Thursday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time
The folks that Bill and I write about (Answers in Genesis or AiG) spent over $100,000,000 to build a ginormous (510 feet long, 85 feet wide, and 51 feet tall) ark made of timber. The enormous structure is very impressive, to be sure, and it serves as the centerpiece of Ark Encounter, a biblical theme park in Williamstown, Kentucky.
Why spend so much money and go to such tremendous effort to build a life-size replica of Noah’s ark? There are a number of reasons AiG wanted to build the ark and attract like-minded Christians there. One of them relates to the passage from Genesis that we have today.
The folks at AiG love this passage because they understand it to be telling them that men (men because in the passage God addresses Noah and his sons) should, among other things, fill the planet with their progeny, be feared by every other kind of living creature, eat whatever they want (with one or two exceptions), and “subdue” the earth.
In other words, they read this passage as confirmation of the kind of world they want to live in. And that is one in which men enjoy final authority over plants, animals, the earth and all its resources. Of course, the list is not exhaustive and surely includes (given their intense commitment to patriarchy) women and children too. Male headship, female submission, and child obedience are essential for the Christian family, according to this way of thinking.
In short, what these folks love about this passage is that it seems to them to say that men should have absolute power over everything, including women. Moreover, God expects men to preside over large families and subdue the whole Creation.
That is a very compelling interpretation of this passage for a lot of folks who think that America’s problems would be solved if men just took up their rightful place in the family, especially, but elsewhere too. They need to assert their leadership and power in all things. That’s what a real man does and should do.
Okay, I can see how they get that read from this passage, though it certainly doesn’t seem to be the only or even the best read.
But let’s say they are right. Let’s say that what God wants from men is for them to dominate and make use of everything according to their will.
If that is the case, then what is Jesus doing in the passage from Mark?
He asks his followers who people say that he is. They respond with three towering male figures: John the Baptist, Elijah, and another prophet. He presses. And who do you say that I am? Peter is first in with the answer: the Christ! Bingo! He nailed it! Confirming what Peter had said, Jesus implores his followers not to tell anyone.
Peter must have been ecstatic! He got it right! And he knows what that means! The Christ is going to liberate the Jews from Roman occupation and every other oppressive force set against them. Finally. Justice!
And then Jesus begins to teach. He teaches that, yes, he is the Son of Man. And according to my favorite commentary, this moniker referred in Jesus’ time to a very masculine kind of man of great strength and power.
And yet, Jesus’ lesson is not about how he is going to gather up his righteous warriors who are God’s chosen to slay the wicked enemy who God hates, in the name of justice. Instead, he is going to be rejected by all of the powerful men at the time (religious, political, and so forth) and then be killed.
WHAT? Peter couldn’t believe it. What Jesus said made no sense! Peter had it right. Jesus is the Christ! And the Christ is not going to be killed. On the contrary, the Christ is going to be victorious and liberate His people once and for all. Knowing this and having answered Jesus’ question correctly, he pulls Jesus aside. He says something like, “Come on, Jesus, this can’t be right. You gotta talk like the Son of God. You gotta talk about how we are going to win! And how you are going to be our king! You can’t sound like some wimp or loser!”
From what I can tell, Jesus just loses it. Peter still doesn’t get it—that is, what Jesus, the Christ, is and is up to. This Son of God is not going to bring about the kind of victory that Peter imagines. That kind of victory is about human desire and worldly logic. In the end, that kind of victory is all about power, and it inevitably involves horrible violence and tremendous suffering.
That is not what Jesus is about. He makes it clear when he calls Peter “Satan.” Strong condemnation, for sure. It’s hard to imagine how it could have been stronger.
Can the folks at AiG be right about the passage from Genesis in which, they argue, God calls men to exert power and authority over everything? Does it make sense to say that the God that is Jesus (who anticipates his own death at the hands of the powers of the time) thinks that men should aspire to be just the opposite of that—i.e., aggressive, dominating, taking whatever they want, and so forth?
That just doesn’t make any sense. We know who Jesus was, what he did, and why. And we can be confident about that because we have a whole New Testament that tells us.
I don’t know about you, but I feel like if I have to choose between the Jesus I know and a God who wants men to dominate everything, whatever that might mean, I’m going with Jesus. I hope you are too!
-Sue Trollinger