Lent II— March 16, 2011
Matthew 26: 30-46
“Let’s Talk About Performance”* Rev. John C. Wohlrabe, Jr., Th.D.
Worship Report
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Friends of Jesus and Friends of mine: tonight I want to talk frankly about performance. Evaluating performance is something that we all have a tendency to do. We want to get the best deal on a car, bicycle, cell-phone, computer, or washing machine, so we may check Consumer Reports for performance comparisons. Employers want to get the most out of their employees, and so they have performance evaluations. We evaluate people in general whether it’s by standards of dress, speech, knowledge, or congeniality. It’s hard to determine performance though, unless you have some point of comparison. For example, it’s easier to look good when you stand next to the right person.
Just consider how certain leading men are often portrayed in movies: Alan Ladd, Sylvester Stallone, Tom Cruise. Often in their film roles they are portrayed as dashing figures, who you imagine to be above average height. Yet, Allan Ladd was 5’6”, Tom Cruise 5’7”, and Sylvester Stallone 5’9.” They are often cast with shorter actors and actresses or shot at angles that give a different impression. It’s only when you see them in public standing next to someone taller that you realize, for example, that Tom Cruise was actually about three inches shorter than his former wife, Nicole Kidman, who is 5’10”. A whole lot in life depends on the one next to whom one is standing, the point of comparison.
Another issue with regards to analyzing performance is that standards are constantly changing. Now that’s not necessarily bad, particularly when the standards are going up – take, for example, technological improvements in, let’s say, computers or television sets. Compare the performance of a modern lap-top to the Apple or PC when they first came out in the early 1980s, or a current flat screen high definition T.V. to the old black and white sets that some of us grew up with. However, when we are talking about test scores of our children and performance analysis of public education, we may find declining standards, and a continual reduction in the level of comparison. That is definitely not a good thing! It is especially bad when we are talking about the decline of moral standards in society; something that I believe is ruining our country. People lower the standards, God’s standards, to the point that what was considered immoral and even detestable only a decade ago is now considered normal behavior and regularly portrayed on primetime television programs. Performance evaluation is all about the point of comparison.
Tonight we see quite a contrast in the portion of the Passion account from Matthew’s Gospel that was read only a few moments ago – how the disciples perform and how Jesus performs.
The text begins as Jesus is wrapping up the Passover Celebration with his disciples in the upper room. He uses this traditional holy commemoration to institute a new testament, what we refer to as the Lord’s Supper. He also uses this opportunity to show that he has come to serve by washing his disciples’ feet. After they have sung a hymn, they go to the Mount of Olives, which is just across the Kidron Valley from Jerusalem, to the part of the Mount of Olives known as the Garden of Gethsemane. When they get to the Mount of Olives, Matthew tells us that Jesus warns his disciples that all of them will fall away because of him. Jesus sets the standard, and declares that not one of them will live up to that standard. All will fall short. He says that this is to fulfill the prophecy from Zechariah (13:8) which predicts that the shepherd will be struck and the sheep will be scattered. Every last one of the disciples claims that they would never fall away. That is their plan for performance; but, they hadn’t really been tested, yet, had they?
Then there’s impetuous Peter, who was originally called Simon, but was given the name “Rock,” Peter, by Jesus. About the only thing rock-like about Peter, though, was the way he was on water – he sunk like a rock. Still, Peter thinks that he is above the performance standard of all the other disciples. He tells Jesus that even though all the others might fall away, he would never do such a thing. He would rather die than desert Jesus. That is his performance plan. Now Peter must have stated this in front of the other disciples, because Matthew sure remembered it! It couldn’t have made many friends with the others. It seems, however, that the disciples engaged in a lot of this sort of performance comparison. Remember how James and John sent their mother to ask Jesus if they could sit at his right and left when he came into his kingdom? So, this wasn’t the first time we see one-upmanship among the disciples. But, impetuous Peter seems to top them all. He really thinks he is better than the rest; his performance is a cut above. He would die before he would fall away.
I think that there is a bit of Peter in all of us. Garrison Keillor jokes about people from Minnesota, where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average. But, compared to whom? Each other? People from Iowa or Wisconsin? Maybe we do the same thing. Maybe we think we wouldn’t sin like some other people might. It all depends with whom you are standing. If Charlie Sheen was standing before us now, I would suppose all of us husbands and fathers would sure look good, don’t you think? Or when someone else commits some gross public sin, maybe we think that would never happen to me! But, who really sets the standards? That’s the real question.
And let’s look at what happened. How well do Jesus’ disciples perform? All Jesus asks of them is that they stay awake; that they help him watch and pray. That’s not too much to ask, is it? But, the disciples couldn’t stay awake even an hour. These bold, brave men, who said they would rather die with Jesus than fall away, couldn’t even follow the simplest of tasks. Even before they are challenged by an angry mob carrying swords and clubs, there is nothing but weakness, pathetic weakness. Jesus says specifically to Peter, who had been so bold with his braggadocios bravado, “So, could you not watch with me one hour?” Then our Savior adds, “the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” The Greek word there implies pathetic powerlessness. One moment Peter is claiming he is the only one who would never fall away, the next moment he is sound asleep because his eyes are too heavy. Maybe he and the other disciples ate too much lamb and drank too much wine at the Passover Meal. Or maybe, just maybe, they are really just pathetic sinful weaklings, who like to talk big about themselves as long as they are setting the performance standards, comparing themselves to each other.
