Pop Quiz

Mark 8:27-9:1
“[Jesus] asked them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter answered him, ‘You are the Messiah’” (Mark 8:29). It’s funny how the question, “who do you say that Jesus is?” has the power to set a believer’s teeth to chattering and palms to sweating faster than just about any other. And yet, everyone who professes faith in Jesus Christ should be ready to offer an answer. As a minister, the temptation I face is one of over-answering the question. If I find myself engaged in a conversation about faith – on an airplane for instance – I sometimes have to fight the urge to share stories about the early church fathers, or an explanation of the doctrine of the incarnation, or the differences between Presbyterianism, congregationalism, and the episcopacy as forms of church polity, as if any of that is truly key to knowing Jesus Christ. What answers like that do is to miss the point badly because they point off into the distance somewhere in some abstract way. What is needed is an answer that speaks in personal terms.

Over the years I’ve considered a number of ways to express who Jesus is to me without getting abstract, and the one that I’ve tended to use most often is this: Jesus Christ is the one who helps me make sense of my life. What I mean by that is that in his life, death, and resurrection, Jesus Christ demonstrated a complete trust in God and a devotion to God’s will that allowed him to live with a deep and abiding compassion for all. When I face times of challenge or crisis, when I am confronted by issues that I don’t understand or can’t explain, when the darkness seems to overwhelm the light, I am comforted by the fact that Jesus was willing to die for the sake of the world—me included. Jesus trusted in God, and that trust inspires me, it lifts me, it comforts me, and yes, it gives my life shape and meaning. Who do I say that Jesus is? I say that he is my Lord and Savior and I invite others to consider what it might mean for them to say the same.

Prayer: Lord God, we thank you for the love you have shown to the world in the person of Jesus Christ your Son in whom we see your grace poured out and in whose name we pray. Amen.