“Who do say that I am?” Last
Sunday, I called the Canaanite woman a “rare gem,” because she was, up to this
point, one of the few who could answer that very question with complete
accuracy. Jesus’ ministry has hit its stride. He’s performed miracles. He’s taught
with parables. He’s challenged ideas and the established order. But most people
still don’t get it.
I’m sure by this point he
has heard the rumors; The murmurs among the people.
His first question to his disciples is likely superfluous, unnecessary. But he asks it anyway. “Who do the people say
that I am?” The disciples rattle off a laundry list of historical figures that
either they’ve heard in those same murmurs among the crowds or that they
themselves believe Jesus to be. As I said, most people still don’t get it, not
even the disciples themselves.
Why is that? You’d think
that these crowds and these disciples would have figured it out by now. It’s
not every day you see a leper cured or the lame walk. The Gospel writers also
tell of how amazing Jesus’ teaching is. There’s that famous phrase, “for he
taught as one with authority and not as their scribes.” Whatever that precisely
means, it indicates that Jesus is something new, something different. But
exactly what seems to elude everyone.
I have a theory, a possible
answer to the question of why no one truly knows who Jesus is. They likely
don’t get it because everyone has had way too much religion and not enough faith. That may seem a strange comment, but let me
explain. Faith is, as I have often defined it, trust in God and his promises.
Faith is therefore relational. It is personal; it is centered on our
relationship with the Almighty. For that reason, it is uncorruptable.
But religion, on the other hand, are those things that
are used to create and nurture such faith. Aids and helps as it were. Rite, ritual, doctrines, piety, and the institutions and practices
that surround and support people’s faith. These things are often quite
helpful to the believer, but they can also become tools of evil men to mislead
and to control people.
The Roman philosopher Seneca
once cynically commented that “Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as
false, and by the rulers as useful.” I would take exception to his first
two observations, but not his third. For I think we can all think of examples
from history where this has proven true, where religion has been used by those
with power and those who seek it to warp and abuse people.
Jesus’ venue for his
questions of identity is not coincidental. He is in the region of Caesarea
Philippi. He is very much on the fringe of his world and in the heart of
Seneca’s, for this is very much Roman territory. The city of
Consider for example the
Roman test of loyalty that would give Jesus’ own followers so much trouble in
the decades after this episode at Caesarea Philippi. One was required to burn
incense and pray to the divine emperor, treating the human mortal ruler of the
Roman world as god. If you did so, you were a Roman in good standing. If you
refused, you were suspect, a potential traitor and were often at risk for
severe punishment. Imagine a Christian or a Jew, pledged by the Ten to “Have no
other god before me,” trying to perform this rite?
That was the Roman reality
reflected in the town Jesus has come to visit. But his own ancient Judaism was
not immune from this sort of manipulation however. We remember well Jesus’ own
run-ins with the Pharisees. The Pharisees religion taught that God blessed only
those who acted as they did, to practiced their faith
in their way, who held to their strict interpretation of personal piety. Those
who failed to do so were rejected by God. Therefore, if you want to be right
with God, in their view, you had to do as the Pharisees did.
Think about the control that gives them, the power they have over people’s
lives.
The Zealots also invoked
religion in support of their cause, claiming that God had called them to kill
the Roman occupiers, to drive out the pagan devils who ruled over them. The
Zealots did not have power like the Pharisees, they were more of a fringe
group, but they wanted it and were not above invoking the name of God to
justify their murderous quest for it.
Two
examples of groups in Jesus’ day who manipulated religious practice to suit
their own purposes. Two examples
of groups who had, as a result, lost sight of who God truly is and they had
misled a lot of people into doing the same. You see, what they had done was limit
God. They made God too small by saying that he only supports people like them,
that his blessings are limited only to them. God only loves people like me and
God hates people who are not like me. He blesses what I love and despises what
I hate. In many ways, this sort of teaching turns God into nothing more than a
“Super-me,” more powerful, but no different in ideology that I am. Their God is
too small.
Jesus, by contrast, taught
something completely different. Jesus did not teach a limited God. He taught a
God that is bigger and more grand and more glorious
than we can imagine. He sought to open people’s eyes to the expanse of the
kingdom, a kingdom so grand and a God so loving and
merciful as to include all people. This expansive unlimited God was, of course,
at odds with the teachings of the Pharisees and the Zealots and the Romans and many
of other groups with designs for temporal power.
But the patterns of
corrupted religion are not easily unlearned. So Jesus tests his disciples. Have
they truly heard his message or do they still listen to the twisted teaching of
those who seek power over them? Who do you say that I am?
Peter boldly speaks for the
group. “You are the Christ, the son of
the living God.” Wow. Good answer. He’s got it, or does he? He’s certainly
got part of it. He hasn’t been completely asleep at the wheel during all those
miracles, parables, and other teachings. But does he really know who Jesus is?
Does he really know what it means to be the Christ, the Messiah?
So Jesus takes things a step
further and then explains what it means. He speaks of the cross, the empty
tomb, but Peter will have none of it. I do not know what Peter’s personal
theology of the Christ was, but I can say it doesn’t include death. It doesn’t
include the cross. Even with talk of resurrection, the idea of the Messiah
dying on a cross is talk of defeat, of loss, of despair. Peter really does not
know who Jesus is. Unfortunately, he has not unlearned all the parts of
religion that stand in the way of seeing Jesus for who he truly is. Peter’s god
is too small.
Is ours? Who do we say Jesus
is?
The question of Jesus’
identity continues to be a challenge to us. Religion’s corruptibility has not
changed in the 2000 years since Jesus’ day. Martin Luther fought against the
church’s use of indulgences to exploit and control and there are countless
other examples throughout the centuries from Jesus until now where the church
has lost its way. Where religion ceased to be a help, ceased to nurture and
grow faith, and instead became a tool of oppression and control.
In these times of high
anxiety, with the world in turmoil, we must be cautious about those who would
tell us that God only blesses those like them and we must not be seduced by the
lure of believing that God only loves those like us. God does not love and
bless only those with same skin color as us, the same economic status as us,
the same political party as us, the same citizenship as us, or even the same
religion as us. A god that does is too small, for the real God is bigger than
that, bigger than we can imagine, and it is the whole world that he seeks to
save.
The Christ came for that
purpose and the cross and the empty tomb that Peter has so much trouble
grasping are the means to that end. He came to save us all, to save everyone
and everything, and he did it in a way completely unexpected. He died on a
cross and after three days rose again. “Who do you say that I am?” The crucified and risen one, the Savior of all creation, from the
smallest blade of grass to the stars light years away and everything in between.
Savior of all humanity, black, white, poor, rich, American,
foreign, gay, straight, Christian, Jew, Moslem, whatever. That is God
grander than we can fathom, one more merciful and
loving than we can comprehend. And may that ever be our answer to who Jesus is.
Amen.