But, are we really any better? Let’s take a close look at our own lives tonight as we join the disciples on the Mount of Olives. Do we have any of this sinful pride lurking within ourselves? Let’s talk frankly about our performance. Remember the hymn? “Go to dark Gethsemane, All who feel the tempter’s power; Your Redeemer’s conflict see, Watch with Him one bitter hour…” What about our devotion to God’s Word? Is it all it should be? How about our love for our neighbor, particularly for our fellow members of the body of Christ known as Concordia Lutheran Church? Are we alert and zealous in our prayers and in our watching for Christ’s return? Are we zealous in our support of the preaching of the Gospel here and abroad? Are we zealous to stay focused on the purpose of our even being here in this Divine Service? Are we diligent in fighting temptation and turning away from sins of thought, word, and deed?
And as we consider these things, reflecting on our own lives, remember – we don’t set the standards. God does! Here we do have someone to which we are compared, but it is not someone of our choosing. At Gethsemane we see the disciples’ utter failure. We see their pitiful weakness. Here we are also brought to see our own utter failures and pitiful weakness. For the standards to which they and we are compared is Jesus. That is God’s standard. So, let’s look frankly at Jesus’ performance.
How well does Jesus’ perform? Well, remember the bold bragging by Peter and the other disciples? Yet, they had no clue what lay ahead of them. Meanwhile, Jesus knows full-well what lay ahead. He knows that the disciples would all fall away as a fulfillment of Scripture. More than that, he knows, as a fulfillment of the prophecy in Zechariah, that God would strike him, for he is the Good Shepherd who came to give his life as a ransom for the sheep. Jesus knows that all the divine wrath against all the sins of all people for all time is going to be poured out on him. He knows!
The burden, the weight, the enormity of all the sinister sins, all the disgraceful guilt, all the embarrassing shame is beyond all human comprehension. In the face of a grief and agony that no human being has ever known, Jesus cries out with words from Psalm 42: “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death.” But, there’s a difference between the context of the original Psalm, and how Jesus now uses it. In Psalm 42, the psalmist goes on to say, “Hope in God, and he will deliver you.” But, Jesus knows that there will be no such deliverance for him. He will carry this incomprehensible burden of sin, guilt and shame as he bears the blows and scourging of the trials, as he stumbles beneath the weight of the patibulum, the cross-beam, as he is mocked and scorned by the people he has come to save, as he is painfully nailed to the cross and crucified, as he is forsaken by God the Father, as he declares “It is finished,” gives up his spirit and dies. Luke tells us that the burden of knowing all of this caused Jesus to sweat great drops of blood. Jesus knows, and he knows there will be no deliverance. He is grieved and distressed as no human has ever been grieved and distressed before. Although he prays asking that, if possible, this cup pass from him; yet, he submits himself completely to his Father’s will, his Father’s plan.
And why? Why would Jesus go through all of this, even knowing what lay ahead? Why such strength and such a remarkable, unprecedented performance? Well, it is love. He did it out of love for his sheep, for sinners, for you and me. Out of devotion to the plan of his Father – the heavenly Father who loves you and me so much that he sent his only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in him should not perish in hell, but have eternal life in heaven with him. Not once, not twice, but three times Jesus prays the prayer that brought our salvation, that summed up his whole ministry. In speaking to the heavenly Father regarding the burden he had to bear, he says “nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” And while he was praying, the time has begun, the hour is at hand. Jesus gets up from kneeling to pray. He stands to meet it head on. He tells his disciples: “Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.” He has set himself to carry out God’s plan for our salvation. All praise to Jesus! Let us therefore focus our eyes in faith on him, on his perfect performance, on his suffering and death for us: “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that we set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:2).
The disciples’ performance fell far short. They not only couldn’t stay awake, but they fled, Peter denied Christ three times, they all cowered in fear behind locked doors. So let us all face the truth that our performance falls far short as well. For the point of comparison is always the perfection of God, and we fall far short of that. Now hopefully, the result of this frank talk about performance has destroyed any pride that might be lurking within us. But, in looking at Jesus’ performance as he carries out God’s plan, hopefully you also hold fast in faith to the knowledge that he did all this for you. Thus, our destroyed pride is replaced with humble thankfulness, praise, and enduring faith. Our Good Shepherd was struck down for us. It’s all about God’s perfect performance. Jesus’ performance is beyond compare; and he did it for us. Remember, dear friends, it’s not about our plans – it’s about HIS plan. Amen.
* From a sermon outline by Jeffery Gibbs, “Not Our Plans—HIS Plan” A Lenten Sermon Series from Matthew’s Passion Narrative (Matt. 26:1-28:10,” Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, MO January 24, 2011.