Who Do You Say That I Am?

Rev Dr Max Champion at St John's UCA Mt Waverley Sunday 1 March 2015

Lessons - Exodus 3:1-12; Psalm 105:1-11; Mark 8:22-38 '

But who do you say that I am?' asked Jesus (Mark 8:29)

This episode is pivotal for understanding the Gospel. It should be read and re-read until Jesus' true identity is clearly seen and joyfully acknowledged.

The answer to Jesus' question 'Who do you say that I am?' is life's crucial question. It is a question like no other!

Opinion polls (v27) showed that Jesus was thought to be a remarkable person (v28). He puzzled the masses, infuriated religious leaders and moral purists, frustrated family and disciples. Everybody asked, 'Who is this man?' Some said, 'Who does he think he is?'

They could not pigeon-hole him. He attacked smug religion and morality but insisted on true worship and 'righteous' living. He spoke of 'self denial'

and 'losing one's life' (v34ff) but delighted in nature, enjoyed human company and was open to the acceptable and unloved alike. He embodied a 'humanity' and 'Godlikeness' which did not square with anyone they had met.

Whenever they tried to say who Jesus was, they were forced to use ideas and words in new ways. Jesus reshaped what they believed about God and humanity.

No longer could they be satisfied to compare him with other godlike or human figures. He could not be labelled.

That did not stop them - and it does not stop us - from trying! They tried to understand Jesus in the light of their hope for a 'righteous prophet' or 'messianic deliverer'. We try to understand him in the light of our hope for a person who is inclusive and reasonable. When asked 'Who do you say that Jesus is'? we are likely to answer that he is the 'Christ of 1000 faces'. It all depends on your point of view!

Here the focus is on us. What counts is what we can or cannot believe in the light of our ideas and experiences - not who Jesus is - in re-shaping our lives.

For some, Jesus' 'Godlikeness' is so important that his 'humanness' must be denied - he is an unworldly heavenly figure. For others, his 'humanness' is so important that his 'Godlikeness' is denied - Jesus is an earthly figure who teaches us about God.

The question, 'Who do you say that I am?' is not theoretical. Today, Jesus is as controversial as ever - in Church and society! Although widely accepted as a religious and moral teacher, miracle worker, charismatic preacher, moral reformer, liberator, spiritual guru and so on, Jesus is often vehemently opposed as the person in whom the fullness of God is embodied. 'Who does he think he is'? is the cry of those who think his claim to uniqueness is dangerously narrow and exclusive in our pluralistic world.

Like it or not, Jesus cannot be classified according to our ideas about what is 'divine' and 'human'. He does not fit ways of thinking that we normally use to make sense of the world. In him a 'new thing' has appeared, forcing us to use new patterns of thought so that we can see reality in a completely different light.

This 'new thing' is not abstract or impersonal but concrete and personal.

That is why Jesus does not ask 'How do I fit in with your religious ideas and beliefs'? but 'Who do you say that I am'? It is a very personal question which draws us away from our views about Jesus and invites us to see that, in him, the very love of God is embodied.

No disciple could miss the significance of the 'I am'. 'I am' is the uniquely personal name for the holy, awesome liberator who called Israel to be a light to the nations (Exodus 3:1ff). When Jesus says, 'Who do you say that I am?' he is inviting the disciples (and us) to see in him the Being of God.

Seeing does not necessarily mean understanding. Although only Peter sees that Jesus is the 'Messiah', he is blind to who he really is. Peter, too, tries to understand Jesus in the light of traditional patterns of belief. He correctly identifies Jesus' messianic character, but wrongly thinks that it means victory without suffering (Mark 8:31ff).

If we are to understand who Jesus is then we must 'think outside the square'.

The answer to the question 'Who do you say that I am'?' is that Jesus is the Incarnate Being of God! He cannot be fitted in to any religious pattern of thought. He is the presupposition of all our thinking about God, the world and humanity - not the answer to questions we put to him!

Therefore we must let him question us, in much the same way scientists let the given structure of the universe question them. As we have seen in the study on science and religion, scientists see the world more clearly when, in faith, they let reality re-shape their thinking. Likewise, we see the reality of Christ more clearly when, in faith, we let his Being as the Incarnate presence of God re-shape our thinking.

There will always be disagreements about 'Who he is'. The text is proof of that, as are disputes among Christians today that are tearing the churches apart, including the UCA. These controversies go to the heart of things. As scientists cannot simply 'agree to disagree' about whether the earth is round or flat, so we cannot simply 'agree to disagree' on Jesus' crucial question, 'Who do you say that I am?'

Our text and the entire New Testament insists that Jesus is unlike any other person in history. He is the crucified-and-risen Christ who is of 'one being with the Father', as the Nicene Creed later put it. This is not 'who' we, or Peter, want Jesus to be! We want him to be popular, attractive, positive, upbeat, accepting of all things and everybody - a good bloke who helps us on our spiritual journey.

We well may ask 'Who does Jesus think he is?' to identify his crucified-and-risen destiny with the embodiment of the costly, victorious purposes of God. If we do, however, we shall be blind to who he is and subject to his withering response to Peter, 'Get behind me Satan.' ! v33)

This harsh reaction does not sit well with us or with our image of 'gentle Jesus meek and mild'. But, without it, we would miss seeing who Jesus really is: the Incarnate Love of God.

The poet WH Auden put it well when he said, 'I believe (that Jesus is Lord) because he fulfils none of my dreams, because he is in every respect the opposite of what he would be if I could have made him in my own image.'

In view of this, it is instructive for us to note that this episode follows Jesus' healing of the blind man. In contrast with him, the 'seeing' disciples are blind to who he really is.

Jesus 'charged them to tell no-one about him' (v30b). Apart from his crucifixion-and-resurrection nobody can truly see who Jesus is.

Seeing 'who Jesus really is' involves a life of sacrificial self-denial (v35ff).

In this pivotal Gospel episode we are warned against making Christ in our own small image. And we are invited - together with the curious, the sceptical and the hostile - to see in his costly life and death and his glorious resurrection and ascension, the One who restores us to wholeness and emboldens us to follow him, even in the face of severe opposition.

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Rev Dr Max Champion is Minister in St John's Uniting Church, Mt Waverley, Victoria, Australia.

Dr Champion is a member of the Council of the Assembly of Confessing Congregations within the UCA.