Who do you say I am?

Mark Ch 8: 27-38 13^th September 2009

I don’t know how many of you have ever been to a service in a synagogue but when went to a Liberal synagogue after the service the Rabbi asked direct questions to the congregation, asking them to interpret what he had said. Don’t worry I’m not planning to do that today. But if I were to come down and walk round asking ‘who do you say Jesus is?’ I expect I would get many replies and they would, I expect, all be true.

But if Jesus were to come to earth today and I bumped into him I wonder what he would say, what would he think of my interpretation of the Gospel, of how I try to follow his teachings. And linked with being questioned about my interpretation of the Gospels is the question how do I react in certain situations – do I truly react as Jesus would. How can be sure we are truly following his commands?

The question is can we ever presume to know what Jesus would think or do in today’s world. The disciples were often surprised by the way he responded to different situations – for he really could be unpredictable. The one obvious thing about how he responded is that everything Jesus did was done in love and in the name of the Father.

So how can we describe Christ? How did he describe himself? The Son of God, Son of Man, Lord, Son of David, teacher, rabbi, shepherd. And how did the opposition describe him? They called him a blasphemer, glutton, drunkard, an imposter, possessed, and I suppose many people today who do not believe in him would call him an imposter.

As Jesus asked Peter ‘who do you say I am’ so he daily is asking us this question, and our response is not just words but how we follow him; how we see Christ in our lives. And if like Peter, we say ‘You are the Christ’ what do we mean?

In Luke’s gospel, Jesus is shown to be reading from the

Isaiah: “God has anointed me to bring good news to the poor … and proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour’. He then announces that this scripture is fulfilled, suggesting that he is claiming to be anointed, messiah, Christos.

And at the time of Jesus, the Jews were living in hope of a Messiah coming to rescue them from Roman domination, and they had different interpretations of what that would mean. To some a warrior, to others a judge, a king, or a prophet. They certainly weren’t expecting someone who would be hung on a Cross.

So what does Peter mean by “christos”? What do we mean by calling Jesus the Christ? what does it mean for people today?

In fact if we re- read this passage - after Jesus had asked the disciples who they said he was, he then told them not to tell any one, and later that they must take up their cross and follow him. So what could Christ mean by that, what is he saying to us? Is he saying that actions speak louder than words, is he saying it’s no good walking around saying you’re a Christian if you don’t act like I would.

Are we in danger, like the Pharisees, of nit-picking about the meaning of the Gospel, do we spend too much time looking at differences rather than what we have in common. Paul wrote ‘there is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.’

Surely to follow Christ, a world fit for Jesus would be a world where there would be justice and peace for all people. Where the dignity of every human being would be respected.

And Christians, at least, would seek Christ in all people and believing Christ is already in all people, loving our neighbour as ourselves. What we see instead are Christians condemning Christians, unable to share bread and wine together in church, perhaps it was consecrated by a woman or a gay priest, rather than seeing Christ in each other and showing love and respect for each other.

We so much that is abhorrent in the world - suffering and persecution, poverty, human degradation and misery. And yet we seem to spend far more time arguing about ‘in house’ matters rather than shouting loudly for justice. If we are working for the Kingdom then all that evil must surely be overcome.

However much people may argue about what a certain passage in the bible means we all know that everyone can agree on how Jesus worked alongside anyone who would join him to bring justice and peace to the world. He rarely, if ever, asked them to believe anything, least of all about himself. He wrote no creeds or confessions, he left us with in the Lord’s Prayer, but he did call us to follow him and do as he would do.

We promise in our Baptism that we will be a people who will strive for justice and peace for all people, not some people, not just the sort of people we can understand, but all people, and respect the dignity of every, not some,

not a few, not the ones like us, but every human being.

Who do you say that I am? Jesus wants ask each of us that question, but even more I believe he wants to ask us to take up our cross and follow him. The people he chose to spend time with are not the people we might find ourselves drawn to. For often they were what we might call the miss-fits, the people who rebel, let’s face it probably the type of people who would condemn us, call us a bunch of hypocrites. But they are all God’s dearly loved children and we are called to love them too.

However hard it is we do have to respect one another, and not just fellow Christians but all people. Jesus looked at the inner person; he didn’t look see the beggar or the suffering, he saw an inner person struggling with life, perhaps someone who was an oppressor but someone who was far more a victim that perhaps we could ever imagine. Like the man, who I have recalled before, who became an alcoholic rough sleeper, do doubt despised by many, because his son and wife died tragically within a few weeks and he couldn’t cope. People walking by would see the outer vision; God knows the troubled suffering soul inside. When we see people literally in the gutter do we see Christ suffering with them, or do we just wonder how they could have got themselves into that state, not what society might have done to them.

Jesus offered no easy religion to his disciples and he offers no easy religion to us. And that’s difficult. It’s easy to think of faith as some sort of insurance policy against suffering, hurt, betrayal, sickness, and death itself. Like Peter, we don't want Jesus to suffer, but do we forget that when any of God’s children suffers Christ suffers too. Christ still weeps over the people lying in the gutter, the starving, the suffering.

So more than just answering ‘who do you say I am’; let us focus also on taking up our cross and following Christ. So as well as teaching the Gospel let us strive to follow in his footsteps so that poverty and suffering may end, that all people may have human dignity and peace and justice may rule the world. May we truly work for the coming of the Kingdom.

Amen.