Jesus is so interesting as to be hard to ignore. It is not just enough to talk about him. Rather, we feel the need to say something that will explain him. His identity is an open question to every person he encounters.
Once when Jesus was praying in solitude,
and the disciples were with him,
he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?”
The trouble, as we saw with Herod Antipas, is that the preexisting categories can't contain Jesus. No prior paradigm can provide the complete story.
They said in reply, “John the Baptist; others, Elijah;
still others, ‘One of the ancient prophets has arisen.’”
There is some likeness between John, Elijah, and the prophets and Jesus. But to dwell on the likeness is to miss the still greater difference. If we emphasize that Jesus was a good man, a teacher, a healer, a prophet, a guru, a sage, or any other category that the world had ready, we miss the deeper reality.
Then he said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Peter said in reply, “The Christ of God.”
The only way beyond the crowded categories of worldly wisdom is for the Spirit of the Father to reveal Jesus to us. If we enter into the world's marketplace of spiritual figureheads we will find ourselves choosing based on the our own human limits, and therefore choosing someone who cannot help us escape those limits. While we are made for Jesus we could never discover just how God planned to fulfill us apart from revelation.
[He] has put the timeless into their hearts,
without man’s ever discovering,
from beginning to end, the work which God has done.
It is the revelation of Jesus that puts everything else in our lives in order. It is true that there is a time to be born and a time to die, but the disciples could not be faulted for not knowing which was which by their own reasoning.
He said, “The Son of Man must suffer greatly
and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed and on the third day be raised.”
Jesus wants to shatter the categories and paradigms that limit his activity in our lives. He himself is meant to be the standard we use to discern the appointed times for every purpose under the heavens. If we let him, things may become uncomfortable for us. But they will be uncomfortable only in the sense that a grand adventure is uncomfortable. We will no longer need to hesitate when he calls us to go forth without resources we need, to go sailing with peace even amidst the storms of life, or even to walk on water or move mountains by faith.
Blessed be the LORD, my rock,
my mercy and my fortress,
my stronghold, my deliverer,
My shield, in whom I trust.
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