The truth is an interesting thing. Sometimes the truth seems logical and straightforward, and we have no trouble believing it. Other times, the truth looks ridiculous and strange, and we struggle to accept that it could really be real. And still other times, the truth is simply not what we want to hear, so we pretend it isn’t true at all. Out of our anxiety, we create alternative truths and conspiracy theories. According to the Scientific American, when anxiety and a perceived loss of control or status are present, “a conspiracy theory can provide comfort by identifying a convenient scapegoat and thereby making the world seem more straightforward and controllable.” The reality is that sometimes the truth is scarier and more unbelievable than many of our wildest fantasies.

Most of us know Benjamin Franklin as an inventor, a scholar, a statesman, and much more. He has been credited with increasing our understanding of electricity by flying a kite with a key on the end of it. He was one of the authors of the Declaration of Independence and a signer of the Constitution. He was so highly regarded for his contributions to America and to the world that he was enshrined on the $100 bill. But how many of you knew that in 1781 Franklin wrote an essay titled “Fart Proudly.” Or the alternative title “To the Royal Academy of Farting.” That sounds completely ridiculous, right? Now, if I told you he was 15 when he wrote that, you might believe me, but what if I told you he was 76 years old when he wrote that essay?

Don’t believe me? Here are a couple of excerpts from the essay. Franklin wrote, “It is universally well known, that in digesting our common food, there is created or produced in the bowels of human creatures, a great quantity of wind. That the permitting this air to escape and mix with the atmosphere, is usually offensive to the company, from the fetid smell that accompanies it.” Not only did Franklin write this essay to explain the problem of flatulence, but he also had an idea for a solution to the displeasing odor. In the essay, he urged the Royal Academy of Brussels to seek out something “wholesome and not disagreeable, to be mix’d with our common food, or sauces, that shall render the natural discharges of wind from our bodies, not only inoffensive, but [agreeable] as perfumes.” Sadly, here we are 240 years later and that solution still hasn’t been found. As silly and ridiculous as that example is, the point I’m trying to make is that sometimes fact can be harder to believe than fiction.

In our passage for this morning from the gospel of Mark, we read a familiar story with Jesus and his disciples discussing the various perceptions about Jesus. Jesus asks them, “Who do people say that I am?” If we were to take a poll in the United States asking people who they think Jesus is, we would get thousands of different answers. I imagine that even polling those within our churches right here in Scottsbluff we would get a variety of responses. It was not surprising to Jesus that people had all sorts of different views about him. He seems curious about what those different views might be. So he asks the disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” And they respond, “Well…some think that you are John the Baptist. And others say you are Elijah. Still others think you are one of the prophets.”

I have to say that these three theories that the disciples say are floating around about Jesus seem a little strange to me. They think Jesus is John the Baptist? But wasn’t John the Baptist a contemporary of Jesus? Didn’t John baptize Jesus? How could people then believe that Jesus IS John the Baptist? Now, maybe they don’t mean that Jesus actually IS John the Baptist, but maybe they think that Jesus is virtually the same as John the Baptist. Or maybe that Jesus has been deeply influenced by John the Baptist. Maybe. But what about Elijah? Elijah was a prophet written about in parts of the Hebrew Bible, what we know as the Old Testament. Elijah was believed to have been taken up to heaven in a whirlwind. Was Jesus just Elijah having returned to the earth? If that were the case, how could Jesus have been born as a baby? There are so many questions that I have about that theory. But then also the disciples tell Jesus that people are saying that Jesus might be one of the prophets. So, some think he’s a prophet who lived at the time of Jesus, others a prophet who lived long before Jesus but was believed to have ascended to heaven rather than dying, and others were like, “Maybe he’s not those two, but maybe he’s just like maybe one of the prophets…like it could be any of them.” It kinda feels like maybe they are just throwing darts at a board and seeing what they land on. It seems that the Jews are divided about who Jesus is.

So Jesus then asks his disciples, “Who do YOU say that I am?” And Peter, who is often the quickest to answer, says, “You are the Messiah.” The Greek word here is Cristos, from which we get Christ. “You are the Christ,” Peter proclaims. Cristos in Greek directly translates as “the anointed one.” Those who were anointed in Jesus’ day would have been prophets, priests, and kings. For Peter, and probably the other disciples, Jesus was more than just a prophet of old. Jesus was a king. In Peter’s assessment, Jesus was the one true king. The one from the line of David who had come to restore the kingdom of Israel. Jesus, in the eyes of Peter, was the Son of Man, the one the prophets had foretold. And we know that Peter was right. Jesus was and is the Messiah, the Christ.

For the Jews of the day however, that kind of statement was radical. In fact, it would have been viewed as heretical, a condemnable offense. In the minds of the Jews, particularly the leaders, Jesus was viewed as nothing like they thought the Messiah would be. He was humble, a carpenter’s son. He said things about the temple being torn down and the Son of Man having to die. He didn’t talk about raising up a military to take back the land. Instead he talked about loving our enemies. Jesus didn’t talk about the kingdom of Israel but the kingdom of God. Jesus didn’t show favor for the Jews, in fact, Jesus often criticized the Jewish leaders and then dined with sinners and tax collectors and showed love to the foreigners and strangers. Jesus was definitively NOT the Messiah the Jews were expecting.

But even so, Jesus was and is the Christ, the truth was just so radical, so out of their box that they couldn’t comprehend it. They couldn’t accept it. So they turned to falsehoods. “Jesus is John the Baptist. They are trying to pull a fast one on us.” “Or maybe Jesus is Elijah come back from heaven. We know Elijah had a lot of power from God. That could totally explain things.” “Or maybe Jesus is merely one of the prophets of old. He is definitely NOT more than that. He is definitely NOT the Messiah. They had turned to their conspiracy theories because the truth was too hard to accept. The truth was too radical for them. The truth meant they had to change their thinking. And they didn’t want to do that because they were afraid of the consequences. They were afraid of losing their power and status. So they maintained these lies.

What lies do we tell ourselves to avoid consequences? To protect our own interests? What lies do we believe because they are more convenient than the truth? Even Peter seems to have had some second thoughts about his belief in Jesus as the Messiah when Jesus begins to tell the disciples about the suffering that the Son of Man will have to endure. Peter was still a bit stuck in that same mindset as the Jewish leaders. Jesus is the Messiah…unless he isn’t, unless he doesn’t act the way a Messiah should or say the things I Messiah should say. He has been taught that the Messiah will come in glory as a conquering hero. But Jesus is talking about the Messiah having to suffer. And that just doesn’t mesh with Peter’s belief system. So Peter immediately tries to talk some sense into Jesus. 

Peter takes Jesus aside, away from the other disciples, and he rebukes Jesus for the statements Jesus was making about the suffering and death of the Son of Man. If Jesus is what Peter proclaimed him to be, then he must do that in the way that Peter thinks he should. That’s Peter’s viewpoint anyway. But Jesus is having none of that. He says to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” Jesus says, in pretty harsh terms, “You are wrong. You really don’t understand because you are focused on the wrong things.”

How often do we miss Jesus because we are focused on the wrong things? How often do we believe the lies being told about Jesus because the truth of who Jesus is is too scary for us? The truth of Jesus changes us, it changes the world. The truth of Jesus is radical and surprising. We can never completely understand the truth of Jesus, but we can trust in him to unveil our eyes when we focus them on the right things, on the face of God. We hear what people say all the time about Jesus. It is up to us to get to know who Jesus truly is so that we can live that truth no matter what the world around us does. People say things, but God speaks truth. May God guide us into that truth, no matter how scary, unexpected, radical, and life changing it might be. Amen!