Accepting the Call
Peter, the fisherman who was minding his family business when Jesus walked along the seashore that day, left his nets to follow Jesus. He spent the rest of his life doing God’s work and we hear nothing else about his former life. Peter was working in Antioch in 55 CE when God called him to travel to Rome to meet with the Christians who were suffering tremendous persecution under the Emperor Nero. One of the stories of that persecution that has come down to us is that, on one occasion, Christians were covered with tar and set ablaze to light the Emperor’s gardens at night. And there are many accounts of Christians being dragged into the arena to be eaten by wild beasts or killed by various means for the emperor’s entertainment. Yet Peter traveled to Rome from distant Antioch and, during that visit, he was imprisoned and later killed, crucified upside down in a circus arena.
The Vatican Exhibit, which leaves San Antonio this week, opens with the story of the discovery of Peter’s tomb, far beneath the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome. This is a place that has been a shrine to the Apostle Peter for two thousand years. In 300 CE, the Emperor Constantine built a church over the shrine and, in the fifteenth century, the first basilica was constructed on this site by one of the popes. Over the centuries, larger and ever more permanent structures have been built until, in the current time, the magnificent Basilica of St. Peter marks the site of Peter’s grave. How do they know that the body uncovered in the tomb below the Basilica is that of the Apostle Peter? The short answer is that they don’t. They only know that in the exact place where ancient writings have said that Peter was buried following his crucifixion, there is a two-thousand-year-old corpse of a older man that has no feet. Biblical scholars have always assumed that Peter was an older man, since he was running the family fishing business when Jesus called him to be a disciple. And, if he was in his mid-forties when Jesus called him, he would have been in his late sixties or seventy years old when he was martyred. Ancient stories of Peter’s crucifixion tell of the first century Christians being forced to cut off Peter’s feet to remove his body quickly from the cross before they were discovered in the act by Nero’s soldiers. Did Peter know that he was going to die for his faith? At what point did he accept his call… with the full awareness of what it might ask of him? At what point did he know that God had singled him out for divine task… a holy mission that would demand everything of him…even his very life?
Mark is the one who tells us this story, so let’s briefly review what we know about Mark and his gospel. Mark’s gospel is the earliest of the four gospel texts. Mark himself never knew Jesus and was unfamiliar with the area around Galilee where Jesus did most of his work during his lifetime… as is evident in the many mistakes about the geography of Galilee that appear in his writing. According to second century Christian sources, Mark was a disciple of Peter and an interpreter of Peter’s writing and his ministry. It was Mark who, after Peter was martyred in Rome, wrote the gospel to record for posterity the stories that he had heard Peter tell of Jesus and his ministry. The stories are not in chronological order… and they are not embellished with any detail… for Mark did not know the details. He only knew that the stories were important because they each told us something about Jesus… something about a faith worth dying for… something about the reason why Jesus died… and the reason why Peter was willing to die for his faith. And it is the story that Mark recorded for Christians in Rome during one of the most horrendous persecutions of the early church that we have the privilege of sharing today.
So, what was it that Mark wanted to communicate in this story from his gospel to those Christians… and to those of us who follow after them? What message would strengthen their faith… and our faith today? To dispel any doubts that the Roman Christians might have had about who Jesus was, Mark reveals his identity in the first eleven verses of his gospel in such a way that no one could argue the point. Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the long-awaited Messiah. How do we know that? Mark shows us five different clues to Jesus identity… five affirmations of his identity as the Son of God and the long-awaited Messiah.
