Preaching text: Mark 8:27-38
Who do say that I am?
I have to give props to the folks who put together the lectionary of lessons that we use each week. Even in the midst of all the chaos my personal medical difficulties have inflicted, I return again to you and find the Scriptures appointed to today build upon what I had last preached what seems like a lifetime ago now. Who do you say that I am? I had been preaching about the question of Jesus’ identity and now he himself brings that question to the fore in today’s Gospel.
Clever how that all works out. Perhaps that’s the Holy Spirit at work.
Jesus begins the conversation at Caesarea Philippi with a different question about his identity. “Who do others say that I am?” Then, as now, the answers are telling, revealing far more about people’s agendas than about Jesus’ true nature. Then, it was reincarnated prophets or resurrected cousins, each name a hope for a major societal change. Bring down the elites. Kick out the Romans. Change everything. Remake the world.
Who do others say that I am? Today’s answers reflect a different approach. Less “change THE world” than “change MY world.” Make me rich. Hurt the people I believe (often wrongly) have hurt me: the gay, the immigrant, the Muslim. Make me into someone who matters again.
Again, this reveals more about people’s agendas than Jesus’ true self, but it also stands as a searing indictment of modern society. How far we’ve fallen in these past 2000 years. There was once an altruism in our desires for a Messiah. Change everything for the betterment of myself and others. Now it’s become so selfish. That’s what our world has done to us. Make me matter because I don’t anymore. Give me value because the world says I have none. I’m nothing, make me something. That’s where we are today. Hard to fault people who want their lives to have some sense of purpose and meaning, even if their approach is often misguided and even dangerous.
But it’s important for us to keep this in mind when Jesus, as he does with his disciples so long ago, confronts us directly with the question of his identity. Who do YOU say that I am? Who is he to us? Most of us, I’m certain, are steeped enough in the life of the church to know the right answer, but is that what we truly believe? Is Jesus to us truly the Messiah, the Son of God, the One who comes into the world to save it? Perhaps he is, but we, like Peter, misunderstand (perhaps deliberately) what that is to impose yet again our own agenda and desires. Do we let Jesus be Jesus? Are we willing to let him be who he truly is?
Because in his true self is the answer to our world’s problems.
Now that may seem like hyperbole, but the more things disintegrate around us, the more convinced of it, I become. People are acting out of a sense of despair. There is a frightening nihilism that’s infected our world.
Nothing matters. Not morality. Not rule of law. Not character. Not life. Not death. Not love. Not compassion. Nothing has meaning. Nothing has value. People’s lives? Worthless. One’s family? Unnecessary. One’s nation? Loyalty discarded when it's convenient. It’s every man for himself in a desperate effort to get whatever we can before everything truly disintegrates.
Contrast that to the Son of Man, who for the sake of the whole world and every life therein, gave the ultimate price, died on a cross and rose again on the third day. And he did this for a world that believes it's not worth saving. For people who’ve been so beat down by life that they think they have no value or worth. God did that for you...and for me...and for them.
To Christ, everything has value. Everyone has value. You matter. You matter enough that the creator of the universe, of all that is, incarnated on this planet to die for your sake. He died so he might never be apart from you. He wants you that badly. He desires you that much. That’s how precious you truly are. That’s who Jesus is. Who do I say that he is? I say he is the God who loves me and all people enough to give his very life for me.
Now imagine what would happen to our world if that truth spread like wildfire. Imagine what would happen if the hurting desperate nihilistic masses of our world starting believing that. It’s the absolute truth, but so many don’t know and even those who do struggle to believe it.
That’s where we come in.
While I was in the hospital, Amy Dietz posted a meme to Facebook that I told her would become a Facebook MondayQuote when I got better. I’m doing it one better; I’ll make it a sermon illustration. It said “You will never look into the eyes of someone God does not love. Always be kind.”
My friends, that’s evangelism. In a world as cruel as ours, kindness is the beginning of telling people how much they matter to God, because it’s a concrete way to show them that they matter to us. We are the only Christ that some people may ever encounter, the only Bible some people may ever read. By God, let us show them who Jesus really is.
And let’s do more than that. Let’s fight for what is right and stand up for people for whom no one stands up. That’s kindness too. We white folk love to toss out “All lives matter” as a catchphrase. Well, let’s make that saying more than a racially insensitive dismissal of a very real and very needed movement among people of color. Let’s take it at face value. Let’s truly make all lives matter. White lives and black lives. Gay lives and straight lives. Poor lives and rich lives. Young lives and old lives. Men’s lives and women’s lives. Christian lives and non-Christian lives. Your life and my life. Let’s fight for those lives. Let’s stand up for those lives. Let’s do all that we can to make those lives better in all that we do. Because Jesus DIED for those lives. ALL OF THEM.
Jesus loves all those lives. Make that real for people. Help them believe it.
You will never look into the eyes of someone God does not love. Always be kind. As Luther said, be Christ to one another. Be Christ to the world out there, to the people you see everyday and to the strangers you will never cross paths with again. Who do you say that he is? May your live reflect your answer and may it be the true Christ, who loved the world and all therein to die for it. Amen.
