Who do you say that I am? : Who am I to say?
“Jesus, you are exemplar, embodiment, expression and epitome of who I am to be.”
Who is this Jesus who commands the imaginations and hearts of people for more than two thousand years? What sets him apart from the great prophets, teachers, kings and priests throughout history and now? What about him has kept the stories of people’s encounters with him alive and engaged for twenty centuries? Why have millions of artists been inspired to render mages of Jesus in their own likeness? Why, for two thousand years, have people not tired of studying and writing, wondering and attempting to answer Jesus’ question, “Who do you say that I am?” (See Matthew’s text below)
Who do YOU say Jesus is?
Is your immediate response to describe the hypostatic union of Jesus’ human and divine natures? Do you drop whatever you are doing and recite the Apostles’ Creed? ”I believe….” Do you even have a clue what any of that means? Not to worry.
When Jesus asks the question, “But who do YOU say that I AM?” there is no creed, no council of bishops, no conversation about dual natures, no theology of the Trinity. There isn’t even a Christian church. There is just Jesus and the people who experience him and allow their lives to be changed because of their encounter with him.
All of the ink spilled pontificating about Jesus misses the mark. Jesus’ question, “But who do YOU say thatI am?” strips away everything we have learned about Jesus. Jesus’ piercing question compels us to close the great books penned by the illustrious Church fathers, to set aside the works and words of ancient and contemporary theologians in order to clear the way for us to have a here and now experience of Jesus and allow our lives to be changed.
My incommensurate response to Jesus’ question, “But Who do YOU say that I AM?” is this.
“Jesus, you are present, real, surprising, relevant, astonishing, heartening, comforting, challenging, baffling and ultimately disturbing exemplar of what living in alignment with the will of God looks like.”
“Jesus, you are the embodiment of God’s unspeakable love in the only way I can begin to apprehend, fully human form. If you are not human just like me there is no way for me to emulate you.”
“ Jesus, you are the multilingual expression of the Good News that God is with and for me and all of humanity, all of the time.”
“Jesus, you are the epitome of what it means to be brother, teacher, guardian, healer and companion, calling me to faith and finding me when I am lost.”
“Jesus, you are exemplar, embodiment, expression and epitome of who I am to be.”
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Learn more about me at https://www.debraasis.org/ All words are generated by grace and the grit of a real human being. Debra Asis
Matthew 16:13–20 When Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
Is it not possible that Jesus is “all things to all people…” so that all people may be saved?
In each of our three synoptic gospels, Mark, Matthew and Luke, Jesus raises the question, “Who do the people say that I am?” The responses included John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah or one of the prophets. But when Jesus asked the disciples, “But who do you say that I am?” there were three converging answers; “You are the Christ,” (Mk 8.29), “The Christ of God.” (Lk 9.20) and t“You are the Christ, the son of the living God.”(Matt 16.16). The writers of the three synoptic gospels want the readers to identify Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God, the anointed one.
Identifying Jesus is a pivotal moment in each of the synoptic. I believe everything hinges on our response to that question, but who do you say that I am?
