So, there’s this Dorito Commercial out there – if you try and take a Dorito – you are smacked and thrown against the wall by an elephant’s trunk – but no one wants to talk about it!!!
The expression … “The elephant in the room” … has become something of “a common cliché today.”
Before we write that expression totally off, we would do well to remember that some “profound wisdom” is to be found in “common – every day clichés.”
The phrase comes from a fable entitled “The Inquisitive Man” which tells of a man – who goes to a museum and notices all sorts of “tiny things,” but fails to notice an elephant. It is from there -that the phrase became “proverbial.”
This simple expression … “The elephant in the room” …addresses our very “human tendency” to avoid “the obvious.”
“The elephant in the room” is an “obvious truth” that is either being “ignored” or going “un-addressed.”
The expression also applies to an obvious “problem or risk” that no one wants to discuss. It is usually something that is “quite controversial” and therefore, is being “deliberately ignored.”
No one really wants to address it or to “confront and challenge others…” It could be an “uncomfortable” discussion for all involved.
Sometimes it is “an embarrassment” to discuss, or could cause “sadness” or is “a taboo subject” or could trigger “long hours” of argumentation and division.
The plain fact is there are “some realities” that are so “painful and delicate” that we go to “great lengths” to deny their importance.
Constant “harping and criticism” for example – will undermine most, if not all relationships.
“Failure to plan and to prepare” – will inevitably lead to poor performance and to eventual disappointment.
The “projects or relationships” in which you have “invested very little” – will provide “minimal satisfaction” in the end. So the more you put into something, the more you will get out!
Well the reason I bring this up – is because Jesus (seemingly) has no problem “naming or addressing” the elephant in the room.
In our Gospel text for today, Jesus is no longer in the wilderness, but he “still” is being tempted. Temptation obviously continues to “follow him.”
This time the temptation comes from one of his very own students – his disciple Peter. Peter here might as well be Satan or the tempter, because he is encouraging Jesus to take “the easy way out.”
In the early part of this gospel, the author portrays all the exciting things that Jesus did to reveal “who he is.”
All of which, leads up to this critical moment-in-time, when Jesus asked his disciples “if” they understood “who he was.”
After most of the disciples acted as if they did not understand the question, Peter blurted out: “You are the Christ, the Messiah, and the Son of the Living God.”
So Jesus decided it was time to explain what it would mean for him “to challenge the great powers of their time” … the “religious establishment” and the “Roman governmental authority.”
It was “the elephant in the room…” So therefore, Jesus talked about things like confrontation, resistance, crucifixion and death. This, however, was not what Peter or any of the disciples wanted to hear. It was uncomfortable.
When Peter heard Jesus’ prediction of what might possibly occur in the future, his response was immediate: “No, Jesus.” “No suffering and no death.” We will not stand for it. Absolutely not!
What ARE YOU thinking, Jesus?
You are the Messiah – the promised deliverer of God’s people, Israel! Messiah’s do not suffer and die.
The elephant can be large and grey and dirty and fill the entire room, but if we do not want to see it, we will not.
Elephants trumpet loudly, but if we do not want to hear – we can ignore it, no matter how loud it is. So it was – with the disciples.
They loved the crowds, they loved the healings and all the glory, they liked the warm welcomes, the free meals, and the traveling together as an apostolic band.
They loved their comradery. They liked there new found fame. They liked the excitement and the miracles that no one could explain-away. They liked the words of liberation and hope.
They had no desire whatsoever to hear any and all predictions of conflict, humiliation, and death.
They didn’t get it – not the first time-nor the second time – nor the third time, Jesus brought it up! It was the elephant in the room!