Are they saying, "His message is interesting, and he's a good storyteller, but we don't have to take him with much seriousness"?

That has to be the majority opinion of our modern, general population towards Jesus.  That Jeremiah overlay upon Jesus is the most prevalent today.  People, for the most part, just don't pay attention to Jesus.  He is not someone who is taken seriously in the modern flow of culture.  People listen to his words but go away as if they had been entertained rather than engrossed by them.  We hear what he says and live as we please.

"Who do people say that I am?" Jesus asked.
"Some say, 'Jeremiah.'" is the answer.

Others said Elijah.  Elijah's life provides some of the best reading in the Old Testament.  He was someone who had God's ear and spoke with God's voice, and summoned the very powers of God out of the sky.

He is reported to have never died.  When he was walking with his protege, Elisha, one day, this amazing fiery chariot appeared out of the sky, drove between Elijah and Elisha creating a whirlwind.  The whirlwind caught up Elijah and pulled him into heaven.

Because of that, the tradition was that Elijah would return to earth as a forerunner to the coming of the Messiah.  Elijah was to pave the way, and be the herald for the coming Savior of the world.

So when people looked at Jesus and perceived him to be Elijah, what they were saying was, "Yes, this guy is important, but he is not the Savior."  They were making the evaluation that Jesus did have some religious significance but that he was only the warm-up act for the real show.

It isn't hard to see the modern applications of that perception of Jesus.  Yes, Jesus is important as a moral teacher, as a spokesman for God, but He is not the great liberator of God, sent to save us from our maladjusted selves.  People can accept Jesus as a great man, but taking that next step of accepting Him as Peter did:  "…the Messiah, the Son of the Living God," that is the hard part.  We can accept Jesus as an Elijah; accepting Him as a Savior makes us squirm too much.

And again, who pays much attention to the warm-up act before the real show?  We paid our money to see the real thing, and if we can make Jesus out to be the warm-up act, then we don't have to take Him with much seriousness, and with only half our attention.

The last of the three people identified with Jesus was John the baptist.  One of the qualities of John the Baptist was shared by the other two men:  John really knew how to stick to his verbal guns.  He, like Jeremiah and Elijah, was fearlessly outspoken about what was right and wrong, what was a proper lifestyle and was not for the people of God, and would not back down on any of their words even if they were spoken against high and exalted rulers.  For Jesus to be associated with that kind of forthright speaking must have been a compliment.

But another quality that John shared with the other two men was that they were all a bit odd.  Their very message, and often the way it was delivered, put them at odds with the social and religious order of things.  Jeremiah walked the streets of Jerusalem bare naked with his arms tied to an ox yoke, and as he walked he would shout out, "As I am, so will Israel be when the Babylonians come in and destroy everything."

Elijah was the bi-polar figure who at his heights called down fire out of heaven and destroyed idol worshippers, and then would turn around and be found cowering and whimpering in a cave, all depressed thinking he was all alone in the world.  And John the baptist—I mean the guy dressed in these weird animal furs like a Neanderthal, and ate bugs for his food.

These guys aren't the kind of people you would invite over for a poker party or backyard barbecue.  We would look at these three and either say out loud, or at least think to ourselves, "He's not one of 'our' kinds of people."  They were strange.  They were odd.  They were non-establishment kinds of men.

The point should be clear.  For Jesus to be seen as a John the baptist, as an Elijah, or as a Jeremiah by the people of his day is to say, "Jesus is a little odd."  Being closely associated with Jesus may knock your social standing down a few notches, so it is something you better keep quiet about.

We steer clear of odd people.  Or we try to.  Like the guy who found a large, mangy looking mutt in his front yard.  On the collar of the dog was a note that read, "If found, don't bother to return."  That is the way it is with the John the baptist types we run into.  It is amazing who we must pass by each day.

In one of Kurt Vonnegut's short stories, he tells about two women.  One is a corporate executive, smartly dressed, driven to be the best, powerful.  The other woman is a bag lady, living in a cardboard box, apparently eking out a living from her collection held in her stolen shopping cart.  At the end of the story, you find out both women are the same woman.

It must be frustrating when you have a sense of your identity, who you are, what kind of person you are, what you are about, but other people, through their misguided perceptions take charge of your outward reputation.  When that happens, there has to be the wish, especially by Jesus in this case, that at least someone out there knows the real truth about who you are.  Someone who gets it.

And in respect to Jesus, the majority will come up wrong.  The majority will always be trying to figure out how to keep Jesus in safe categories, stuck with labels of impotence.

But there will always be a few, a minority, who will really see, who will through direct relationship, take the time and risk the effort to really know this Jesus, whom the world doesn't pay much attention to, treats him as only a warm-up to the real thing, or as a very odd, non-establishment sort of person.  There will be a few who will close their ears to hearsay and gossip, who will look beneath the surface, and discover the liberator, the Son of God.  Are you one of the few?