What's Most Important

Gospel: Luke 9: 18-22

Throughout the Gospels Jesus tells his disciples not to tell anyone that he is the Messiah.  Naturally, the disciples ignore this instruction and make the movement more about that proclamation than anything else.  We might well wonder why Jesus instructed his disciples in this way, and there are two good explanations for his instruction.

The first is that the idea of the Messiah, then as now, is always misunderstood and abused.  It is seen as a political ideology where religion wields power over a nation, where Jesus is a political ruler who is about establishing theocracies and his followers jockeying for positions of power themselves.  But Jesus came as the Suffering Servant, rejecting definitively any notions of a political Messiah. He came to set an example for us to follow - to live lives of mercy and love - and that will transform the world.

The second reason follows from the first.  Christianity is not about proclaiming Jesus as Messiah.  It is about following a way of life in imitation of the Lord - a way of loving service and mercy to the world.  It is a way of healing, liberating, and nourishing people in desperate need of these things.  It is a life of humble service, not of slogans and messaging.  That way of life is the far more important thing.