20 February 2020 - who do you say I am?

Today's Readings

(Audio)

And he asked them,
“But who do you say that I am?”

We are ready to brush past this, mouthing the answer of Peter. We've heard it. We know that Jesus confirms it. But is it really our own answer? On this particular day in each of our lives, who is Jesus to us? Is it not often the case that he is something closer to an ideal or a story? Do we really realize that he is the Christ, the one anointed to deliver and lead us in our own particular circumstances?

Peter said to him in reply,
“You are the Christ.”

Confessing that Jesus is the Christ means more than acknowledging that the historical account of Christianity is true, although it means that as well. It means confessing that he is still present with the same saving power he showed in history. If this sounds right, why does it seem so easy to forget it? Why is it that even though we may agree while we read about it in the morning that by the middle of our day it is almost forgotten?

He began to teach them
that the Son of Man must suffer greatly
and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed, and rise after three days.

We, like Peter, fear the circumstances of life. We fear the inescapable facts of suffering and temptation. Importantly, we can't square these with the power of Jesus. We can't hold the reality of the power of Jesus and the fact of the fallenness of the world in tension and so we look only to the pressing issue of suffering. We start thinking as human beings do rather than from the initial revelation of the heavenly Father that inspired Peter's declaration.

The call of Jesus today is not to run away from suffering but rather to run toward Jesus himself. Jesus assures us that we will suffer and face challenges in life. But he promises an anointing that makes us victorious even in the midst of whatever we might face. We are made more than conquerors in him (see Romans 8:37). Jesus is both truly anointed for victory and eternal life and yet truly suffers. He is the model for us. Saying he is the Christ is no less meaningful because he suffers. In the end, it is more meaningful because of it. So too for the circumstances of our lives.

We need to start thinking as God thinks, not as human beings do. We have been given the mind of Christ (see First Corinthians 2:16). Before we made distinctions and became judges with evil designs. We thought according to the flesh and showed partiality. Jesus is inviting us to return our thinking to the essential starting place: his identity. He is Christ, the Son of the Living God.

Glorify the LORD with me,
let us together extol his name.