13When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" 14They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets." 15"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" 16Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
17Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 18And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." 20Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.(Matthew 16:13-20, NIV)
This is my favorite passage in Scripture right now. I don't know why. Maybe it's because I'm trying to answer the question myself: "Who do you say I am?"
We come to "church" every Sunday morning (or afternoon, or even evening for some), and we say something to the effect of "Jesus is Lord!", or "Praise the Lord!", or "I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart!" (Where?) But who do you, dear reader, say Jesus is? Are we saying Jesus is Lord, when we worry more about having enough money to entertain ourselves than we have concern about how much we're tithing? Who are we saying Jesus is when we buy expensive cars whose monthly payments are more than our two-thirds world brothers and sisters make in a year? And what kind of Lord are we worshiping when we drive these giant SUVs the size of elephants, that wastes the proverbial 30 gallons to the mile, all to transport you and your little one? Who do we say Jesus is when we pray for God to restore the environment and then do nothing ourselves?
But don't worry. Because I'm right up there with you. I didn't initially oppose the war in Iraq. And now I'm not confident that pulling out would do anything but create bigger problems for the Iraqi people, believe it or not. And driving stuff? Well, my one car is pretty economical. But the other is a mini-van - now granted, I have three kids, and I'm the one who drops them off at school every day, and if they don't have enough lebesraum they get, let's say, a little fiesty (okay, that's as much a rationalization as anything). I generally vote Republican - but let's face it, Dems and Reps are merely two sides of the same coin - they're both rotten. I like to eat all sorts of food that's not good for me in the long run.
So you see, we're all struggling to answer this question of who Jesus is. I want Him to be my Lord. I want Him to be my Savior. I want to be His servant. In my tradition, we believe that it is by the grace of God that we can even be Christians. Its not that we don't "believe" in free will; we just tend to believe that God's sovereignty tends to trump free will. All of that's to say that I struggle not only to answer the question, but to believe that God's love for me is absolutely secure. And I struggle to believe that because I struggle to give an honest "my-life-is-consistent-with-my-words" sort of answer to who do I say Jesus is.
In the end, at the end of the day, when it's all said and done, I say Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. I believe this because right before Easter some twenty-plus years ago, God revealed Himself to me, and offered me a choice between life and death, because He knew I was ready to choose death, and He wanted me to live (My three kids and my beautiful wife seem to be glad I accepted His offer). Without Jesus, I am dead. Or, I want to die. There is nothing to life without Him. And yet, in some ways, I feel no closer to understanding what it means to say, 'Jesus is the Christ' than when I first professed faith in Him, and accepted His death on my behalf.
I struggle with the question and the implications of the answer, too. I'm no better than you. Okay, maybe I am just a little, but that's beside the point, because in God's eyes, I'm really not. The truth is - always becareful when people tell you the "truth" - that we are not to answer this question in the vacuum of our own space. The answer, I am thinking, is to be given in the very context where we are most likely committing the greatest hypocrisy - our time together at church. Saying Jesus is Lord is a team event, and it requires our being the people of God, yes, the very Body of Christ together to get it right, to keep one another honest, to read and listen to Scripture together, and then lovingly hold one another's feet to its flames (not in a legalistic, mean-spirited way), that is we're all standing in the flames together, and together we are to endure them. I'm talking about the presence of God - it's dangerous to be in the presence of God. And we were never meant to stand in His presence by ourselves.
Okay, this has taken a direction I had not anticipated, nor foresaw. But it is what it is. What do you think? It's not as concise as I had originally thought it would be. My blogs sometimes go "Joycian" on me. But in the end, Jesus is the Christ. I just need God's help through you to be able to live that belief.
