Who are you?
New Ark United Church of Christ, Newark, DE
September 16, 2018
Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?”
I wouldn’t think of Jesus as someone who needs the approval of others or who needs to know what other people are saying about him.
Come to find out, no one thinks he is who he says he is but rather one of the heroes of the faith, back from the dead. Somehow this is easier to believe.
Then Jesus brings it home: “Who do you say that I am?”
Jesus asks this question on the road, as he and his disciples are heading out of Galilee, out of their comfort zone, to the margins of Jewish society, into villages and towns built by the Roman Empire. Not exactly a safe place to tell the truth about Jesus and his purpose or why the disciples are with him, but the crossroads of the marginalized and the powerful is usually where the truth needs to be told the most.
“Who do you say that I am?”
Jesus never proclaimed himself in the gospel of Mark but the coming kingdom of God, which had to do more with healing, teaching, lifting up and feeding people.
“Who do you say that I am?”
It’s not a question we think about very often but one we should, as individuals and as a church. Who are you, Jesus?
Jesus refers to himself as the Son of Man. In the inclusive language version of the gospels, Jesus is the Human One. And not just any human but the least of humanity. Jesus carried not just any cross but the cross of the marginalized and criminalized, the shamed and rejected and despised, because he lived with those on the margins, he was shamed and rejected and despised, and convicted as a criminal.
“Who do you say that I am?”
To say who Jesus is requires us to answer with who we are.
It is easier to say that Jesus was kind and good, and hope that we are also kind and good.
It is easier to say that Jesus was a teacher and healer, and hope that we are also teachers and healers.
It is easier to say that Jesus was a savior, and hope that we too might help save a life.
It is even easier to say that Jesus was the son of God, for then it is easier for us to deny that we could ever have anything to do with him or be anything like him.
But it is much harder to say that Jesus was marginalized and criminalized, because if that is not who we are, then that is a cross for us to take up for those who are.
It is much harder to say that Jesus was shamed and rejected and despised, because if that is not who we are, then that is a cross for us to take up for those who are.
To say who Jesus is requires us to answer with who we are.
It is much harder to say that Jesus was a refugee, poor, homeless, his people treated like immigrants in their own country, a radical within his own faith tradition.
To say who Jesus is requires us to answer with who we are.
It is much harder to say that Jesus was in a prison cell or in his Section 8 housing or his trailer when the hurricane hit.
It is much harder to say that Jesus is still locked up in detention camp with thousands like him because his parents had to run for their lives.
To say who Jesus is requires us to answer with who we are.
It is much harder to say that Jesus is jeered and derided and called racial slurs because he kneels for the anthem of an empire that murders his kin.
It is much harder to say that Jesus was shot and killed in his own home by one sworn to protect him and his character assaulted and smeared after the fact.
To say who Jesus is requires us to answer with who we are.
It is much harder to say that Jesus cannot use the bathroom that he is most comfortable using because who he really is, is a child of God.
It is much harder to say that the Christ, the Anointed One, goes beyond gender; that each and every body—messy, beautiful, fragile flesh and blood—shows us what it means to be the Body of Christ; because there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave or free, male nor female, for all are one in them; all are one in Christ.
To say who Jesus is requires us to answer with who we are.
It is much harder to say I love you without condition, without limit, without deserving it, so Jesus taught us that we can’t even hate within the confines of our own hearts.
It is much harder to forgive and so Jesus taught us to forgive seven times seventy.
It is much harder to love one’s enemies and pray for them, so Jesus said from that cross, “Forgive them, because they don’t know what they’re doing.”
To say who Jesus is requires us to answer with who we are.
“You are the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One.”
Anointed to bring good news to the poor, release to the captives, recovery of sight to those who cannot see, freedom to those who are oppressed.
Though they barely understood, the disciples followed.
Is this who we are?
Is this who we want to become?
With the cross, there is no other answer than the one that is the hardest to give.
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