The first affirmation is the way in which Jesus’ coming is announced. Anyone who has read the Old Testament knows that the Messiah’s coming is foretold by the prophets. But, for the first century Jews, there may have been a problem there, for there had not been any prophets in Israel for more than four hundred (400) years! Thus, there might be some skepticism that this was the One whose coming was foretold. Still, his coming was foretold… and to emphasize that, Mark has his coming foretold again… prophesied by someone who is clearly a prophet… John the Baptizer. And how do we know that John is a prophet? Well, according to Mark, he lived in the wilderness… where prophets tended to live... because that was where God’s great revelations came to them. John dressed in camel hair and a leather belt… as all good prophets did… like Elijah, for example. He ate locusts and wild honey.... as prophets did… great prophets like Isaiah. So, with all these signs, we know that John is a prophet and he tells us that One is coming who is greater than he is… the one who will baptize us with the Holy Spirit.
The second affirmation is the journey that Jesus makes from Nazareth to where John is baptizing people in the Jordan. Remember that Jesus was a carpenter. As his father’s eldest son, he would have helped his father in his business and worked as a carpenter himself. He had no reason to ever leave the village, except to make the annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem to worship at the temple. So, why would he make the long journey to the Jordan, unless, as Mark believes, the time had come for him to take up his duties as the Messiah? Mark believes that Jesus’ journey to see John was his acceptance of his calling… and the beginning of his ministry on earth.
The third affirmation of Jesus’ identity came after Jesus was baptized when the heavens were torn open. This divine action… precipitated by Jesus’ baptism… dramatically demonstrated the breaking of the barrier that existed between God and humankind. The Greek verb used to describe how the heavens were torn open is only used in one other place in the Gospel of Mark and that is when the curtain in the temple is torn when Jesus is crucified… another sign of barriers between God and humankind being destroyed through Jesus’ actions.
The fourth affirmation of Jesus’ identity came through the actions of the Holy Spirit, descending in the form of a dove, to rest upon Jesus. As Christians, we have been promised the indwelling of the Holy Spirit as one of the perks, if you will, of being baptized. The Holy Spirit comes to give us understanding of God’s word… and power to act upon it. The dove was visible confirmation that Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit… confirmation that the Christians of Rome needed to have… so that they would know that they, too, would have the power of the Holy Spirit to guide them and to give them courage in their time of persecution.
Finally, there was the voice that came from heaven… “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” This was also what the Christians in Rome needed to hear… that God himself had claimed this man, Jesus of Nazareth, as his Son… that this man was the only Son, the Beloved Son, of God… and that God was pleased with this man… with his Son. This was overwhelming confirmation that this man they followed was truly the long-awaited Messiah, the Son of God. And these signs were given to strengthen their faith… and to give them courage to face the future, whatever that future might hold.
We, too, are called to serve… and we do not know yet what that call will demand of us as Christians. We all take the Bible for granted… and we take for granted that we can read it in our own language. Yet this was not always the case. Many believers, whose crime was nothing more than loving the Word of God, were persecuted for desiring to read the Bible in their own language. One of them was William Tyndale. Born in England in 1494, Tyndale was one of the leaders of the Protestant Reformation. Determined to make the reading of scripture accessible to everyone, he taught himself Hebrew and worked six days a week from dawn to dusk for eleven years, translating the Scriptures. Finally, his work was completed, and Tyndale’s English translation of the Bible was smuggled into England, printed and distributed. Tyndale was caught in 1536, and Henry VIII condemned him to be hanged. Before Tyndale went to the gallows, he prayed: “Lord, open the eyes of the king of England.” God answered that prayer, and in 1539 King Henry sent a royal decree encouraging all printers and publishers to publish the Scriptures for “the free and liberal use of the Bible in our native tongue.”
We may not be martyred for our faith, as Peter was… as William Tyndale was… but something will be demanded of us that will test our faith. At those times and in those places where our faith is tested, we can take comfort in this story from Mark’s gospel. It is a story that confirms, for us, the identity of the One whom we serve… the One we have given our lives to… the One who truly is… “God with us”… Immanuel… the Holy One of Israel. With the confidence of the early Christians… and the martyrs who followed them… let us also accept our call… believing in Jesus of Nazareth, the only Son… the Beloved Son… of God… our hope and the rock upon which our faith is built. Amen.