How are we known? What do we hope others say about us?
Interesting existential questions except I don’t think this is exactly what Jesus is asking his disciples on their walk around Caesarea Philippi. I imagine it more like an overarching, end of term, exam question. Tell me what have you learned this year? What have you learned that has made or will make a difference? Give examples ….
Yikes!
Hmmmm … what have we learned over these last weeks reading through the Gospel of Matthew? Well, Jesus, the son of Mary is a miracle worker, a storyteller, a teacher, a healer, a feeder of people, a water-walker who likes to hang out with all the folks others seem to discount.
Is that really what Jesus is looking and listening for? Are those the answers he seeks? These qualifiers are true, of course, and I think there is something deeper. Remember, just a few chapters back Peter named him, after he walked on the water and calmed the storm, the Son of God.
Jesus is always trying to get us to see that we too are children of God, sons and daughters of God. The holiness of God is in each of us, part of us. All can welcome the stranger. All can eat with the outcast. Every one of them, the discounted and the diseased, the outsider and the malcontent, every one of us.
Yes, indeed life interferes with the task of defining who Jesus is. Maybe it would be easier if the divinity of Jesus were all we need acknowledge. Said and done. After all, he is God, of course he can do all that stuff. Easy, peasy, for God. So, go on with your bad self, Jesus. [this is a paraphrase of the text!] You do it, you take care of all what needs caring for.
And then we can cross that off the list of stuff that needs doing because we mere mortals are too hampered by sin and disease and looking out for number 1. We can leave the Jesus work to Jesus …
Ouch! No, Jesus is still asking us the hard question. Who do you say I am?
So beloved, what have we learned this time around the Gospel? Who do we say Jesus is?
As we ponder the question set before us, remember it lays out God’s definition for who we are! AND in that definition is our call to ministry and action as disciples as much as it is Christ’s.
+Rev. Alison
