Who do you say that I am?

August 27, 2023 + Lectionary 21 + Pr. Michelle Sevig

Who are you? We are asked that question in a variety of ways. When we are first introduced to someone and they want to know our name. When we are applying for a job or going on a first date. 

Often in meetings on Zoom, when we don’t already know everyone, we are asked to introduce ourselves. My name is Michelle Sevig, I’m a pastor of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Lakeview, near Wrigley Field, and I use she/her pronouns. It’s a brief introduction, but it doesn’t really say too much about my identity; who I am. 

To really know more about who I am, you need to spend some time with me to know what my passions are, what makes me laugh or cry, what my skills are and who is family to me. To really know who I am, there needs to be a relationship. 

In this week’s Gospel reading, Jesus asks his disciples, those he’s in close relationship with, about his identity.“Who do people say that I am?” In other words, what’s the word on the street?  What have you heard?  What do the opinion polls suggest?

As one writer puts it, “I can just about hear the schoolboy relief in the disciples’ voices (“Ooh, ooh! This is an easy one!  I know this one!) as they scramble to answer Jesus’s question.  “People say you’re John the Baptist!  No, no, they say you’re Elijah!  Actually, some folks think you’re Jeremiah.  Yes, but others say you’re one of the prophets!” I’m guessing they go on for a while, each disciple trying to drown the others out with a more succinct, authoritative, and promising answer. 

So Jesus presses on.  “But who do you say that I am?”  Looking at each disciple in turn, he awaits a more intimate answer. Consider the life we have lived together thus far.  The bread we’ve broken, the miles we’ve walked, the burdens we’ve carried, the tears we’ve shed, the laughter we’ve shared. ‘Who am I to you?’ Jesus asks. How have you experienced me? Where do I stand in this life we’re making together? 

When I imagine what happens next, I see the disciples falling into an awkward silence. Avoiding eye contact with Jesus.  Shuffling their feet.  Coughing.  Casting anxious glances at each other.  I imagine each of them desperately hoping that someone else will answer first.

And Jesus waits patiently to hear what his closest friends will say about him.  Do they know him?  How much have they comprehended of his mission and vision, and how much are they willing to confess out loud? When the silence becomes unbearable, Peter throws himself forward and answers the question as confidently as he can:  “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.”

Jesus blesses Peter and declares that on this rock, in other words, through Peter’s testimony, he will build this church. And it is through Peter’s continued testimony that faith in Jesus is spread throughout the nations and the generations. Peter declares,  “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God!”  I wonder if we are able to do the same. 

I have to admit that most of my actions don’t confess that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. Rather, they testify that he is a great man, an example to follow, someone to be inspired by, kind of like the prophets of old.

And I suspect that I am not alone in sensing the disconnect between my public confession and my everyday actions. There’s a gap between the words we say on Sunday and the lives we lead the rest of the week. “Who do you say that Jesus is?” we are asked this week. And our answer comes not just from the words we say in the creed or prayers, but what we say with our lives–our relationships, our bank account, our time and energy, and all the rest. 

I want us to wonder together for a moment or two what we actually mean when we say, with Peter, that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. One pastor I know is going to ask his congregation to turn to their neighbor during the sermon and ask them to talk to each other about who Jesus is to them, using plain and simple words as if explaining it to a child or a stranger. I’m not going to do that, make you talk to your neighbor, but I’ll share with you what this pastor and I have come up with for our own understanding.

“Jesus is God’s way of showing us how much God loves us and all people. God came to be like one of us, to live like one of us, in order to reveal just how God feels about us. In this sense, Jesus revealed God’s heart, a heart that aches with all who suffer, a heart that is upset and angry with violence that permeates our society, especially toward our Black and brown siblings, a heart that loves us as only an adoring parent can, and so not only wants the best for us but is always eager to welcome us home in grace, forgiveness, and love.

But it’s more than that, too. I think Jesus also came to show us what’s possible. And so rather than give in to the threat of disease, Jesus healed. Rather than surrender people to demons, Jesus showed compassion. Rather than let people starve because there was not enough to go around, Jesus fed people who were hungry. Jesus refused to be satisfied or limited by the status quo and invites us to do the same. Because Jesus’ life and death show us how much God loves us and Jesus’ resurrection shows us that that love is more powerful than hate and fear, and even death. Jesus shows us, in short, that God’s love wins.

We are empowered to live lives that are filled with and share God’s love, aware of the brokenness of the world but even more aware of God’s grace and the power of the resurrection. Confessing that Jesus is Messiah, the son of the living God, means that we are called to look at our whole lives– our time, our relationships, our hopes, dreams, finances, and all the rest – through the lens of both the power and possibilities created by seeing God’s heart laid bare in Jesus.

Jesus does not ask us to confess who we believe he is for his sake, but rather for ours, that we might be caught up in the power of his love and life.  The confessions we offer about Jesus in church and in our daily lives aren’t words of praise to God but rather are words of power that help root us in the love and possibility that Jesus offers.

If we’re honest, we are probably more like Peter in his misunderstandings and foibles, than we are like Peter in his proudest moment in today’s gospel. Yet Jesus embraces us just as he does Peter. He continues to call his church together to proclaim God’s love, to forgive and be forgiven, to gather week after week around this holy meal. And as his followers, we continue to baptize and teach, feed the hungry and welcome the stranger, and call forth and encourage the gifts of one another. So that our whole lives are rooted in the identity given to us in baptism, “Beloved Child of the Living God.”