September 3, 2023 Christ Church, Rochester

The Rev’d Steven Metcalfe

For those of you following Jesus travels along shores of the Sea of Galilee, we land right back to Caesarea Philippi where we left off last week. He picks up where Peter has confessed him as Messiah to which Jesus compels him to keep silence and tell no one. He doesn’t want this news to be spread around until certain things happen to dispel any likely misunderstanding. So, beginning with his disciples, he follows up Peter’s confession with a corrective to what their understanding of Messiah was sure to be. Remember that the Jewish expectation of the Messiah was for a new and final, all powerful King of Israel. His reign would establish the nation as the Israel of God, wiping away every enemy and gathering them in the Divine Kingdom on earth. Jesus, as we know, sees something else taking place: Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. This news was not received very well as we heard. So, what’s going on here?

From here on in the Gospel, Jesus will announce to the disciples 2 more times the imminence of his rejection, arrest, and crucifixion. Each time his prediction is preceded by a significant event or act which is critical to the understanding of who Jesus is and what he has come to do. They, of course, each time respond with horror or utter incomprehension. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” If they don’t understand you can imagine how people generally would react if they began to spread the word. Especially enigmatic would be the final prediction “after three days rise.”

Much more about the narrative is intriguing and I comment it to your study, I want to move on to what I think is what I think usefully can be considered for us today. Jesus immediately wants to correct what he knows is their expectation. He was their messiah, after all, he had demonstrated wonders and miracles. There was no reason to believe he, and they of course, would not go from strength to strength and achieve the ultimate glory. Those disciples, and we, must be cautioned, again and again about the hazards of expectations. I suspect that’s why he had to make the point at least 3 times.

Here’s what I’ve learned about the insidious threat of expectations. Often they are formed around other people. A woman I know well was in shock and devastated the day she received a note from her son informing her that he was cutting her out of his life. He instructed her not to call, come over, send emails, write notes or in any way to attempt to contact him. A vague reason was given to the effect that he just couldn’t deal with the way she was and his mental health was affected. Of course she was horrified and wanted to know what in the world she had done to so damage what she thought was a close relationship. Many expectations arose in her around this unthinkable injury. The first was that she expected him to explain what she had done. And, of course, she made innumerable efforts to break through his silence as it was clearly, to her, a reasonable expectation that he respond. What could she do to get him back in her life. It was obvious to me that no explanation would be either given or even succeed in explaining to her what it was all about. That’s because it wasn’t about her at all but about him. Her expectation was that she could fix whatever it was and that he would come back. It was at least two years before he cautiously began to reconnect. She had finally learned to back off her expectation and look within for acceptance of her powerlessness. She found strength to let go of her feelings of betrayal, hurt and anger. She let him be, no more pressure means no more resistance from him. She could not fix what was going on with him and she had to take responsibility for what was going on in herself. The long journey toward self awareness and inner pain management was successfully travelled, their relationship was healed.

It’s always easier to expect something or someone outside ourselves to change to satisfy the needs we feel. The messiah is here to change the world. Laws should be changed so I can have a better life. This person should be elected to reform society to my liking. If only that person would include me in the new project I would feel good about myself. It takes a lot of disappointment to finally redirect our attention to ourselves and look within to relieve our discontent.

Notice also that expectations are inextricably bound to the future. Sacrificing our present life for what we expect should happen in the future is to be stuck in a place that isn’t really there. That is especially ruinous when expectations depend upon someone else or our dubious power to control outcomes. This powerless place is called denial where any way forward is kept out of sight. Expectations which cling to a fantasy future can only be dispelled by thorough acceptance of truth. The freedom my friend discovered came from surrender to the truth. There’s nothing to be fixed. Reality is in the hands of God. Jesus, of course, is the light of life, he is the way, the truth, and the life. To refuse the truth is to lose your way and abandon life.

Not only does Jesus insist on revealing the painful truth about himself he also opens the way forward. In the 16th chapter of John’s Gospel, Jesus gives his final messages about what is happening to him and also to them. because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you...When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth

With that truth comes power, not from outside to fix a broken reality, but from the Spirit within to transform and renew life. The salvation of the world comes quietly by this way of truth. David Hawkins, psychiatrist and spiritual teacher offers this simple insight: by changing ourselves, we change the world. As we become more loving on the inside, healing occurs on the outside. Much like the rising of the sea level lifts all ships, so the radiance of unconditional love within a human heart lifts all of life.” The mission of Christ in the world, of which we are today’s vanguard, is about transformation. He has not come to fix the world, to set it back as it was before. He reveals creation still happening from within, we’re always becoming who we really are.

God will not stop bringing the world into an evermore beautiful and wondrous reality. Pain and loss, disappointment and misunderstanding are part of the process. St. Paul refers to this as the labor pains of creation from which the whole world groans. May we accept discomfort with life as it comes to us as a sign that the Spirit is guiding us to that place that Jesus has prepared for us...Not a place of death but of unexpected new life in the spirit of Truth.