11 January 2024 Mark 1:40-45
Jesus never meant to start a new religion. He meant to perfect an old one.
On a number of occasions in the gospels Jesus tells his disciples, recipients of his healing power or some other mighty act not to tell anyone, not to say anything: “See that you say nothing to anyone….” Scholars have called this the “Messianic Secret,” and many find it puzzling. Why would Jesus not want people to talk about the most marvelous and powerful things he ever did? Why would he not want people to acknowledge him as Messiah? Isn’t that why he came – to be recognized as Messiah? Jesus, however, seems to have thought that people had the wrong idea about what “Messiah” meant, and a lot of loose talk might prove to be more distracting than helpful.
People might think he came to start a new religion instead of perfect an old one.
Many Jews at the time of Jesus thought the Messiah was going to be a political deliverer, who would chuck the Romans out and inaugurate a new golden age of peace, prosperity, and Jewish power. Jesus, on the other hand came to cast out sin, death, and Satan and inaugurate the Kingdom of God. Many Jews at the time of Jesus were likely to be so dazzled by Jesus works of healing, exorcism, mass feedings, and wine from water that they wouldn’t want to see or hear anything else: “Do the bread trick!” they would say, and not care at all about the Bread of Life.
They would want a new religion, instead of perfecting the old one.
Jesus wanted to take his time, because he knew his gospel would require of people some serious adjustment. When he went to his home town of Nazareth, he went to the synagogue and read from Isaiah a prophecy of the restoration of the nation of Israel, and announced, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke4:21). He was claiming to be the Messiah, but the people only wanted to see one of his tricks, and “spoke well of him” (4:22-3). “Great! Swell! Do the bread trick! Do the wine trick too – we’re thirsty!” Then he told them what his mighty acts meant. They meant that Gentiles would be the Chosen People, too – Samaritans, Greeks, Romans.
That’s when they wanted to throw him off a cliff (4:25-29).
A new religion with bread and wine was fine, but not with Greeks and Romans.
It takes time for people to get their minds and hearts around all the things that Jesus intends. They have to think, and talk, and study and pray, a lot. They have to spend a lot of time with people who really know Jesus, and so there have to be people who really know Jesus, who have put in the time and understand that Jesus did not come to start a new religion, but perfect an old one. There isn’t anything in the Old Testament that Christians don’t believe: “Spiritually we are all Semites,” like Pope Pius XI said. Anti-Semitism among Christians is a kind of suicide. Christianity means welcoming the stranger, like the widow of Zarephath (I Kings 17:7-16) and Naaman the Syrian (II Kings 5:1-27), even the stranger you don’t like, who may not like you, who may not understand you, who may think you an enemy. Christianity means suffering, perhaps for a long time, until suspicious strangers get it through their heads that we are the friends we have always been.
Suffering like the Jews did, like the Jews do.
Because Jesus didn’t come to found a new religion, but perfect an old one.
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