Who do you say I am? Mark 8:27-33

We start the journey to Christmas. We prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Over recent weeks I’ve been asking people I meet what they make of Jesus and why he might be important in their lives. I didn’t have a camera with me so I can’t show you the responses but I think this little survey shot on the streets of New York is pretty revealing. It also includes some short clips of Jesus as he’s portrayed on TV.
[see video clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=johNLhZ5y48]

I wonder how you might respond to the question of who is Jesus? Which of the responses on the clip did you resonate with and why? Which did you feel most uncomfortable with and why? I need to say I don’t think there is a neat little right answer to the question because there is both a personal part to the question and a broader belief response. There’s a ‘how does Jesus make a difference in my life?’ response and a ‘what place does Jesus have in history?’ response. The questions are of course linked, but one is deeply personal and can only be answered by each of us drawing on our own journey of life, while the other is more global and debatable.

I want to invite you to focus on this question of ‘who Jesus is’ as we journey through this preparation time before Christmas…… As Jesus walked through the beautiful suburban villages of Caesarea Philippi located on the southern slope of Mt Hermon near one of the sources of the Jordan river he asked his disciples, ‘who do people say I am?’ He got a broad range of responses, some linking him to some figures from the past. Jesus then pushed the question deeper and asked and ‘who do you say I am?’ And Peter responded, ‘the Messiah!’

The actual Greek word used by Peter in Mark’s gospel for Messiah is Christos from which of course we get the title the Christ. I think many people are a little confused by name Christ and some think it must be Jesus’ family name because we often talk of Jesus as Jesus Christ. We should correctly say Jesus the Christ. Christ was a title which meant the anointed one. In Hebrew the word used for ‘the anointed one’ is Messiah. Christ and Messiah mean the same thing. The original meaning was literally someone who was anointed with oil. The Old Testament practice indicated that the person anointed had been singled out by God as having special gifts or functions. Thus in 1 Samuel 24:6 David refuses to let his men harm the king Saul because he is the Lord’s anointed. In Psalm 23 the Psalmist radically proclaims that God sees us all as special when he writes ‘you anoint my head with oil’ but in general thinking it was a way of signifying someone who was a king or a special leader. During the period of Jesus’ ministry Palestine was occupied and administered by Rome, and the Jewish people felt pretty much about the Romans as the Iraqi’s or Afghani’s think of the Americans. There was a fierce nationalist feeling fueled by intense resentment at the presence of a foreign occupying army, and this gave rise to the hopes of a Messiah, a new king anointed by God who would expel the Romans and restore the line of King David. To a somewhat lesser extent we have hopes that John Key will be the one who will restore our economic well being and deliver prosperity and good community to the nation. We like the idea that a messianic leader will do all the hard work and fix things, as is evidenced by the comment by the two disciples trudging home along the Emmaus road after the death of Jesus. Sad and disappointed they say to each other, “we hoped he would be the one who would liberate our nation Israel.”

We can’t know for sure what Peter was thinking as he responded to Jesus’ question, saying ‘You are the Messiah.’ With the other disciples I’m sure there was an element of political hope that he might lead an uprising against the Romans, and free Jerusalem, but I think there was something much more. After all he had put his fishing business on hold to come and join this band of disciples. He had sacrificed much because he recognized that God was somehow alive in Jesus even if he had very little idea of where this all leading. Jesus was anointed by God for a special task.
Interestingly Jesus was not prepared to accept the title Messiah. When Peter says ‘You are the Messiah’, he tells him to keep quiet and not to use the term. He then gathers his disciples around and begins to tell them that his way to heal the world was going to cause him great suffering and rejection. It wasn’t about some wonderful campaign that would end in a glorious victory but was going to be a hard slog that would end up with Jesus getting put to death. The powers of evil weren’t about to roll over and give in, and those in authority were not about to change their ways and listen to a humble peasant carpenter from Galilee. It was going to take a lot of blood, guts, prayer, and toil to establish the kingdom of heaven on earth. It certainly wasn’t as easy as electing a new government and hoping they would sort things out. Hearts had to be changed, new priorities established, people’s connection with God strengthened. As Peter would discover an absolute scandal lay ahead as Jesus the so called Messiah would end up on a cross dying the death of an enemy of the state and of the religious hierarchy.

Peter would learn that the way of Jesus was not that of the traditional Messiah. He never took on the Romans at their own game using might and power and force. He didn’t coerce but invited. He never sought public popularity but simply stood up for what was good and true. He lived simply often making time to be with God in stillness and solitude. He upheld the value of every human being, but especially those others like to treat as inferior in some way. He was full of a spiritual power that was mysterious but allowed him to do things that were beyond normal experience. He was directed not by his own ego and thoughts of success and prestige but by the voice of God. He said that heaven could and would come to earth.

For Christians he is anointed by God. Jesus for us as Christians is the decisive revelation of what a life full of God looks like. Radically centered in God and filled with the Spirit he is the decisive disclosure of God embodied in human life. The things that stir God, stirred him. The ways of God are seen clearly in him. If you want to know about the life God longs for you should get to know Jesus. If you want the earth to be healed from all that wrong you should get to know him. If you long to find the deep peace of God you should deepen your relationship with him. If you are quite happy with life as it is best to leave Jesus well alone.

As Christians we believe that God has acted in Jesus to open the door into heaven and to shine a light for our journey. As Christians we believe Jesus opens the door to a living relationship with God, a relationship that will call us to make hard decisions but ultimately is about love and drawing the life of earth back into the true way God intended. With Peter I wish to tick the Jesus box and commit my life to being his disciple and proclaiming that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one of God.

I invite you to talk for a couple of minutes to the person beside you about the question who is Jesus for me? (Remember there is no right answer…..just honest ones)

Dugald Wilson 27 Nov 2011