Mark 8:31-38
Taming the Toddler
Self
James Sledge February 28, 2021
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Get Thee Behind Me, Satan! James Tissot (1836-1902) from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library |
A four-year-old sees no problem with riding her scooter on the shoulder of the busy street in front of their house. Her parents insist that this will not happen. Are the parents right?
A fourteen-year-old announces that he is dropping out of school to hitchhike across the country, but his parents refuse to let him. He insists that it is his life, and he should be able to do with it as he wishes, but his parents won’t budge. Who is in the right?
The three-year-old, the four-year-old, and the fourteen-year-old are all quite sure they are in the right, that their parents are being arbitrary and harsh by denying them what they want, what they are quite sure will make them happy. But I suspect that the vast majority of parents would do exactly as these parents did, and without the least bit of concern that they being harsh or unreasonable. I think most adults would think these parents justified in their actions, believing that the parents have a better understanding of what it best for their children.
And when these children grow up and become adults, able to make their own decisions even if they are foolish, there will still be limits set for them. They may really want to drive their car through the neighborhood at a hundred miles an hour, but the combined wisdom of society says “No” to that and is more than willing to punish them if they insist on doing what they want.
However, the individualism and consumerism of our day make it more difficult to speak of common good to which all are required to contribute. The notion that I don’t have to wear a mask if I don’t want to, that I need not believe in science or facts if I don’t want to are cases in point. It’s as if more and more in our society are becoming like toddlers who simply want what they want, but without a parent or an adult to tell them “No.”
Of course many of us do wear our masks, and we don’t think we can simply ignore science or facts without any consequences. We aren’t toddlers who believe we can simply get whatever we want because we want it. Except maybe in the arena of faith or religion.
Our gospel reading this morning takes place immediately following Peter’s profession of faith. Jesus had asked his disciples who people said that he was. “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets,” answered the disciples. Then Jesus asks, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter quickly replies, “You are the Messiah.”
Peter knows that Jesus is God’s special anointed, the one Israel has awaited for centuries, but the moment Jesus begins to explain the work that lies before him as Messiah, Peter is having none of it. He pulls Jesus off to the side and began to rebuke him. He reprimands Jesus for saying that he must suffer and die. This is not the sort of Messiah Peter expected, not the sort of Messiah he wants, and so he tries to straighten Jesus out, to tell him he is all wrong about being Messiah. In essence, Peter tells the Messiah that he knows what the Messiah should do better than the actual Messiah does. Wow!
Peter knows what he wants, and he expects Jesus to conform to that. His mind is set on human things, on what he wants. Jesus might be the Messiah, but Peter knows the sort of Messiah he’s looking for, and not even Jesus can tell him differently. No wonder Jesus calls him out the way he does. “Get behind me, Satan!”
Peter acts like a spiritual toddler, thinking he can tell Jesus what to do, but I’m not sure many of us have any reason to feel superior. Lots of us do the same thing all the time. When we were confirmed as church members or when we joined the church as adults we said that Jesus was our Lord and Savior. We promised that we would “be Christ’s faithful disciple, obeying his word and showing his love.” But more often than not, we obey Jesus’ word if it suits us, if we want to. If not, well…
Jesus tries to warn us that this won’t work. He tells his disciples, along with the crowd, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” In other words, “You have to stop doing what you want and start doing what I want.” Or perhaps, “You have to stop wanting what you want and start wanting why I want.”
There’s a famous Dietrich Bonhoeffer quote from his book, The Cost of Discipleship “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” That toddler self that wants what it wants must give way to a new self that wants what Jesus wants.
This language of dying to self and self-denial can both be misunderstood. Jesus does not expect the self, the very things that make us unique individuals, simply to disappear. Self is what makes me ride a motorcycle and enjoy running marathons. It’s what makes another love knitting or Broadway showtunes or playing soccer.
The self is a wonderful thing, but it can be a problem. Like a toddler, the immature self is convinced that it knows best, that the things it wants are simply right. Much of the partisan rancor in our country comes from this, this notion that my wants and choices are good and contrary ones are bad. Racism and prejudice are products of the self. In fact, as wonderful a gift as self is, unrestrained, its wants and desires becomes our master and we its slaves. But Jesus insists that if we are to follow him to the full and abundant life God desires for us, we must break free from this tyranny of the self and trust that he can show us a better way.
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One of the great perversions of Christian faith happened when it was turned into a belief system rather than a way of life. Jesus calls disciples, people who follow him and learn the ways that he shows and teaches. But all too often, the notion of Christianity as a belief system allows people to “believe in Jesus” while still doing pretty much whatever they want.
As Father Richard Rohr once said, “One could be warlike, greedy, racist, selfish, and vain in most of Christian history, and still believe that Jesus is one’s ‘personal Lord and Savior’ or continue to receive Sacraments in good standing.” When Christianity is primarily a belief system, a religion, we can believe and go through all the religious motions while our toddler self still directs our lives, often in ways that are at odds with what Jesus teaches.
“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” If we really want to follow Jesus, we must step out on faith. We must trust that he knows better than we do and go where he calls us.
In a 1963 speech in Detroit, Martin Luther King said, “I submit to you that if a man hasn’t discovered something he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.” No one can be fully alive when their toddler self is in charge. There must be something bigger, something more noble, something that makes the world and others’ lives better to which the self answers And Jesus, God’s love become flesh, beckons us to follow him and discover the life we were created to live.
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