Sermon for Sunday, February 22, 2004  

THE CROSS: JESUS' HUMANITY AND DIVINITY

2nd in a Series on "Jesus, Paul and the Way of the Cross

By
Rev. Dr. Harvey C. Martz

 

Scripture: I Corinthians 1:18-28

18 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart." 20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, 23 but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength. 26 Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are.

I did not get an invitation to a preview of Mel Gibson's new film, apparently because I am of the wrong theological persuasion, but I have been reading all of the articles I can from those who have seen it and I saw the interview with him last week on ABC. I have copied some of those articles for you and they are on a table in the foyer.

As I said the film has been previewed by a highly selective audience - I don't believe Jews or mainstream clergy were invited - and some strict requirements were laid on those who did get to see the film ahead of time.

That rigid approach to advance screenings has been only a part of the controversy. Gibson affirmed in Monday night's interview that he did say about one of his critics that he wished he could have that critic's intestines on a stick and that he wanted to kill that person's dog - he expressed remorse for saying that about the man's dog.

In spite of that outrageous comment, Gibson is being praised by large numbers of clergy, one of whom said that this film is the best evangelistic resource we have had since the time of Jesus. I find that statement a bit of an exaggeration because it looks like to me that the Bible itself is a fairly good evangelistic resource and that has come to us since the time of Jesus!!

Gibson said in Monday's interview that he takes full responsibility for what is in the movie, that he is the decision maker about what is in the film. His words were, "This is my version of what happened; it shows what I wanted to show." That is an important statement because he has included some things that are not in the Bible and are not in Christian history, and if people don't know that ahead of time, they will be misled.

He also said about the Bible that you either accept it all or it is not useful (that is not a United Methodist approach to scripture), and he talked about what the sacrificial death of Christ means to him personally and how he came to a real crossroads in his life journey when the suffering and death of Jesus took on a deeper significance for him and turned his life around.

I am going to see the movie this week and will be going again in a couple of weeks with our senior high students and will meet with them after to discuss it. The film is an important resource for us if we understand ahead of time some insights about it.

The first thing we need to know is that this is not a film about the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Christ. You will not learn much about who Jesus is and what he stands for and why all these people are so angry they want to kill him. This is not a film about Jesus the prophet and teacher. It is a film about the last twelve hours of his life. It is about his suffering and death. The two-hour film contains an hour and half of torture and suffering.

In other words, this is the genre of a passion play, a form of drama which dates from the fourteenth century and which often had the effect of stirring up hatred against the Jews as "Christ killers". That, of course, has been one of the fears that has been raised very often by both Jewish and mainstream Christian scholars. We have attempted recently in Christendom, to repent and change direction about giving people reason to think that we can blame only one group for the crucifixion. This is a passion play like the one at Oberammergau or the ones that occur in different parts of our country.

And as a passion play, it focuses primarily on Jesus excruciating suffering and sacrificial death. It is so graphic that some reviewers are not recommending that children see it. In fact, from the ABC interview, Gibson says that Jesus falls many times under the weight of the cross. Those numerous falls are not in the Bible. 

The intense focus on the suffering and death of Jesus seem to me to come out of Gibson's particular perspective on religion - it is impossible to make a film or write a sermon without bringing our personal beliefs to it. He is described as an ultraconservative Catholic who does not believe in the reforms of the second Vatican Council 35 years ago and even feels that those reforms have corrupted the current Catholic church.

And in the Orthodox tradition and in the Catholic tradition, the emphasis on the story of Jesus is different from mainstream Protestantism. Let me show you how. Here are two crosses: one is Orthodox, the other is Protestant. The emphasis in Orthodox Christianity and Catholic Christianity is on Jesus' sacrificial death and on his atoning suffering for us. So in all their crosses, Christ is still on the cross. In Protestantism, in most cases, the cross is empty. Jesus is alive and among us, he is not still suffering and dying for us, and I believe we hear more about his teaching and his commandments and his example of faithful obedience than we do about his sacrifice. 

The very symbolism of these crosses tells us a great deal about our faith!!

Which is more important for you? Both are important, but which is more important, Jesus death or his life/example/ teaching? Which was most important for Paul - do you know? Or to put it differently, how much does Paul tell us about the teachings and example of Jesus? Paul mentions almost nothing of Jesus' teaching! Of all the almost 40 parables Jesus left us with, Paul mentions not a one. And only two times do we ever hear anything about what Jesus taught.

What do we hear about from Paul? What is most important for Paul about Jesus? We just learned about it in I Corinthians. Paul focuses almost entirely on the cross; on Jesus sacrificial death and how that brings us back to God and reconciles us. And these words from this letter are pivotal. The cross is a scandal, a stumbling block for Jews and Gentiles. Why? Because it was unthinkable for Jews that the messiah would suffer and die an ignominious death. Crucifixion in the Roman Empire was not the only form of execution the Romans used. It was the worst form and it was reserved only for the heinous criminals or for people they wanted to make an example of. What crime was Jesus charged with? Jesus was charged and crucified as an insurrectionist. He was found guilty of treason against Rome, claiming to be a king when there could only be one king.

The Romans crucified many people whom they wanted to make an example of and the place where Jesus and the true insurrectionists - not thieves - crucified with him was on a very public roadway in and out of the city where all would see.

