Faith Venture

Some guy who grew up in the neighborhood and went off to college returns and sets up a little business teaching people how to live. They call him teacher. Plus he does some pretty amazing party tricks. He gathers a small group of loyal groupies who follow him around to learn more from him. Then one day he stops just outside a hall of fame memorial and asks his group, “Who am I?” Hmm. Was that a trick question?

The biographers of Jesus, as we read in the Bible, never tell us where Jesus studied. Did he have a master with whom he studied? Did he travel far (as is taught in India that he went there to learn from spiritual masters)? We don’t know. He just showed up one day obviously having studied the community’s scriptures better and more deeply than anyone before (or since). And he started teaching to anyone who would listen. He assembled a core group of students obviously meant to get trained to carry on after him. His works were more than just pretty amazing. So he’s a man living openly, yet a man of mystery.

One day outside the Temple of Pan in the region of Cesarea Phillipi with all its pagan deities represented, he asks his students, “Who am I?” They struggle with the answer. Finally Peter blurts out, “You are the Messiah.” That is, he’s the long-awaited leader of the Hebrew nation. The saviour who will lead the nation back to political prominence. Peter says that, but he obviously didn’t have a clue as to what he meant. It just sounded right at the time.

Who is Jesus is the question we still struggle with. Pope Benedict (while he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger) wrote a book attempting to answer the question. He harkens back to Moses (the greatest prophet, who also spoke directly with God) who said another prophet is coming who will be greater than I.

I’m not going to answer the question in a 500 word essay. But I do know that when I’m meditating I forget to focus on this question. Answering this question within my life will help me focus my life–I know from past experience and in anticipation of future experiences. That’s why I love to study the gospels. Forget about Paul’s theological arguments. Just focus on who is Jesus.

Have you ever had your thoughts flowing in a direction and someone comes along with a comment that seems to fit–but it doesn’t? It breaks the flow and makes you wonder–or ponder. In my profession as editor of a technical magazine, I practice this often. People come in with a PowerPoint presentation of 50 slides or so, where 45 slides are preamble designed to impress me with the speaker’s knowledge of the industry and technology–stuff I already know. I’m impatient for them to get to the important stuff. I ask a question that points to the heart of the matter. Almost always, they’ll say something like “I’ll get to that, I have to build up to it.” In other words, they have to stay within the script that they’ve already planned.

Well, Jesus’ closest friends also had that problem. Mark (Chapter 8) writes about a time when they were apart from the crowds. Jesus had just fed 4,000 people with physical bread along with the spiritual bread he always distributed. This time, though, someone forgot the bread. And they were getting hungry. Boy, a piece of bread and some hummus would really go well right now. Who forgot to pick up the bread? What are we going to do without bread?

Then Jesus says, “Beware the yeast of Herod and the yeast of the Pharisees.” Broke their chain of thought. Caught them off guard. They’re thinking bread. Yeast goes in bread. He must be talking about bread.

We do that often when we read The Bible. We’re thinking at one level. God’s at another. We forget to stop and read with spiritual eyes. When you read Jesus’ interpretations of his sayings, he always goes directly to a spiritual explanation. But spiritual doesn’t mean “otherworldly.” It means how do you live your life with God.

So, yeast? It’s something that permeates the dough. It completely changes the character of the dough. Yes, it’s about bread–except it isn’t. The yeast of Herod? That is the part of human nature that wants power. You want to be in charge. Boss people around. It’s all about me, and “me” manipulating others to perform my will. The yeast of the Pharisees? That’s all about the human nature to want lists of rules to follow. I make the rules. I interpret the rules. I make others follow the rules–or at least judge them by how well they follow the rules. These are both attitudes that interfere with living with God–another way of saying living in the Spirit.

It took Jesus’ friends a couple of years to learn these messages. Actually, they really grew up when he wasn’t there physically to be the teacher and they had to become the teachers. Have you learned, yet? It’s really a life-long process.

Have you ever experienced a spiritual high? Perhaps around the campfire at a summer camp? Or perhaps during an Emmaus Walk? Perhaps after an intense period of prayer. Contemplatives might meditate for years before experiencing an intense revelation of God. If you’ve ever had this experience, you think it will never end. You’ll live your life on the mountaintop of emotional and spiritual ecstasy. You have seen the revelation of God and now you know everything.

Then things change. You are besieged by demons that you never knew existed before. That spiritual high has been replace by doubts, you are tempted to do things you’d have never  before thought of doing. Trust me. It happens. If you are in that latter period of life, don’t despair. You are not unique, and if you remember your source of love and understanding, then you’ll recover and grow.

Mark briefly describes Jesus’ baptism by John then says immediately Jesus went into the wilderness to be tempted. He doesn’t go into any detail of the experiences that Jesus had. Only says that he was tempted by Satan and the angels waited on him. We get a glimpse of some of the details of the temptations from other gospels–and of how Jesus was able to quote from spiritual texts to answer the temptations.

We learn from this that we should expect temptations, doubts, spiritual and emotional turmoil after agreeing to living a life with God. We learn that by consciously recognizing the temptation for what it is and answering by studying what the Bible and saints who have overcome this tell us about how to go beyond the problems to a renewed life with God. “Get behind me, Satan,” as the comedian Flip Wilson used to say in one of his characters.

Jesus is the pioneer and example of our faith. If he had temptations, you can be we will. But we know that they are but a momentary obstacle on our road to life. Let the angels minister to you (and other people). Continue your life with God.