Getting Personal: Who Did You Say Jesus Is?

Bible Reference: Mark 8:27-33 (The Message)

There comes a time when relationships get personal - if you’ve ever been in love - when you have to figure out for yourself just who that other person is to you and what he or she means to you.

Jesus and his disciples headed out for the villages around Caesarea Philippi. As they walked, he asked, "Who do the people say I am?"

"Some say 'John the Baptizer,'" they said. "Others say 'Elijah.' Still others say 'one of the prophets.'"

He then asked, "And you—what are you saying about me? Who am I?"  Peter gave the answer: "You are the Christ, the Messiah." Jesus warned them to keep it quiet, not to breathe a word of it to anyone. He then began explaining things to them: "It is necessary that the Son of Man proceed to an ordeal of suffering, be tried and found guilty by the elders, high priests, and religion scholars, be killed, and after three days rise up alive." He said this simply and clearly so they couldn't miss it. But Peter grabbed him in protest. Turning and seeing his disciples wavering, wondering what to believe, Jesus confronted Peter. "Peter, get out of my way! Satan, get lost! You have no idea how God works." Calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, "Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat; I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to saving yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? What could you ever trade your soul for? "If any of you are embarrassed over me and the way I'm leading you when you get around your fickle and unfocused friends, know that you'll be an even greater embarrassment to the Son of Man when he arrives in all the splendour of God, his Father, with an army of the holy angels."

Perhaps you can recall such times in your life when a best friend asks: “So, is she your girlfriend or what?” Or your mother forcing the issue by using the parental tactic of asking a question by making a statement: “So, she’s the one...?” At some point, relationships get personal—they intrude on our private space and demand that we answer a fundamental question: “just what does this person mean to me.” It’s a watershed question in any human relationship. And once it’s asked, the relationship can never be the same. The question forces us to either move deeper in the relationship or become more distant. It forces us to search our heart, mind, and soul and decide who the other person is. A mere acquaintance? Just a friend or buddy? A best friend even? A soul mate? A potential life partner? 

Well Jesus is doing the same in the story we have here from Mark’s gospel. Here he is travelling with his closest disciples. He’d done some amazing things: he’d healed people’s diseases, he’d cast out demons, he’d been teaching powerful, life-changing truths. He challenged the political and religious leaders of his day.

At first, just a few people followed him. But later we’re told some seventy signed on with him as his apprentices – disciples – and there were hundreds perhaps even thousands of men and women who were on the fringe – eager to see what he’d do next and hanging on his every word. Everyone had an opinion about Jesus. He evoked both admiration and disdain: loved by the poor, feared and hated by the political and religious leaders. Some said he was a saint. Some accused him of being evil. Everyone had something to say about him. It’s very much the same today with all sorts of ideas flying around.

Jesus actually put the same question to his closest followers. “Who do people say that I am?”” They didn’t have to think much about that one. That’s easy. They heard what everyone else was saying, so they answered. Well some folks say “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” Everyone was trying to figure him out, and so they used the only categories that made sense to them at the time. John the Baptist had been a local hero—calling the Jewish people to live righteously and King Herod had put him to death. So some thought Jesus was John the Baptist come back to life. Others believed that the great prophet Elijah who had died centuries earlier would some day come back to life and lead Israel to victory over the Romans. Others thought he was a prophet - a great teacher - who spoke plain truth to ordinary people. But then Jesus gets really personal – “in their face” I think some might say today. “Yeah but who do you say that I am?”” It’s one thing to ask what other people think—it’s quite another to be asked what you think and feel and believe.

And there comes a time in every churchgoer’s life when we have to answer the same question about Jesus. Who do you say that he is? There is, after all, only one basic question in life: Who is Jesus? What else explains the fascination of Dan Brown’s ‘Da Vinci Code’ – a good page-turning read, if errant nonsense – but, along with Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ it’s got people talking and thinking about Jesus – why did he die on the cross and go through such agony?

Our answer to the question ‘who do you say I am?’ is going to determine our eternal future; our reason for being; our identity and security; the sense of purpose that we either have or don’t have. And it’s Jesus himself who’s forcing the issue – taking us from generalities to the specific and personal.

