Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

A book by Professor Eric Gritsch has just been released by our Lutheran publisher. It is a timely publication entitled Toxic Spiritualities.1 Professor Gritsch lists four pathological elements that have spoiled and continue to spoil the church’s proclamation of the gospel. The four are antisemitism, fundamentalism, moralism and triumphalism. Today we are concerned with the last of those four toxic spiritualities, triumphalism.

Briefly put, triumphalism is the exploitation of the gospel for purposes that are contrary to the gospel itself. More specifically, triumphalism is the co-opting of the gospel to obtain glory for ourselves rather than to bring glory to the God revealed in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. If Jesus is the king, he is a king unlike any king we would desire.

Today we hear the miracles that we did not hear last Sunday. The feeding of the multitude of 5,000 is the only miracle that we find in all four gospels. We also hear the story of Jesus walking on the waves of the Sea of Galilee also omitted last week from the Markan account. Both of these stories are used by the author of John as part of an impressive series of miracles. John does not call them miracles directly. In the Greek text they are semeia or signs.

The gospel of John is not concerned about whether the miracle really happened. That is assumed. But more important for John and for us is how these events are used in the story. Just as the word sign in our language would indicate, a sign is something that points beyond itself to another thing. One scholar says that the signs in John are pointers. In some cases a sign is so wrapped up into that to which it points that we find the sign and the reality to which it points to be inseparable.

The feeding of the 5000 and Jesus’ walking on the waves are just two of many signs in John that increase in magnificence as the story of Jesus is told. The series begins with the changing of water into wine at the wedding at Cana (Ch. 2) and moves to the healing of the royal officer’s son whom Jesus heals from afar. There is the healing of a paralytic (Ch. 6) and then the feeding of the 5000 and the walking on the sea. The series of signs ends with the healing of the man born blind (Ch. 9) and finally with the resuscitation of Lazarus (Ch. 11).

So to what are these signs pointing? To Jesus? Well, yes, but then that is an inadequate answer. The Gospel wants us to perceive that the transcendent power of God is manifest in the person of Jesus. The key word here is “glory.”

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)

There are various reactions to the signs. Some characters experience the signs and are enamored of them. Others are offended by the signs. In either case they do not move beyond the signs. They are stuck and therefore blind or dead to the power to which the signs point. To the royal officer Jesus says, “"Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe" (4:48). It’s hard to know here if Jesus is criticizing the man or if he is simply stating a fact or condition. We need the signs. Without the symbolic character of the signs, there is no way for human beings to come to a state of awe and reverence at the God who cannot be seen or heard or touched.

Let’s cut to the chase. The series of signs directs us to the ultimate sign which is Jesus himself. After all his powerful demonstrations, neither his opponents nor his own disciples really comprehend the signs. That is what our gospel reading is reflecting today. After the feeding of the 5000 John says,

When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, "This is indeed the prophet who is to come into 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. (John 6:14-15)

Jesus rejects the crowds’ attempt to make him king. Their idea of a king does not match Jesus’ understanding of a king. Their idea of a messiah does not match his understanding. Anyone who can do the signs and wonders that Jesus performs would be the perfect candidate to liberate the people from the captivity to Rome.

The climax of the whole story is the revelation of Jesus as the true Messiah and in of all places: in the cross and resurrection. The cross reveals the consequences of our human effort to make Jesus the king, and the resurrection reveals the power of God at work to make Jesus the true King according to the prophets and the psalmist.

Dear congregation, when Martin Luther called for reform in 1517 by the publication of the Ninety-five Theses, he was primarily attacking the problem of triumphalism as he and his fellow Augustinian brothers witnessed it in the Western Church. In Thesis 62 Luther emphasized that

The true treasure of the church is the most holy gospel of the glory and grace of God.

The problem was that human beings were using the Gospel as a means of controlling the people through fear mongering adding burden upon burden to the people. This was done in order to extract from the people not only their subservience but also to get their money. And so it was. Fear of purgatory the people bought collectively millions of dollars for letters of indulgence which purportedly released them and their loved ones from the torments of purgatory. Luther questioned the church’s teaching on purgatory and condemned the exploitation of the people especially when the church added to the troubled consciences rather than unburdened them by the proclamation of the gospel which is nothing other than the forgiveness of sin. The church is to bring the comfort of God in a real, suffering world by relieving of conscience not by increasing the burden of guilt.

Luther was intimidated, interrogated, excommunicated and finally placed under the ban. The ban was the last tool of Rome to rid itself of all critics. It simply absolved in advance the sin of murder for anyone who killed the person under the ban. This crisis resulted in one of our most beloved hymns composed by Luther.

Lord, keep us steadfast in your word;
curb those who by deceit or sword
would wrest the kingdom from your Son
and bring to naught all he has done. (ELW 517)

Rome had made Jesus the King, but we need to ask, “Would Jesus have accepted Rome’s definition of a king?”

Rome is certainly not the only guilty party here. The Lutheran tradition has had its own day in the history of Europe. And what about today?

Our own congregation is named “Christ the King.” It is crucial for us that we understand just what kind of king Jesus was. Are we into toxic spirituality, the seduction of triumphalism? Do we also co-opt the king enthroned on a cross in order to give ourselves the advantage of prestige, security, wealth, or health? Or do we see and hear the glory of God in the ongoing proclamation, that God’s glory is already ours in the gospel, the true treasure of the church. When we trust in the work of God who is merciful, beneficial, and eager to restore and reconcile, we are free. We are free to let God be God, that is, we owe no one. And we are free to let humans be human. That is, we owe everyone.

So the next time you hear church people “pontificating” about their favorite sins, or promising health, wealth and salvation to the true believers, think only on the God and the treasure God bestows upon on us in the crucified-risen One, the true Christ the King.

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

1 Toxic Spiritualities, Eric W. Gritsch, Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2009.