In our gospel reading for today, Peter hears his Messiah say some things that he finds shocking. Jesus actually PLANS to confront the powerful - the religious leaders who were in cahoots with the Roman governors – and plans to LOSE. How can this be?! Peter can't let this happen, so he takes Jesus aside, and gives him some much needed direction. But Jesus replies, “Back off! You have let Satan convince you that POWER is the way to bring salvation to our people. In fact, Satan has even convinced you that power is the way to secure your OWN LIFE. Those who exercise power in this life should prepare to lose it, but those who renounce their power for me, will have life forever...”
There is a scene in the movie “Lord of the Rings” where a nobleman named Boromir is speaking before a council of the leaders of the free peoples of Middle Earth. A ring that wields immense power has been found, and the council is planning to destroy the ring before it falls into enemy hands. But Boromir has another idea. “Why not USE this ring?” he says, “It is a gift to us in our fight against the evil one.” If you have access to power, why on Middle Earth would you not use it?
Peter, in our gospel reading, had the same question for Jesus. After hearing about Jesus' grand plan to essentially surrender his life to the religious authorities, Peter rebukes his idea as stupid. “Jesus, you have the power of God! You have the power to defeat the mighty Romans, and then some! Why don't we USE that power and bring some real SALVATION to our people?” And it's astonishing how harshly Jesus responds: “Get behind me, Satan!” he says, “for you are setting your mind not on divine things, but on human things. Humanity CRAVES power over each other, but power always corrupts, and it's not where salvation comes from. Salvation comes from RIGHTEOUSNESS.”
And Jesus makes this message personal for the crowds, too. “What will it profit you to gain the whole world and forfeit your life? What good is it to have complete worldly power, such that everything on earth is yours, knowing that at your death, it's all over? Not even the entire world can buy back your life! But, if you choose the path of righteousness – if you deny yourself the exercise of power over others – I will direct you to a life you didn't know was possible – a life of richness and blessing that will go on forever.”
So why do we insist on grabbing the ring of power? Why do we ignore the loving guidance of the one who designed and created us, in favour of doing it “my way”? Two words: greed, and pride. When we have power over others, we can take advantage of their hard work for our material benefit. And when we have power over others, we can feel superior to them.
We see these greedy and prideful tendencies in ourselves as individuals. We definitely see these tendencies in ourselves as society. But we also see these tendencies in ourselves as church. It begins when we look to the powerful people, and we try to IMITATE them. We structure our hierarchies and organizations like they were businesses or governments, and we incorporate a love of numbers and goal-setting into our ministries. We try to convince people to make pledges and commitments, and we use psychological manipulation to extract what we want. We lose the sense of the power of the Holy Spirit working through us, and don't even notice, because we are caught up in pretending to be powerful ourselves.
And lately, we as a church have taken the next step – we look to the powerful people, and we try to INGRATIATE ourselves with them. We take up their causes, like global warming and universal basic income and transgenderism, and hope that they will then be favourable toward us. We refuse to question the motives of the powerful, so that they don't question the benefits we receive from them, in tax breaks and grants and social license. We lose the sense of furthering the kingdom of God, and don't even notice, because we are caught up in furthering the kingdom of the powerful.
And the final step, the step Peter is keen to implement, is to look to the powerful people, and BECOME them. Control how society operates, make everyone toe the line on OUR rules, dictate what is allowable to say about the church, and intimidate all who dare speak from within. It's hard in our present environment to imagine CHRISTIANITY even being ABLE to do this, but it has been there in the past, and there's a tiny fringe gathering headlines called the Christian Nationalists, who are claimed to want to see it this way again. The ring of power has a strong appeal. It is easy to set our minds on human things.