Who do the crowds say that I am?
Were the crowds ever been entirely right about the identity of Jesus? It seems to be the case that they often got bits and pieces correct. He performed mighty deeds. He spoke with authority. He was in some significant way different from the scribes and the Pharisees. He even seemed to many to be a great prophet. Perhaps, like John or Elijah he even had something to do with the end times and the messianic age. Even when they crucified him they said they did so because he "said that God was his own Father, making himself equal with God" (see John 5:18). They weren't wrong. But it seems that the crowds' appraisal could never go far enough.
Jesus was in some way like John who was himself operating in the spirit and power of Elijah. He represented the fulfillment of everything for which John was the preparation, the lamb of God to which he pointed. He was, uniquely, the son of the Father, in a way that implied has equality with him as God from God, light from light. But even in the best cases the crowds couldn't see beyond the precedents. The closer they got to the truth, the more offended they became, and the less they were able to tolerate him. Even John the Baptist grated against the egos of those who heard him. But he was at least nothing more than a great prophet. Prophets had been ignored before. The people already had some comfort level with tacit acknowledgment of such messengers without bothering to repent or convert. But if God himself was present? There was no middle ground. One would either need to go all in for him and submit to his commands, or one would, as in fact happened, conspire to put him to death.
Who do the crowds say that I am?
In our own day the expert answers about the identity of Jesus run the gamut. Some suggest, implausibly, that he did not live at all but was only the result of myth, perhaps important in some symbolic way, but not real. Those who believe he existed tend to distrust the Gospel narratives of his life assuming there was some historical Jesus behind those texts. Perhaps he was just another military messiah who was later reinterpreted. Perhaps he only interested in the poor and the disenfranchised but later exaggerated into the figure we know from Scriptures. Very few in the modern 'crowd' are willing to go all the way with Jesus and believe what he said about himself and demonstrated by dying and rising from the dead. If we don't follow Jesus all the way it is easy to take his teachings and commands as advice and follow only what seems helpful. But if Jesus is who he says he is then there is no room for us to negotiate. It follows that he has direct vision of what constitutes the greatest good and knows without the possibility of error what makes for true human flourishing. But of course this is hard to accept. It is frightening for us to give up control to that extent.
Then he said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Peter said in reply, “The Christ of God.”
What if it is true, though? What if Jesus is who he says he is? It might be initially frightening to surrender control. But what if there really is someone who is so wise as to have all the answers and so good as to lead us without the possibility of deceit? What if there is someone who really does want what is good for us more than we want it for ourselves? What if all of our desires really do have the possibility of being fulfilled? What if all of our thoughts about meaning and purpose really do have an ultimate answer? How might much might our lives truly be changed if we surrender everything to such a one?
He has made everything appropriate to its time,
and has put the timeless into their hearts,
without man’s ever discovering,
from beginning to end, the work which God has done.
He put the timeless into our hearts from the beginning. But in Jesus he revealed it. Jesus revealed not only the face of God, but the true dignity and destiny of the creatures made in God's image. We had been derailed from that dignity and destiny by sin. But through the cross Jesus can restore it for all who believe and come after him.
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