WHO IS JESUS?
A modern update of this
week’s gospel reading…
When Jesus went into the
region of the Shopping Mall, He gathered some shoppers around Him and asked,
“Who do people say that I am?”
“You’re a really cool
dude,” one person replied. “You teach about peace and love and being nice to
others.”
“No, you’re more than
that,” another person said. “You’re the founder of a popular religion, just
like Buddha and Mohammad.”
Another person stepped
forward and sneered, “I don’t even believe you exist. You’re just a legend made
up a long time ago by superstitious losers.”
“Um, but I’m standing
right in front of you,” Jesus pointed out.
“I don’t care. I don’t
think you ever existed, and if that’s what I believe, then it’s true for me.”
“Ohhh-kay,” Jesus said,
shrugging His shoulders. He turned and looked directly at another person, a
timid man on the outer fringe of the crowd, and said, “But who do you say that
I am?”
The timid man hesitated
for a moment, then stammered, “You, uh, you are the Christ, the Son of the
living God. You are the way, and the truth, and the life.”
Jesus smiled and said,
“Blessed are you—”
Before Jesus could
finish, all the other people standing there groaned loudly and threw their
hands up in the air.
“Oh please!” one person
shouted. “Not another narrow, intolerant religious nut!”
“Yeah!” another person
yelled, peering at the timid man, “you’ve got some nerve, pal!”
The people moved away
from Jesus and lined up in front of the man. “How dare you say Jesus is more
important than Buddha or Mohammad?!” one person exclaimed angrily.
“Well, I, I…” the timid
man tried to speak.
“Shut up!” another
person snapped. “You’ve got no right to impose your intolerant values on me!
The First Amendment clearly says that I have the right not to be offended by
religious nuts like you!”
“But, I, I…”
“Shut up!!”
Jesus calmly reached
over and grabbed the frightened man by the elbow. “C’mon,” He said. “Let’s take
a walk.”
As they walked away, the
crowd laughed and shouted some final insults.
“I can’t believe they got
so angry,” the man said to Jesus.
“It doesn’t surprise me
anymore,” Jesus replied. “I’ve been dealing with it for 2,000 years.”
* * *
The most important
question in the whole world is the one Jesus asks in this week’s gospel: “Who
do you say that I am?”
The answer to that
question—a person’s honest belief about the identity of Jesus—is the heart of
the Christian faith.
The identity of Jesus is
the key to everything.
The people in the region
of Caesarea Philippi 2,000 years ago had many views about Jesus’ identity:
“Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the
prophets.”
The hometown of Jesus
answered the question by saying he was just one of the folks: a carpenter.
People in today’s world
also have many views about Jesus’ identity. Like the characters in the Shopping
Mall, some say he is a cool dude who preached peace and love; others say he is
one of many founders of popular religions; and still others say he is nothing
more than the figment of someone’s imagination.
Religious groups have
many views about Jesus’ identity.
The Mormons say he was
the first of many humans who earned his way to Godhood;
the Jehovah Witnesses
say he was God’s offspring but not God himself;
and many mainline
denominations, so thoroughly steeped in secular philosophy, completely strip
Jesus of any supernatural component. (And they wonder why their membership
ranks keep dwindling. By insisting that a belief in miracles is outdated,
they’ve painted themselves into a corner of irrelevancy.)
The true identity of
Jesus is short and sweet and to the point:
He is one-in-being with the Almighty, eternal
Creator of the universe; He is the second person of the divine Holy Trinity;
He is the Word through
Whom all things were made; and He is the only path by which sinful mankind can
be reconciled with his Creator.
The true identity of
Jesus may not be very popular these days), but nothing is more important.
Right at this moment, Jesus is looking at you
and asking, “Who do you say that I am?” How are you going to answer?