Who Do You Say That I Am??

"Jesus asked them, 'Who do people say that I am?'"

-Mark 8: 27

Now that is a pretty big question:  Who do people say that I am?  Who is this Jesus of Nazareth, really?  When Jesus puts this question to the 12 they give a variety of answers.  Some folks, they say, think that you’re John the Baptist come back to life.  Some think you’re Elijah, that great man of God who was taken up in a whirlwind and who, Jewish tradition has it, will come again to usher in the reign of the Messiah.  And others think you’re a prophet, like those prophets of old, like Isaiah and Jeremiah, calling God’s people to new life.  Oh, and some think you’re absolutely nuts, maybe even a heretic, who is destroying Judaism as we know it.  The Gospel writers didn’t include that one, but we know that interpretation was out there too. 

Then Jesus plays his trump card, and he asks the one question that is bigger than “Who do people say that I am?”  Who do YOU say that I am?  You.  My friends, my students, my beloved.  Who do YOU say that I am?  I've always pictured there being a long silence, each apostle looking at each other, waiting for someone to be bold enough to say something before Simon Peter says very plainly, “You are the Messiah.”  

I’ve wondered what answers Jesus would’ve gotten had he asked that question to each individual apostle.  I suspect he would’ve gotten 12 different answers.  Because while Peter is, of course, correct in his confession of Jesus as Messiah, there was no single, simple answer to this question.  One could’ve said the Messiah, one could’ve said a prophet, one could’ve said a rabbi, a carpenter, a homeless person, a friend to sinners, an outcast.  The amazing thing is that they all would’ve been right.  In the same way, if any of us asked someone “Who do you say that I am?”  we're bound to get a variety of answers based on our relationship to the person, or based on what we do for a living, or based on our personality.  Still, we are not defined by one single characteristic about ourselves.  I am not just a priest, for example.  I’m a toy collector, a comic book nerd, a (very bad) fisherman, a dog lover, a theatre kid, a hillbilly (not a redneck, the difference is elevation!), and a washed-up ballplayer.  I am not defined by any one of these, nor are you defined by any one particular facet of your being.  The same was true for Jesus in his day and in the days after his Resurrection and Ascension.

That’s why we have so many gospels—and trust me, there were way more than just four.  But these are the ones Holy Mother Church affirmed, and each tells a different narrative and paints a different picture of Jesus in a particular time and place.  For the earliest community, the one of Mark’s gospel, Jesus is a political revolutionary who comes and turns the world on its head and proclaims to Rome that God, not Caesar, is the supreme authority, and he proves it by turning an instrument of death into an instrument of life.  For the community of Matthew’s gospel, Jesus is the new Moses, giving the Beatitudes up on the mountain side like Moses gave the law, and while he is the Messiah that Israel has longed for he does it all in the context of being a rabbi, constantly teaching the people around him.  For Luke Jesus is not only the Messiah of Israel, but he is the Savior of all humanity, as that gospel is written in the form of a book addressed to a man named Theopholis, a Greek, a non-Jew, and so the whole of that gospel raises up those who previously had not had a share in the story of God’s people, namely Gentiles and women, and that’s why the parable of the Good Samaritan and the Song of Mary only show up in this gospel.  Then there’s the Fourth Gospel, written almost 100 years after Mark and taking the name of the disciple many believe Jesus loved more than anyone, and in that Gospel Jesus is not only the Messiah of Israel, not only the Savior of the world, but God incarnate, the living Word, and as such he is always in control of a given situation.  I think it’s fascinating that in this year—Year B of our lectionary—we get to alternate between Mark and John and get to see just how different Jesus is in those two gospels. 

So which one got it right?  All of them.  And none of them.  And maybe that’s the point.  There is no one definitive narrative about Jesus.  We don’t get to put him in a box and place a label on him the way we place labels on ourselves.  This is something that films like Son of God or The Passion of the Christ get wrong.  They try blending all of the stories into one, but the gospels were never intended to be read like that. Each was written for  specific audience in a specific time and place and with a specific set of circumstances. And just as the interpretations of who Jesus was evolved over time for each gospel writer, so it is with us today.  Ask anyone at any given time in history who Jesus is and you’ll get a different response. Still, we know that Jesus the Word is, in many ways, the same now that he has always been.  That's why we have a common affirmation of faith, our Nicene Creed, which tells us what we as the Body of Christ believe about Jesus.  Yet that question continues to be offered to each one of us individually to this very day:  who do YOU say this Jesus of Nazareth really is?  And how will you show your answer to others?

In the parish I serve we have answered this question in a variety of ways and have lived out those answers in our many ministries, which we highlighted at our recent ministry fair.  Jesus is the king worthy of worship and praise, exemplified by our acolytes, lectors, eucharistic ministers, and alter guild who serve him in and take care of our sacred spaces each week.  Jesus is the one who made table fellowship with others and welcomed the stranger, and you see that in the ministry of the parish life committee, the fellowship committee, and our greeters and ushers.  Jesus is the one who welcomed children and their questions, and you see that in our children and youth programs. Jesus is the one who called us to serve the least of these, and you see that in the partnerships and programs developed by our mission outreach ministry.  Each community has a different answer to the question and different methods by which of showing that answer to the world.

But brothers and sisters, I wonder:  if I were to ask each of you individually, "Who do you say Jesus is?" what would your response be?  It could be that some of you out there don’t even know how to answer that question?  It’s ok.  Sometimes I don’t either.  But maybe, through prayer and conversation, we can find the answers together.  Maybe we can explore just who this Jesus of Nazareth is for our time, our place, and our set of circumstances in this ever-changing and confusing world.  And then together, with our words and especially with our actions,  maybe we will show the world just who Jesus is.