Do people often ask you to tell them about Jesus? To explain – or
even just describe – who Jesus is?
It really almost never happens to me. And you would think it
would. (Or at least, I thought so, before I was ordained and found out
that priests are a lot more likely to be asked why we do this or that in
church, to explain our theology and policies about marriage, or where to drop
off rummage than about who exactly this Jesus is.)
So I’m out of practice with this question, and I actually found
myself a little stumped recently when our Bishop asked me – started asking the
whole diocese – “What is our relationship to Jesus, and how do we explain it?”
Mmm. That's complicated. There’s just so much to this
relationship. I know Jesus, but it’s hard to describe Jesus.
But now I need to know my answer. And you need to know yours. Our
bishop has put this question at the heart of discerning the call of our diocese
– a process that has gotten underway this summer.
You recognize this question, don’t you, from the gospel story we
just heard? You recognize that it’s a question that Jesus asks his disciples: “Who do you say that I am?”
We usually answer the question “Who is this?” with relationships
or roles:
This is my best friend.
He’s my first grade teacher.
She’s the CEO of the company.
And that’s how the disciples answer Jesus. First, what other
people say: Well, John the Baptist, or Elijah - a prophet. Who is Jesus? A
prophet important to the history and future of Israel.
Then Jesus asks, “Who do you
say that I am?”
And Peter speaks up - with a role: You are the Messiah. You are
the one our people have been waiting for since forever. The one who is going to
bring the reign of God.
And a relationship: You are the Son of the Living God. You are
closer to God than anyone else.
And Peter’s answer is affirmed: Blessed are you. What you know,
and say, is God’s Truth. Jesus’
identity – who he is – is truly revealed in this exchange. And then Peter’s identity is changed: You are Rock,
Jesus tells him.
Peter started this conversation as “son of Jonah” – ordinarily
human, known by those human relationships. Now he’s rock. Bedrock, foundational,
known by what God will do with him. Given new responsibility, new identity, new
relationship with everyone. All because of who he says Jesus is.
It’s not just Peter. It’s true for you and for me, also. Your
answer to the question, “Who is
Jesus?” defines you as much as it defines Jesus. My answer to that
question defines me. And it defines our relationship to one another.
That’s why our bishop is asking us to know and say who Jesus is. Because
what we say to others and to ourselves about Jesus – our relationship, his role
– defines who we are.
If we know and describe Jesus as love and forgiveness, then our
relationship to one another as the Body of Christ must be forgiving and loving,
so that the world can see that in us, and respond. Or if we identify Jesus as a
healer, our relationships must be about healing – one another, and the world. Whether
we say Jesus is judgmental or generous, distant or close, historical or very
present, how we know Jesus is how we are called to be, and the world will know
Jesus through that.
But I believe there’s even more to it than that. Because it’s not
just other people who ask this question, but Jesus himself. When Jesus asks you, asks me “Who do you say
that I am?” we have to respond face-to-face with God. And that response reveals
and shapes our identity at the most fundamental level.
When Peter says, out loud, to Jesus, that Jesus is the Messiah –
the bringer of God’s kingdom - he is committing himself to living in that kingdom
the way Jesus brings it, giving up his own agenda for what God should do on
earth. (This is immediately tested, by the way, when Jesus starts talking about
crucifixion and Peter realizes he’s signed up for something VERY different than
he thought he meant).
When Peter says out loud, to Jesus, that Jesus is the Son of God,
it means that to keep hanging out with Jesus, Peter is going to have to live
with God in every single ordinary moment of his life: every meal, every
blister, every incredible sunrise, every mistake, is not just his own, or
shared with his friends: all of that is wide open to God. God isn’t distant,
potential, or uncertain anymore. God is immediately present, “up in our
business.” And that will change any of
us, won’t it?
Those commitments of Peter’s are affirmed by Jesus, confirmed as
the truth of God. So Jesus reveals Peter’s true identity: not only the
impulsive, eager but unreliable man we see in the gospel stories, but more
truly the bedrock of Jesus’ community reaching into the future, the rock on
which we are built.
In the same way, when you or I say out loud, to Jesus, who we
know Jesus is, we are revealed by
those words as the person – and the community – God has called us to be.
If I say, (as I eventually do when I clear my way through all the
things I know about Jesus to the most essential thing) that Jesus is God made
flesh, a real person, all of the divine in the space of one human life, then I
commit myself to the holiness and revelation of my embodied life, and yours, and
the holiness of a flesh that can touch one another, taste God’s
creation at the same time that it itches and sags and gets broken or tired.
Then I learn that Jesus sees me
as flesh that can, must, will hold and reveal the presence of God – in this
messy, ordinary human body.
And when I commit myself to the truth that God loves in the flesh,
that God wants to be that close, that messy, that involved, that physical with
us, it’s going to change me. It has.
If you say – to Jesus – that Jesus is a teacher, then you are revealed
as a student. Or in biblical terms, a disciple, one who tries to become like
the teacher.
If you say – to Jesus – that Jesus is the Light, you commit to
seeing what that Light is showing you, in yourself and the world, even when you
would rather not. And you are revealed to yourself and others in that Light.
If we say that Jesus is the Way we commit ourselves to being
guided – always – by that Way, and to being known as those who guide others
along that Way.
If you say that Jesus is our Redeemer you commit yourself to
forgiveness and salvation, to accepting it – for yourself and for those
who you really don’t want to see in heaven, thanks – and to sharing that
forgiveness with all. And God will name that and use that in you, just as God
did with Peter.
It may be that - other than our Bishop - no one will ever ask you
to identify or explain Jesus in your lifetime as a member of the Church. And
maybe you’re ready anyway with an answer for anyone who asks.
But it is certain that if we choose to be disciples of Christ,
sooner or later Jesus will ask us, will ask you and me, “Who do you say that I am?”
In that moment, face-to-face with all of God, what will you say?
And when you respond, who will you become?
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