Who do you say I am

Summary

When asked, how do you describe people?  Do you use a physical description, do you tell of what a person does for a living, do you speak of some ones’ life experiences or do you reveal how that individual is important in your life?

In high school and college I cleaned at the Episcopal Church Home in St. Paul, Minnesota. The Episcopal Church Home was a nursing home and assisted living complex.  Most of the residents were in their eighties and nineties and the vast majority were women.  When trying to describe a resident to a new fellow employee the exchange usually went like this, the new employee might ask, “What does Mrs. Smith look like?’ The longer-term employee would answer, ‘Well, let’s see, she’s short, has grey hair and glasses, and uses a cane when she walks.”

In an elderly residence, that description is not very useful.  But not until each employee had the chance to get to know the residents could you describe them truly.  For instance there was a woman (I’ve forgotten her name since then) whose early years were spent living in a second story apartment the floor of which had three inches of lead melted into it.  Lead, you ask? Yes, lead, this was the case because the apartment was in the border town of El Paso, Texas in the early 1900’s. The first floor was a saloon, a bar, in which drunk cowboys would shoot off their pistols into the ceiling.  The lead floor was her family’s protection from flying bullets.  As she shared this story and added that the Mexican revolutionary General Pancho Villa and his bandit army raided the city during those same years, the smile on her lips, helped to describe this woman’s adventurous attitude and excitement towards life.

Quite often I hear of people being described by their occupation or schooling, “She’s a doctor,”  “He works at the embassy,” or “She’s a student of neurobiology, you know.”  Descriptions given, that somehow, supposedly categorizes an individual neatly into a particular stereotyped group.  And then we can know how that person acts and whom they are, without really knowing anything other than how they are trained and what they do to get paid.

For me, the most interesting and revealing description of another human being is how that person is important in the life of the one doing the describing.  One of the situations in which I hear such descriptions is when I am talking with a family and loved ones after a person’s death.  I always ask the individuals with whom I am planning the funeral to describe their loved one whom has died.  Quite often their responses paint a portrait by sharing the importance of their loved one in their life.  For instance I’ve heard a daughter-in-law say, “My mother-in-law was a role model to me of a loving, caring and gracious woman.”

Or a son telling of how his father taught him to stand up and take responsibility for his actions, and how this son watched his dad stand up in defense of those less fortunate and in need.  I think these types of description are the most insightful and give the most detailed idea of who a person really is.

Today’s reading from the gospel of Matthew follows a number of chapters in which the people of Israel are excitedly following Jesus, but the leaders of the nation are testing his evident power while simultaneously rejecting his teachings.  In short everyone is trying to figure out who exactly is Jesus and thus are describing him in a variety of ways.

By this point they all know he is someone of Godly power, but they can’t figure out who he truly is, and so they resort to their past to try and figure him out.  When Jesus asks the disciples the question, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” the answers are figures from the past, be it very recent such as John the Baptist, to the great prophets Elijah and Jeremiah.  In reality what the people are saying is that they believe Jesus is sent to them by God as a prophet.  They say this, for they know how to describe a prophet through their peoples’ past experiences.  A prophet is a human whom God calls, and through whom he speaks to the people.  A prophet appears in times of great need or moral decay goading the people to return to God’s way.  And so with a lack of any other type of person to compare Jesus to, they describe him, through their historic experiences, as a prophet.

Yet when Jesus asks the disciples, “And how about you?”  Peter replies, “You’re the Christ, the Messiah; the Son of the living God.”

And Peter’s right!  He knows that Jesus is the Christ, sent by God, the one long awaited by the people of Israel.  Peter knows, not because he has seen or heard like the crowds have seen and heard Jesus, no, Peter can confess Jesus as Christ because of what he has experienced with Jesus.  Peter’s relationship with Jesus, the ways that Jesus has shared his life with Peter has shown Peter who Jesus really is, the Messiah.

Peter has listened to Jesus preach on the mountain and he has watched a leper walk away from Jesus made clean.  From Peter’s boat he saw Jesus tame a storm and then cast demons from two possessed men into a herd of pigs.  Peter has sat and eaten with people declared as sinners, knowing that even they are loved by God because of Jesus’ example and teaching.  When sent out two by two, Peter found himself preaching and healing through the power of Jesus’ name.  By Jesus’ example of servanthood, Peter came to the understanding that his role was, that of God’ servant to the people.  And when called to walk upon the water Peter quickly realized that like in his life, he could only walk with Jesus by faith.  And it is that faith in Jesus which has grown only through the experience of sharing a relationship with him that allows Peter to speak out his belief and describe Jesus as the son of the living God.

You know, it is the same way with us still today.  We can describe Jesus in any variety of ways, like the world does, but we can only truly say who he is when we share our lives with him.  It is only by opening ourselves up to Jesus walking with us through the day-to-day, as well as the thick and thin of life, depending upon him for everything, that we can truly describe Jesus.  Like the son describing his dead, beloved father, or the daughter-in-law painting me a picture of her gracious and loving mother-in-law, we can only confess who Jesus truly is to us, by sharing our lives with him.

Who do I say he is?  He is the one who saves me from myself when I step onto the path of self-destruction because of selfish sin. Just like any other person I struggle with sin, with the temptation, in a myriad of ways, to put myself first…before other people, and before God. Jesus helps me to see how I have hurt others and myself in my sin, that I might be convicted of my sin. For it is only when I am convicted of my wrongdoing that I can confess my sins to the Lord, and then Jesus, through his grace cleanses me of my sins. And that, is a miracle, every time, in my life. Jesus is the one who has shown me grace and forgiveness more times than I can count!

Jesus is the one who opens my eyes and heart to the need to love. He is the one whom leads me to try and love my neighbors in this world.  So often, I first meet someone and I think, uh, I can’t be his friend, he irritates me, or she is too full of herself, I can’t stand listening to her go on and on. And then, then Jesus opens my eyes, to the person who is really there, and reminds me of how too often, I act in exactly the same way.  Jesus is the one who throughout my life has brought me into deep and meaningful relationship with loving people, many of who I had to give a second chance to, and whom had to give me a second, or even third chance. The Lord calls us into relationship, relationship like his and Peter’s, full of second chances, forgiveness and love.

And Jesus is the one who helps me to laugh at myself and to cry with the hurt.  Jesus teaches me to be me, the person whom God created me to be. I believe Jesus is sent to me by God, to save me, and help me learn that God loves me no matter what.  He can do this, for I believe Jesus is God, my Savior, Lord, and friend.

Amen.

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