17th Sunday after Pentecost

Mark 8:28-37

I expect many of us have heard the old saying that, “There are no atheists in foxholes." Coined during World War II, it describes how soldiers who may not have ever professed faith would call out to God when they were facing the enemy on the front line. While most of us have never sat in a foxhole we have likely all confronted danger, fear or crisis in our lives at least once.

This very week, as Hurricane Florence churned through the Atlantic Ocean toward the Carolinas, people spoke about the storm and God, saying things like,

“It’s in God’s hands.”     or     “We need God’s help.”

As people watched the storm grow to span more than 300 miles, winds gain speed and rip trees from the ground, and floodwaters surge over streets and into neighborhoods, questions emerged,

“Is this God’s will?”        “Is God mad?”       “Is the hurricane punishment?”

The simple answer to these questions is an emphatic “No!”
Are you listening?
Because this is really important for you to hear and believe.

God was not perched above us, pointing a finger at the Carolinas and steering the storm to our doorsteps.

God who loves us, and all creation, is Emmanuel, God with us, in all circumstances, and especially in our suffering.

But the God-talk surrounding the storm and its devastation does prompt another question, and it’s the same question that Jesus asks his disciples in today’s gospel:

“Who do you say that I am?”

It’s an important question because how we talk about God and Jesus — who we say Jesus is — is reflected in who we are as his followers.

Maybe because Jesus knows how important this question is,
and how challenging it is to answer,
he starts out with an easier question.

He asks his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?”Okay, fellas, what’s the word on the street, the scuttlebutt, the rumors?

The disciples don’t so much as blink before they respond, saying some are saying that Jesus is Elijah:

Elijah who lived near 900 BCE, was a prophet who confronted the false prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel, challenging them to see who could end the drought in Israel.  We get his story in First and Second Kings and then another prophet (Malachi) tells how Elijah was taken into heaven in a chariot of fire and would come again to usher in the day of the Lord (Malachi 4:5) When people saw Jesus, they believed he might be Elijah returning as “a forerunner to the Messiah.”[i]

Still others are saying that Jesus is the John the Baptist:

Now John the Baptist was Jesus’ own cousin, who had gone before him into the countryside and heralded the beginning of the Kingdom of God here on earth. Some also mistakenly thought John the Baptist was Elijah. Eventually John was jailed and executed by King Herod, but when people saw Jesus performing miracles, they believed that John had been resurrected.

And of course, the whole of Scripture suggests other names for Jesus, including the Son of Man (Mark 8:31), the Bread of Life (John 6:35), the Light of the World (John 8:12), the Good Shepherd (John 10:7), the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6) and many more. Often, trying to figure out Jesus is leads to more questions than answers.

After hearing what others are saying, Jesus asks the disciples,

“But, who do you say that I am?” (v. 29) He isn’t springing a pop-quiz on them; he is inviting them into conversation.

Just as Scripture is a living Word that comes to us new each time we encounter it, Jesus is a “living Savior” and different attributes may be more or less important to us at different places in our life of discipleship.

We don’t hear what all the disciples say, but we have Peter’s answer. He tells Jesus, “You are the Christ.”

It was believed that the χριστός (Christos) was the Anointed One of God or, in Hebrew, the Messiah: the one sent by God to lead God’s people; a perfect King who will save them from oppression and restore the kingdom of God on earth.[ii]

But instead of giving Peter a gold star or congratulating him for the “right” answer, Jesus rebukes him.

The disciples had to learn that Jesus did not come to fulfill the exalted image of a Messiah who leads from above the fray and messiness of everyday life, separate from the people of God.

Instead Jesus came into the world and turned everyone’s expectations upside down, inviting people into life together without regard to education, position or status. He valued relationship ahead of rules and showed compassion to people whom the world had cast out. Ultimately, his actions would lead him to the cross and cost him his life.

Following Jesus was not a path to exultation and to celebration, but to death.
So, when we answer the question, “Who do you say that I am?” we have to answer not only for ourselves, but also for the people we are as followers of Jesus. I cannot call Jesus compassionate and then turn my back on my neighbor. I cannot receive the forgiveness of my Savior and withhold forgiveness from my brother or sister. I cannot celebrate the abundant gifts God gives me and then be miserly in my stewardship.

So this morning, it’s our turn to answer, “Who do you say Jesus is?”  As a follower of Jesus, are you ready to live into that identity?

If you call Jesus Comforter, will you sit at a bedside, or in a waiting room with someone who is hurting?

If you call Jesus Shepherd, will you lead people to living water and protect them from threats? Will you welcome people into community and life together so no one is alone or exiled?

If you call Jesus Lord, will you put God ahead of yourself, look first to God to understand the world around you and love as you have first been loved? We are quick to worship God on Sunday mornings, but what about the rest of the week?

Jesus’ words to Peter and the disciples challenge us to see that there isn’t an easy or pat answer when it comes to understanding who Jesus is and what it means in our lives and for the people around us. But there cannot be a more important question.

Let us pray…
Holy God,
We give you thanks for your Son Jesus and the challenges that comes as questions.
Forgive us for our rush to answer swiftly and without thinking. Replace our pride and ambition to be “good Christians” with a will to be faithful followers.
Strengthen us by your Spirit to live out our confession of faith.
We pray in the name of Jesus.
Amen.

[i] Enter the Bible, https://www.enterthebible.org/oldtestament.aspx?rid=57, accessed 9/14/2018
[ii] “Christ”, Crazy Talk: A Not So Stuffy Dictionary of Theological Terms. Rolf A. Jacobson, Ed. 35-36.