For Paul, Jesus' atoning, sacrificial death is what is important, and Paul and others have labored to explain just how Jesus' death can put us right with God. Some of the explanations have been crude and embarrassing, and Professor William Barclay tells us about those in his little booklet, "Who Is Jesus" which I heartily commend to you.

The church has tried to explain the atoning death of Jesus by saying that Jesus had to die as a ransom to the devil because Satan had all of human kind in his power and only the death of God's son would be sufficient to pay the ransom or the debt.

Another version is that we deserve to die because we are sinful, worthless wretches but God could not be satisfied with our death because we are too sinful so it took the death of God's innocent son to satisfy God's sense of justice. Jesus' death took on all of our sins just as the sacrificial lamb did in the Old Testament and by his stripes we are healed. This is the most prevalent explanation of why Jesus had to die, but professor Barclay wisely raises question like, "What sort of God is this who has to make someone die before God is able to forgive? Didn't God forgive people even before Jesus came along?"

That last theory is one that Gibson talked about Monday night in the interview. He said that ever since the first man and woman, we have been living in sin and God has not been able to forgive us until the atoning sacrificial death of Jesus. His words were that with Adam and Eve's original sin, the gates of eternal life were closed for all people until Jesus came and died. Well, what about all the rest of the Bible stories of Jacob and Joseph and Moses and David and Isaiah and all the others who were forgiven by God and received into heaven before Jesus? We can't just tear out all those pages of our Bible to fit a neat little theory. And why is this picture of God so bloodthirsty??

What I hope you will do, most of you, is to see this film and see it as only as a portion of the Biblical message of Jesus.

Before you see it, please look at the articles on the table and be aware of some of the things in the film that are not in the Bible. Mel Gibson is a sincere Christian but he is not a biblical scholar and he has done what most artists do, he has taken some artistic liberties and license. For instance: in the Bible there is no satanic figure in the garden of Gethsemane but in the movie there is. In the movie Jesus is beaten on his chest as well as his back, but the Romans only beat prisoners on the back (Why does the film make it more gruesome than it was?)  People were nailed to the cross by their wrists because that was the only way it worked but the film has the nails through Jesus' hands. The film implies that Mary Magdalene was the woman caught in adultery in John's gospel but there is no Biblical evidence for that. The film has Jesus say on the way to the cross that he makes all things new. That is not in the gospel story but is mentioned in the book of Revelation which puts it in an entirely different context. It seems jarring and inauthentic to me to put it where Gibson puts it.

In the film Pilate is portrayed as being intimidated by Caiphas the high priest when Pilate actually has authority over everyone else and is the only one authorized to judge and sentence people, and Pilate was not a nice gentle fellow. And in the first century prisoners were made to carry only the cross bar of the cross and not the entire thing. Gibson has Jesus carry the entire cross.

Also, if people only see this film as their resource for understanding Jesus, they will have no idea why this is all happening. Scholar John Dominick Crossan says on ABC that the movie gives no context to show why anyone was angry at Jesus. You and I know that because we have read more of the story and seen him breaking the rules and rituals that had been substituted for true faith, seen him advocating for the poor and the voiceless, and we have seen the anger he stirred up when he questioned the religious authorities and made them look bad. He kept reaching out and including all those sinners who did not belong because they were impure. He even ate with sinners!!

But that part of the story seems to be missing in the film - again it is primarily a passion play and not a film about the life and ministry of Jesus and how he calls us to live his ethics and his teachings. You will have to fill in the blanks for your friends if they only know about Jesus from this film and not from the Bible.

Let me offer some questions to ask yourself and to discuss with your friends. Why was Jesus killed? There is more than one answer to that. Who killed him? Which is more important to you - his sacrificial suffering and death, or his ethics and example of faithful obedience.  Do you believe God was capable of forgiving sin before Jesus came? How does Jesus' death put you right with God? Which do you find more engaging or attractive, Jesus' humanity or divinity? Which portrayal of Jesus speaks more clearly to you, the superhuman Jesus of the Gospel of John, or the more human Jesus of Matthew, Mark, and Luke?

AND what do you think about Catholic scholar Raymond Brown's statement on your bulletin that the first thing we would do with Jesus if he returned is to crucify him again? I think that is true. I think he would be just as upsetting to the Pharisees - the religious leaders today as he was then in his questioning of our self righteousness and his welcoming of the people we are leaving out and condemning. What do you think?

Finally, let me urge you to see some of the other excellent films that have done what Gibson fails to do - portray more of the whole story so we can put this twelve hours or torture into context. I particularly urge you to see the film now in theaters based entirely on the Gospel of John and using as a script only the Good News translation of that Gospel. It is excellent and has one of the most authentic portrayals of Jesus I have seen. We will also be showing three films during the last three weeks of Lent for anyone who wants to see some of the less famous ones that are more difficult to obtain such as Pier Pasolini's Gospel According to St. Matthew.

Best of all, let me urge you to let all this discussion motivate you to read your Bible and learn the story again from the original source! Start with Mark. You can skim that in less than an hour. Use that for your overview and then move to Luke and see why Jesus is so radical and so attractive and so important for us who are trying to find abundant life in his name!! And let Jesus' example of faithfulness and obedience to God guide your life so that you and I may be as faithful and as self-giving as he is!

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