Upside Down and Backwards

Isaiah 42: 1– 9; 53: 1– 12 

Matthew 16: 13– 17: 9

Has anyone ever done a headstand, or a handstand?  Show of hands.

I used to love to do them. I haven’t tried in a while, so I have no idea if I still can, or not, but the thing I loved about it was the feeling of being out of balance, and then re-finding my balance while being upside down. What an incredible thing, to turn upside down, and to find your balance point.

It’s way easier to stand upright on our own two feet and be in balance, isn’t it? Although as we age, we may need help with that too. But being upside down, or walking backwards, throws us off kilter, and we need to really concentrate to balance ourselves. It’s not natural. But it’s possible…and with practice it gets easier.

Sometimes getting out of balance is not something that we choose. Perhaps it’s a diagnosis, or the loss of a loved one, or the seismic change of something that has been central to our life. When that happens, the one thing we want more than anything, it seems, is to get back to our former balancing point, to get things back to normal. But more often than not, going forward means finding a new point of balance, often a place that is more vulnerable than before.

Following Christ requires that we practice a whole new balancing act, every bit as challenging as walking on our hands or walking backwards.

Our gospel story today offers several examples of how Peter goes in and out of this New Balancing act.

Jesus asks the disciples, “who do you say that I am?”

And Peter nails it!

You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!”

Now this was an upside down moment for Peter. Jesus has taken them 25 miles away from their home base in Galilee, on a field trip of sorts to Caesarea Philippi, which was a regional center of the Roman Empire.  As Brian McLaren described it, to claim Jesus as Messiah, as the liberating king, anointed by the living God, here in a city bearing Caesar’s name, Caesar who considered himself son of the gods, is dangerous to say the least. But Peter claims Jesus as the Son of the True and Living God, distinct and above all those other gods.

Peter has stated and claimed his new balance point. And Jesus affirms him – good job! God has given you this revelation, has allowed you to balance upside down.

But before we know it, Peter has lost his balance and is no longer upside down. He is coming back to his usual way of seeing the world. Jesus begins to tell them all about the suffering and death that he will soon endure. And Peter, probably full of himself for having figured out who Jesus really is, feels pretty confident that Jesus’ predictions about the future must be way, way off. And so he boldly steps forward to say, God forbid! That must not ever happen to you, Jesus!

And of course, standing upright, looking at the world the way we usually do, it makes sense for Peter to draw that conclusion, doesn’t it? How on earth can Jesus, the Messiah, the liberating king, set the people of Israel free if he is defeated? That is the one thing that must not happen. As Brian McLaren describes it, Jesus “must conquer and capture, not be conquered and captured. He must torture and kill his enemies, not be tortured and killed by them. So Peter feels completely justified in correcting Jesus – “stop talking nonsense!”

And now Jesus, who just told Peter that he had received a divine revelation, turns 180 degrees around and says, “Get behind me, Satan! This is not from God, but from man”.

Peter’s upright way of thinking, like most of his countrymen, is that “God will send a Messiah to lead an armed uprising, to defeat and expel the occupying Roman regime and all who collaborate with it.”

But Jesus sees the world differently. God’s kingdom is upside down and backwards to the way Peter understands things. In God’s kingdom, “the nonviolent will inherit the Earth. Violence cannot defeat violence. Hate cannot defeat hate. Fear cannot defeat fear. God must achieve victory through defeat, glory through shame, strength through weakness, leadership through servanthood, and life through death.”

This is upside down and backwards.

A few days later, Jesus goes up the mountain with Peter, James and John. And right before their eyes, the words Peter had spoken about Jesus are confirmed by God. Jesus is transformed in front of them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as light.

Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Jesus.

Now Peter sees this as another opportunity to score some points by showing how well he can walk on his hands, how well he does in this upside-down world. He offers to build three tents so that Moses, and Elijah, and Jesus can stay in them. But God interrupts his words, saying,

“This is my Son whom I dearly love. I am very pleased with him. Listen to him!”

Peter, James and John, fall down from their upside down perches, and lay flat on the ground, until Jesus touches them, saying “get up, don’t be afraid.”

And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.

Peter, James and John had been raised to see Moses and Elijah as great heroes of their faith. Seeing Jesus as equal to them is a big deal. But God’s plans are bigger still. God affirms what Peter had glimpsed a week or so before. This is the Son of God. This is who you must listen to, whom you must follow. Jesus above Moses and Elijah. Jesus above all.

This is another upside down view of the world for observant Jews. It feels wrong, hard to balance, thinking of the law, of the prophets in this way. It’s easy to fall back into their usual habits. It’s hard to keep their eyes focused on Jesus and to stay balanced upside down in this paradoxical way.

It’s hard for us, too. We hear the words of Jesus, to love our enemies, to carry the load a second mile when are forced by our oppressor to carry it one mile. To forgive seventy times seven. It all feels upside down. We would rather play it safe. We would rather take care of ourselves and our own. We would rather walk right side up, the way we know how to walk, with confidence. We would rather not depend completely, surrender all of ourselves, to the living bread, to the cup of salvation. We would rather fill our own pantries and lock our doors to keep it for ourselves. We would rather not see the strangers around us as beloved children of God, our brothers and sisters, to whom God has made us accountable, to whom God calls us to serve and to see with God’s eyes, with eyes of love.

But Jesus calls us to live our lives upside down and backwards. This is the only way that we will be able to serve one another and love one another as Christ loves us. And this is the only way that others will ever see how Jesus has changed our lives – if all our behaviors, all our actions, reflect this strange new balance to which we have been called.

This story was shared on Facebook this past week:

"I saw the most incredible display of humanity on the train. A six foot five man, who appeared to be suffering from drug abuse and/or mental health issues, was being very aggressive on the train, with erratic movements, cursing, shouting, etc. While everyone around him was scared, this one seventy-something-year-old woman reached out her hand to his, and tightly gripped his hand until he calmed down, and sat down silently, with eventual tears in his eyes.

When I spoke to the woman after this incident, she simply said, "I'm a mother, and he needed someone to touch." And she started to cry.

This woman went upside down and backwards in her simple act of love. To anyone else, it looked like a totally unnatural act. But it wasn’t a hard thing to do; it was only a hard thing to decide to do. When we decide to do this sort of thing, it is God who provides the balance for us.

Focusing today on a Souper Bowl of Caring over The Super Bowl, giving to those in need above and beyond what we spend on chips and dip and beverages and parties, is an act of rebalancing our priorities.

But we won’t always get it right. And we won’t stay in balance all the time.

And so, our entire lives as followers of Christ are spent learning how to walk this way, how to live this way. Peter moved in and out of this balancing act, all through his life. The apostle Paul took years to change his point of balance, and then practiced it relentlessly for the rest of his life.

The grace and mercy of God allows us to fall, over and over again, and to get back up and try once more. We are forgiven every time we lose our balance. God stands ready to steady us.

Christ who will not break the bruised reed, who will not extinguish the faint candle light, and who will bring justice in an upside down way, will walk with us, upside down and backwards, showing us how it’s done, encouraging us, nourishing us so that we can nourish others, so that we can show them what walking with Jesus really, truly, looks like.

Upside down and backwards.