Hunter or Hunted?

Grace and peace to you from God our Father, from our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ, and from the Holy Spirit who gives us life. Amen.

When I was growing up, one of the television programs I watched was Garfield Goose, which was broadcast on WGN in Chicago. Like all kid programs of the time (think Casey Jones here in the Twin Cities), the characters did their own shtick, but they also had cartoons. And they always had at least one Warner Bros. Looney Tunes or Merry Melodies on during the program (hum theme song?). Now my favorite was any Looney Tune that had Bugs Bunny in it because he was such a smart aleck (which also might say a lot about myself). I remember one early cartoon titled “A Wild Hare”, where Elmer Fudd was out hunting. You may remember this one. As the cartoon opens up we see him walking in the woods with his gun following a set of animal tracks. He pauses looks out towards the audience, and says “shhh, be vewy vewy quiet, I am hunting wabbits. Heh, heh, heh”. And then he continues following the set of tracks. He of course eventually comes upon Bugs Bunny who in the end gets the better of Elmer. In fact, poor Elmer could never seem to outwit that “Wascally Wabbit”. Now I know you hunters out there might chuckle at this, but I wonder if sometimes you have also felt like Elmer, “Dwat those wascally deer!”

Do you think that the disciples also felt like Elmer Fudd? “In the morning, while it was still very dark, Jesus got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, "Everyone is searching for you." Here the disciples are looking for Jesus, and as we constantly see in the Bible, and especially in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus is doing the unexpected. Don’t get me wrong; I am not trying to compare Jesus with Bugs Bunny. But I think that it is instructive as to how and why they were looking for Jesus. How does one go about hunting for Jesus? Obviously it shouldn’t be like Elmer Fudd. After all it would seem quite absurd to look for Jesus with a shotgun. Or with any weapon for that matter. What about appropriating the Sherlock Holmes look. You know, putting on the two-sided baseball cap, smoking a pipe and using a magnifying glass to look for clues. That might be a little old fashioned. How about the CSI folks? Do you think we could use the kinds of forensic technology modern day detectives use to determine where Jesus may be lurking? Like the children a few minutes ago; looking, searching, or hunting for Jesus can be quite frustrating, especially if we don’t have enough clues to go on.

Maybe the question is not how, but why? In verse 37 the disciples tell Jesus, “Everyone is searching for you”. Why is it that we look for Jesus? Or for what purpose? The easy answer would be for salvation. But that raises another question. From what are we to be saved? For the some of the folks in the Gospel of Mark, they wanted Jesus to save them from Roman occupation. The Messiah was to be a political figure that would liberate the Jews from all oppression. After all isn’t what was promised in Isaiah? Or Jeremiah? Or the rest of the prophets? There were other folks wanted Jesus to save them from their own form of oppression. Look at those who were possessed by evil spirits or those who had various sicknesses. We all have a pretty good idea of what being sick is like. And it doesn’t matter whether it is something as simple as the 24-hour flu or as complicated as an addiction, or a terminal illness. We all want to be rid of what ever is ailing us at the time. Isn’t this why it is called dis-ease?

There are those who would use Jesus for their own agendas apart from salvation. Later in the book of Mark we hear two of the disciples, James and John asking Jesus to grant one request. That request was to sit at the right and left hand of Jesus when he came into his glory. They wanted to share in the glory of Jesus, much to the dismay of the other disciples. Or what about Judas Iscariot? We all know what his motivation was: money. In the Book of Mark Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do you say I am?” I think a corollary to that question would be, “What do you want me to be?” There are those today, who would desire to use Jesus for their own agendas. Listen to some of these book titles: “Jesus for the Non-Religious”, “The Challenge of Jesus “, and ”Jesus, a New Vision”. I’ll leave it to you to guess as to what their motivations are. Or what about those who want to profit from Jesus. I came across a web site that allows you to dress up Jesus. The site claims that you can “Dress up Jesus by dragging the items to him with your mouse. They'll snap right into place”. There are all kinds of different costumes that you can place on Jesus while he is on the cross. What is that about? I think though, that all of us want to put God, and Jesus some kind of box. There is a scene in the movie “Talladega Nights” where the character Ricky Bobby begins to pray to the Baby Jesus. A discussion, during the prayer, I might add, ensues about Jesus and which Jesus you should pray to. Ricky Bobby’s teammate says he likes to picture Jesus in a tuxedo t-shirt, or being the front man for the band Lynyrd Skynyrd. The kids imagine Jesus dressed up as a ninja warrior. Ricky’s wife and her dad make the claim that Jesus was grown up. What is especially telling in their prayer is the thanks for all of the material things that Ricky has received. Is this really what we want from Jesus? Or do we laugh nervously, because we see parts of ourselves in that?

The problem with hunting for Jesus is that in doing so we usually want something from him. But look at what the next verse says: “[Jesus] answered, let us go on to the neighboring towns so that I may proclaim the message there also”. The reason why we can’t find Jesus is that he is doing the unexpected. He doesn’t sit still and wait for us to come to him. We can’t find Jesus because he is already hunting for us. We can’t find Jesus because he has already found us. Jesus finds us when we gather in this place, worshiping him. Jesus finds us when we celebrate the sacraments, that of baptism and of communion. Jesus finds us when we serve each other and our neighbor in truth and in love. He finds us every week when we hear the message he first proclaimed. What is that message? The message is that the Kingdom of God is at hand. The arrival of the kingdom is that the good news of salvation is here and now. This is not a salvation from Roman occupation. It is not a salvation from oppression. It is not a salvation that relies on our own agendas, or even our works. It is a salvation that comes from God first and foremost. There is nothing, I repeat, nothing we can do to earn this. Our agendas and striving is all for naught, and it is only by God’s gracious love that we enter into this salvation. It is a salvation that promises freedom from oppression that grips us in our addictions or dis-ease. And it is a salvation that promises hope that we will not be bound to this earthly body only, but that we have a hope and future beyond this time and place.
To hunt or to be hunted. That is the choice we have. We can be like Elmer Fudd, chasing something that is elusive, and unfulfilling, serving only our purposes. Or we can be hunted, knowing that our lives will be made full and rich through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. For me the choice is simple. Amen.

And may the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.