Celebrity or Savior?
A Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Paul Debenport
July 26, 2009
The Word of God from today’s lectionary Gospel lesson from
John 6: 1—15:
After this, Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” On of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Jesus, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. Then Jesus took the loaves, and when had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come in the world.” When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
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This celebrity hoop-la now is over the top. Our obsession with celebrity has become so pervasive that Andy Warhol’s observation that each person will soon have his or her fifteen minutes of fame has become more a matter of entitlement than of accident. Celebrity has become a sort of meta-phenomenon, as celebrities create themselves and become celebrated mostly for being celebrated.[1] Even when there is real talent, our insatiable, over-kill need to know and to figuratively “touch the hem of their garment,” before and even after their deaths, can be killing to the spirit of both the celebrity and of we arm-chair groupies—as with the events following the recent Michael Jackson tragedy, which cheapened life and trivialized death, robbing it of both dignity and its profound poignancy. In the extreme, we are a culture of celebrity stalkers.
But our human impulse to create celebrities and to try to be near them is nothing new. If there were anyone ever who had the real makings of a true celebrity it was Jesus. With a compelling, profound personal presence, and with a deep truth that drew people to him, inspiring trust and hope, and with healing and feeding and even resurrecting powers that anyone and everyone would not just seek, but worship, Jesus could have chosen to be THE Celebrity Savior of all time.
And why not? Even our just-human celebrities can do massive good. U2’s Bono has done great good fighting world poverty and AIDS. He’s a healer in his own way. And even American Idol sponsors the charitable campaign Idol Gives Back. From Jesus’ first temptations following his baptism to his final temptations on the cross, he was always challenged to go the Celebrity Savior route. “How can I die when people need me?” must have crossed his mind. “Wouldn’t it be better to stay and make peoples lives better now? Why not establish a kingdom and be the king here? Israel is oppressed by Rome. Disease and poverty are rampant now. There’s a whole lot of good that needs doing now.”
But Jesus never succumbed to that temptation, as this passage makes clear. In this miracle, as in most, maybe all of his healings, Jesus is rather reluctant, does them not for fame or credibility, but only out of compassion for the specific needs pressed upon him. He even instructs many of the recipients to “tell no one.” What struck me most about today’s passage is that last verse, when he realizes the people want to make him king no matter what he wants. He evades them, withdraws from them, refuses to be the Celebrity Savior they want.
Why not? Because the celebrity way has serious dark sides, and Jesus knows that. For Jesus the dark side was that of evasion: giving in to the fame and thereby going around the cross. Jesus was a king all right, but he would establish his kingdom not by healings or by wielding military might or political power, but by surrendering might and yielding to power. Not by conquering enemies, but by forgiving them. He would overrun injustice, by succumbing to it. He would expose the futility of violence by suffering its cruelty. He would win victory by being defeated. He would take away sin by taking it on—onto his own body. He would redeem death by dying. He would be crowned King of Kings, but his earthly crown would be of thorns not of gold.[2]
Jesus was not playing the human game of fame for short-term gain. His way, God’s way, the way of suffering love, was for higher stakes and eternal gains. Jesus makes clear that the kingdom of God exists for more than the temporal bounds of this world. It transcends time and death to encompass eternity. His way was to take on the depth of darkness of human evil and sin, by sacrificing his own life for it—which is something celebrities don’t do.
God’s way, not the celebrity way, is the way of the transcendent, saving power of sacrificial love, that “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, and that never ends.” Which is the right reason for us to follow him and to seek to be near him, to touch the hem of his garment. Not for flashy fame or short-term gain. But for the joy of following his way in our lives—seeking to love and serve and forgive others—and for the fullness of joy of life eternal in his Kingdom come and coming on earth as in heaven.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Let us sing of his way of love, divine and all excelling.
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