And it’s a question still being asked and debated over 2000 years later. Just who was or is this Jesus? Historian Philip Schaff described the overwhelming influence which Jesus had on subsequent history and culture of the world.

This Jesus of Nazareth, without money and arms, conquered more millions than Alexander, Caesar, Mohammed, and Napoleon [combined]; without science...he shed more light on things human and divine than all philosophers and scholars…; without the eloquence of schools, he spoke such words of life as were never spoken before or since, and produced effects which lie beyond the reach of orator or poet; without writing a single line, he set more pens in motion, and furnished themes for more sermons, orations, discussions, learned volumes, works of art, and songs of praise than the whole army of great men [and women] of ancient and modern times. (Copyright©1997 by Campus Crusade for Christ. All rights reserved. http://www.ccci.org/whoisjesus/interactive-journey/impactd.htm)
 
Now let’s face it – for the vast majority of the 70% who ticked the box “Christian” in the last UK Census – a surprising figure for a so-called secular society in some ways, their allegiance was to a vague notion of belonging to the Christian religion rather than anything else – an unofficial Christianity – a kind of ‘Christianity Lite’ – meaning little more than what you want it to mean – with some sense of being a good person (whatever that is).

But is that what Jesus is getting at do you think?

This isn’t about being part of a so-called Christian country – it isn’t even about churchgoing, or doing good works or neighbourliness.

Simon Peter’s answer went beyond conventional ideas: “You’re the Messiah – the Christ.” “You’re the one we’ve been waiting for…”. The Jews had been longing for a powerful military leader like their favourite king, David, who would kick the Romans out of their country.

In Matthew’s account we hear Jesus telling Peter that he is “blessed, because my Father in Heaven revealed this to you” (Matthew 16:17). But Jesus had something a little different in mind than Peter – not a political Saviour to deliver Israel from her enemies by military force – but someone who would usher in a whole new kingdom. Central to the gospel is the idea that Christ’s death and resurrection had brought about a completely new order where old divisions between people became secondary to following Jesus.

As one of my Oxford tutors, Graham Tomlin put it: This is the kind of teaching that is vital today. Only a strong sense of Christian identity – that I am a Christian before I am anything else – can sustain Christian witness in a competitive, brand- and image–conscious marketplace. Christian isn’t a badge to justify causing further division – or another tribal grouping setting people apart as superior. Being ‘in Christ’ as the apostle Paul put it means becoming part of a community through which God wishes to serve and bless the world. It means a commitment to Christ’s way of love – and a calling to give oneself for others as Jesus himself did – as a servant, not a master.

The willingness to let our Christian faith and identity be known  - here in this little community of Waunarlwydd – whether by silent signs, words and actions performed in Christ’s name, is the true test of whether we really believe the gospel to be ultimately true, not just a private choice – like going to the gym – or a secret belief in fairies or ghosts.

But who do you say I am? The question of whether Christians are prepared to be more up front about their faith – to adopt a more conscious, open and personal sense of Christian identity, is a crucial one for the survival of Christianity. By calling us to a deeper relationship with himself, Jesus is painting a new picture of what the Christian life can be like if it’s a serious and radical lifestyle choice – not just a casual brand allegiance.

So why did Jesus forbid his disciples to tell anybody that he was the Messiah?

First because people must find this out for themselves – and God so wants us to know his Son in a personal way that changes us inside.

And second because we need to understand what sort of Messiah Jesus is – what we’re signing up for. He wasn’t to be a spectacular, outwardly successful hero – like some of our here-today-gone-tomorrow celebs. Instead he was to be a humble, patient loving peaceful Messiah – but a King nevertheless. The Bishop of Durham, N. T. Wright, reminds us that the word "Christ" is not a proper name, like a surname, and it doesn’t simply mean "the divine one." A better translation of "Jesus Christ" would be "King Jesus."

Christianity has always claimed to be a public matter with huge personal, social and political implications – not a private set of arcane rituals performed behind closed doors. 

So the question that every one of us has to deal remains. Who do you say Jesus is? Simply a good teacher? Simply a man who lived and died a long time ago? And if he is King Jesus, the messiah, the Son of God, who suffered, died, and was raised from the death, and who now reigns eternally with God. Then oughtn’t we to bow the knee and acknowledge it?