… Who’s there? Jesus. Jesus who?
…
Jesus who? This is what Jesus asks His disciples. He starts with an icebreaker – who do the people say I am?
I suspect that, like many of us would do when we are asked a searching question, the disciples may have been analysing the question to try and work out what answer Jesus was looking for.
The Bible references many identities that the people had allocated to Jesus. The disciples had lots to choose from to answer Jesus’s question.
But then Jesus asks the key question (no pun intended).
He says: “But you, who do you say I am?”
And Peter does not disappoint. Peter answers from his heart, sharing the knowledge given to him by God.
“You are the Christ”, Peter says, “the Son of the Living God”.
This is Peter confessing his faith and it is so important that it is on this faith, this statement by Peter that Jesus is the Christ, our Saviour from sin, that Jesus builds the foundation of His church – a church tasked with the mission of sharing the good news that Jesus Christ is our Saviour.
C.S. Lewis wrote:
A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.
Mere Christianity by C.S.Lewis
Jesus is Lord! He is the Son of God!
… So, who is Jesus to you? Don’t answer with your head. The answer is written in your heart.
Who is Jesus to you?
And now, let’s turn that around: Who does Jesus say you are?
When you leave this world, how do you want to be remembered? Will your obituary/eulogy be just a boring list of facts – born on – worked at – died on? Or will it be full of memories from people whose lives you have touched with kindness – whether you remember it or not?
Alfred Nobel was reading the morning paper in 1888. The day before, his brother, Ludvig had died. But the newspaper accidently wrote the obituary about Alfred. He was dismayed that they had called him “the merchant of death” and that it read “Dr Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday.”
Nobel was appalled and this inspired him to create the Nobel Peace Prize and to donate his entire fortune to causes of peace.
Who does Jesus say you are?
Will Jesus see us as being faithful to Him? Micah 6:8 says: “This is what the Lord requires of you. Be fair to other people. Love kindness and loyalty, and humbly obey your God.”
Faith means walking with Jesus by treating others right, showing kindness and lifting up those who weary from the journey.
Jesus told us to be ready because He will come again at an hour when we do not expect Him.
Are we ready?
Who does Jesus say we are?
Talk given at Minster Abbey 27th August 2023
Just because 