Who is Jesus? This is a question that has been asked both inside and outside the church for generations. People answer this question in many and various ways. I suspect if we took a poll today we would receive hundreds upon hundreds of different responses.
Who is Jesus?
Jesus is …
- wise teacher
- radical revolutionary who spoke truth to power
- a great example and teacher of moral living
- the paradigm of compassion
- a prophet of God
- advocate for the poor and forgotten who erased the lines between pure and impure
- worker of miracles
- contender against evil
- Peacemaker
- Truth-teller and so on
Who is Jesus? Generally, it depends on who you ask or what’s going on in a given society or culture.
In the mid-1980s, the historian and theologian Jaroslav Pelikan wrote Jesus through the Centuries. In his book Pelikan describes the many names and images and titles of Jesus used through the centuries. According to Pelikan, the popular idea or image of Jesus that emerges in any given age is one that is shaped by a particular culture, reflecting the culture’s core values and the mood or disposition of a culture.
So, for example, Jesus the Light to the Gentiles was a dominant image held by many when the church grew beyond the Greco-Roman world. In the early centuries of the church, the image of the Cosmic Christ as the universal word of God was popular. Into the 19th and 20th century, Christ the Liberator was a preferred image during a time where the accent was placed on social justice and freedom as seen in liberation movements throughout the world, including the civil rights movement in this nation.
These are just a few examples.
I think Pelikan was onto something. Jesus is a seminal figure in the world’s history and there is no danger that the image of Jesus will fade away from people’s consciousness. What that image is depends upon a culture’s values and ethos.
When Jesus took the disciples aside and asked them, “Who do people say that I am?” he is essentially asking for a read on the pulse of the culture. Jesus asks, “What’s the word on the street? What are they saying about me?” The disciples tell Jesus that the word on the street varies but the common thread was that Jesus was a prophet, one who speaks the word of God.
Every age speaks of Jesus in ways that reflect what is going on in the world’s cultures. If he were alive, I wonder what Pelikan would say about the dominant image of Jesus today?
I don’t know, but I would hazard a guess that since the church has dwindled in the present age and since it is no longer a revered institution in the culture, the figure of Jesus has surpassed the church and bypasses the church.
From what I’ve seen, people admire and respect Jesus but have little regard for the church because of its hypocrisy and, at least here in Seattle, spirituality can be what you want it to be with or without community and you might want to integrate Jesus into your personal spirituality or not.
One popular image these days is the very biblical image of Jesus as friend to the poor and marginalized and Jesus as a revolutionary for peace and justice. These pictures of Jesus filling the imagination of many are often without reference to the church’s tradition or confession of faith.
Who do people say that I am in the 21st century?
After getting a pulse on popular opinion, Jesus then goes on to ask a second question of his disciples. This one is more poignant and penetrating because it is a question aimed directly to those who have given up everything to follow Jesus. Jesus asks, “Who do you say I am?” Jesus wants to know what his closest followers say about him.
Peter gets it right. “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.”
Now, if we were to take an opinion poll out on the streets this response may not be the most popular but Peter’s response is the church’s confession of faith. It is what we confess when we join Christians of all times and places in reciting the Apostle’s or Nicene Creed. This confession of Jesus is a statement of faith. It says that Jesus is the one in whom we place our trust.
Instead of speculating on how Jesus fits into one’s intellectual puzzle or spiritual quest, the basis for Peter’s confession is faith or fidelity to God.
Our confession of faith is an echo of Peter’s confession: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God!”
A Messiah is one who has been anointed for a special purpose. Jesus was anointed by the Spirit at his baptism. The Messiah of God is at the same time the beloved child of God as the voice from heaven proclaimed at his baptism: “This is my Son, the beloved one.”
Echoing Peter, this continues to be the faith of the church.
Now, because we all believe this and confess it doesn’t mean that we are all somehow in lockstep. One of the great gifts and treasures of the church is its diversity, diversity of gifts as Paul reminds us in today’s second reading and diversity of opinions and perspectives and vocation.
A common faith expressed in freedom. I like to think of the Christian faith as a kind of “living tradition.” We confess this ancient faith as the very center of the church’s life and as people who struggle to trust this Messiah and we confess as those who know something about amazing grace and love of God.
Some years ago, I was at the Coventry cathedral in England I read some words posted somewhere in that lovely place. I don’t remember where but I do remember the words: “Enter a conversation that began long before you were born and will continue long after you die.”
That’s a good way to look at the Creed and our confession of Jesus.
What’s unique about this conversation is that come to the table knowing who we are. Our common confession of faith does not exist in a vacuum. Rooted on this rock who is Jesus we engage together in discernment and that means we must always be in conversation with the Spirit to determine what important step the church takes next in the realm of justice, serving neighbors, and proclaiming the good news. Just because we know the rock from which we are hewn, doesn’t mean we are somehow stuck or immovable. The whole business of faith is that it is living and dynamic and the church is called to go forward with open ears and hearts. In any age, the common confession of Christ coexists with an openness to the Holy Spirit.
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity takes place every January. It doesn’t seem to have much emphasis in recent years, but it is worthy of being celebrated. The growth in interfaith dialogue with other Christians has grown immensely thanks to the prodding of the Spirit. The week has bookends. It begins on January 18th, the day the church celebrates the Confession of St. Peter with the Gospel reading the very reading we have before us today, and the week culminates on January 25th, the festival of the Conversion of St. Paul.
I don’t know who thought this up but it’s brilliant. Begin with our common confession and end up with an accent on conversion. Our common confession keeps us on a very sturdy place and, at the same time, we are not ever settled. The Spirit’s continual call to conversion is continual call for us to change by growing deeper and deeper into the mind of Christ.
And our confession of who Jesus is more than what we proclaim with our lips or think in our heads. Our confession of faith is lived out in what we do.
St. Paul describes as presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice and not to be “conformed to this age but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…” Then he goes on to say, “Don’t think of yourself more highly than you ought to…” Paul is saying you are but one member in the body of Christ. Each of us has unique gifts.
Each of us has unique gifts.
I admit that my blood pressure goes up when I see images of Jesus or placards displaying scripture verses from a crowd of people who are seeking to exact violence on their enemies. I grimace when easy God talk is cover for political agendas. I’m really sad when I do it myself. I believe when this happens we are all caught up in ourselves and the perennial need to be right. When we make Jesus in our own image, the language of gifts are cast aside, for we end up acting as though it is all about us.
To confess Jesus as Messiah is to take a leap of faith and live as followers, not of our egos or agendas but in deference to Jesus who bids us to take up our crosses to follow him.
It isn’t always very easy to confess our faith by the way we live. Jesus demands a lot – loving neighbors, loving even our enemies, forgiving 70×7. Here is where a confession of faith is different than merely responding to an opinion poll.
We know we can only do what Jesus expects with his help. We know that we will never master the business of following Jesus, so we rely on one who forgives us always. When our egos get in the way, the thought of kneeling down to wash the feet of our neighbors as servants seems foolish, but if we rely upon the one who first gave us the commandment to love others living this confession of faith. Our help comes from the one who has saved us.
Following his confession of faith, Jesus says this to Peter: “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but by my Father in heaven.
Peter’s confession of faith came about not because Peter was so smart. It was revealed to him. It came as gift.
Friends in Christ: it all about gift. We say who Jesus is because God has given it to us and God will never cease in giving his love, mercy, and life transforming Spirit.
So, as we continue to be the church, let’s do church with a discerning mind and an open heart, trusting, leaning on him whose love has changes our lives and continues to change the world.
Amen.