C, Easter 7 - John 17:20-26 "Perfectly One"
In the fictional movie, Gladiator, released in 2000, two
Roman Senators, Gracchus and Falco, discuss Emperor Commodus’ attempts to win
the hearts of his people by staging games that are bloodthirsty and barbaric
for our times.
Gracchus comments, “Fear and wonder, a powerful
combination!” To which Falco responds, “You really think people are going to be
seduced by that?” Gracchus suspecting
what Commodus is up to continues, “I think he
knows what Rome is. Rome is the mob. Conjure magic for them and they'll be
distracted. Take away their freedom and still they'll roar. The beating heart
of Rome is not the marble of the senate, it's the sand of the Colosseum. He'll
bring them death - and they will love him for it.”
Although Gladiator is far from a correct portrayal of Roman
history, Gracchus’ monologue, we’ve just heard, pretty much sums up the hearts
of humanity then and now. The seduction
of the human heart through fear and wonder, is as real today as it was back
then when people gathered at the Colosseum.
Rather, today the mob is wowed and wooed at coliseums like the MCG (the
Melbourne Cricket Ground), the State of Origin at Lang Park, the Olympics, a
theatre of some kind, perhaps even a large church gathering. Wherever the mob masses, there will be
someone there, to capitalise from the gathered crowd.
It seems sound, that as the masses gather around a central
belief, they are one. Their oneness
draws others in. The popularity of the gathering
brings out desires in others, individuals want to join the group, to be a part
of an ideology, to feel a part of something, to fill the hole of loneliness in
the heart, to be accepted by others, to be one.
Others see the masses gathering and use the opportunity to
ingratiate themselves to them. So,
having become popular with the mob, the mob makes them masters of the mob. In
Roman society the two senators realise democracy, the rule of the people, can
be manipulated by the pleasures of the Colosseum, albeit bloodthirsty and
brutal. Democracy, the rule of the
people, can easily be “corruption of the people, by the people”.
If a crowd is corrupt, those who want to adhere to it,
cannot continue uncorrupted if they want unity with it. To remain unspoiled and untouched by the
ideology of the masses means sticking out in the crowd as one being at odds
with the crowd. Those who stood their
ground against the mob, usually became the deadly entertainment for the Colosseum
crowd. Life is defined by the mob, and death is delivered by the mob. Or, is the mob delivering itself over to
death through its own desire?
Our society, today, doesn’t have a coliseum, that hands
over those at odds with the mob, to death!
Or, does it? Perhaps the
advancement of our society over the Romans, is that, at the moment, we have
many more subtle ways of assassinating those who stand at odds with the mob. Hidden coliseums where the sports of gossip,
slander, half-truths, and the good of the whole are carried out!
This oneness is far from the perfect oneness to which Jesus
calls you and me. Unfortunately, our
sinful human nature tries to incorporate democracy, the rule of the people,
with the perfect oneness of God, the rule of God.
However, the oneness of God does not grow out of the mob,
or popularity. It starts with one and it ends with one. Jesus is the alpha and the omega, the
beginning and the end! When Jesus prays
to our Father in heaven, he prays as one man.
He did not ingratiate himself to the mob. In fact, he didn’t suck up to the mob that
welcomed him into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.
Rather, the mob wanted to make him the leader he was never meant to
be. Once the mob realised this, the unbelieving
Jews used popularity to turn the mob on him, to crucify him.
Knowing all this was about to happen to him Jesus prayed
for those who were given to him. Not
only was this prayer for the apostles and disciples! It was for the many who would not see but
would still believe the apostolic witness, throughout time. It was for those for whom Jesus prays, who
died in many ways, at the hands of the mob, defending the perfect oneness of
Jesus and his holy body. It’s for those
today whose witness of Jesus Christ puts them at odds with the common
defilement of the masses. And to be
clear, the biblical Greek word for “witness” is “martyr”.
“But we don’t martyr witnesses of Jesus Christ, in our
society today”, you might say! But the
words of the Roman Senator in the fictitious Gladiator movie reveals the truth
of our society just as much now, as it did, then! As magic is conjured we’re distracted. Take
away the freedoms given by God and still we roar! Bring us death - and the mob
will love their leaders for it.
The only problem is the death we’re brought to is our own.
Our fear and wonder, for the mob, distracts us from fearing and loving
God. Jesus did not fear the mob, your
opinion nor mine, but out of fear and love for God, he loved the masses, you
and me, by becoming the spectacle of death for which we, the mob, so
desperately thirst.
Starting from one, Jesus was raised by our Father and the
Holy Spirit from death and calls you and me out of the mob that has brought
death on itself. The mob is dying. The ideals of the mob are dying. Jesus is coming soon! But until he comes the Holy Spirit and the “one
true church” says, “come”!
In Jesus’ day the mob were the Jews, God’s very own
people. Those who followed Jesus, were
called from the mob. Many were martyred,
for their departure from the mob, and for their witness of Jesus’ perfect
oneness, with our Father and the Holy Spirit. But they were united in Jesus’
perfect oneness, together with the Triune God, in one accord, as his body, his
bride, his church.
At the Reformation, Luther and the reformers were accused
of departing the one catholic church which had gone the way of the Jewish mob. Instead of being catholic, gathered as one in
the oneness of Jesus Christ, the church prided itself in being Roman Catholic
and became the mob from which the Lutheran Church left.
Many of our forefathers and mothers, came to this country
and other countries when oneness was forced upon them in Germany. A oneness that had nothing to do with the
oneness of Jesus Christ, rather a political oneness from a German mob.
Powerful fear and wonder to generate the mob, persists
today in a seemingly new world order, distracting people in so many different
ways, to a worldly oneness, away from the oneness of Jesus Christ. Fear is created by those who want to control
the mob, and great wonder is attributed to institutions that emphasise this unity.
But the unity of the cross begins with one and calls us to
be one with our Lord. Each day this
unity calls for the death of self, institutions, ideologies, and mob rule. Anything that takes the place of the perfect
oneness that Jesus won for us in his death and resurrection by the will of our
Father, and the work of the Holy Spirit, needs to daily die.
We are known by God and made known to those whom God leads
us, as we die to self, and become known witnesses or martyrs to the masses—witnesses
of God’s glory in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord. Like Jesus, and many before us, the Holy
Spirit seeks to lead you from the mob, to witness to the mob, the perfect holy
oneness of God in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
In God’s way, the mob will then know that we’re being made
perfectly one, in, by, and with Jesus, so that the world might know that God
sent Jesus to them, the masses, in the same way that the Father loves Jesus
Christ his Son, our Lord. Amen.
Dear Heavenly Father, the world does not know us, but we are known by you. Send your Holy Spirit into our hearts so we can make Jesus Christ known to our mob, here in Australia, surrounding our congregation gathered in the oneness of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
