Who Is Jesus?
Matthew 16:13-20
Rev. Stephen H. Wilkins
Georgetown Presbyterian Church
August 21, 2005

If you ever watch the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, you’ll know that one of his most popular regular features is his "Jay Walking" segment. That’s when Jay goes and polls the person on the street to gauge their knowledge of current events or trends. The thing that makes the segment funny is that the people Jay interviews are pretty clueless about the topics. For example, he might ask people why America celebrates the fourth of July as a holiday, and the responses he gets will range from "because it’s George Washington’s birthday," to "that’s the day when the Chinese invented fireworks."

I wonder if Jay were to walk the streets and ask, "Who is Jesus," what kind of answers would he get? I suspect we’d hear some pretty outrageous answers. Of course, we’d have to make some allowances for the fact that he’s in California!

Then again, if Jay Leno were to tape his segment along the harbor walk, what kind of answers would he get? Here in the heart of the Bible Belt of the United States, what would people say about who Jesus is?

In a moment with his disciples, Jesus asks them, "Who do people say that I am?" Jesus is asking about the popular opinion of him. Chronologically, this conversation comes toward the end of Jesus’ three-year ministry with his disciples. Up to this point, Jesus has played many different roles: He’s preached to them and to the masses in his Sermon on the Mount (and other times, as well); he’s been a teacher, artfully using parables to teach important truths about the Kingdom of Heaven; he’s been a healer of the sick and an exorcist of demons; he’s been a miracle worker capable of calming a storm on the sea, and feeding thousands of people with but a few fish and a few loaves of bread; Jesus has upset the religious leadership and challenged them at every step. Jesus has played many roles over the nearly three years of his public ministry. Now, as he is about to enter the final phase of his ministry, Jesus asks his disciples, "Who do people say that I am?"

It’s a valid question to ask today. Who do people say that Jesus is? I suppose the answer will be as varied as the number of times you ask it. If you were to poll the person on the street, what would be his or her impression of who Jesus is? What kind of picture would we get?

Someone might describe Jesus as a fair-skinned young man with a neatly-trimmed beard and almond-brown hair feathered back in the 1970s style of David Cassidy. Another person might say that Jesus was a political rebel. Still another person might say that he was a voice for justice who died a tragic, premature death. It wouldn’t be uncommon for someone to say, "He’s my Savior and Lord." Rest assured, though, that you’ll find plenty of differences of opinion of who Jesus is.

But Jesus is interested in more than just the popular opinion of who he is. After the disciples tell Jesus what people are saying about him, Jesus then turns the question back onto them: Who do you say that I am?

Jesus wants to know what the people closest to him think of him. More than caring about what the general public thinks about him, Jesus wants to hear it from those who have spent three years of their lives walking with him: Who do you say that I am?

You see, it’s one thing to observe Jesus from afar and draw general conclusions based on those observations. It’s another matter altogether to walk alongside someone for an extended period of time. The truth is, the disciples were the only ones who could accurately answer the question about who Jesus is, because they were the only ones who had spent significant amounts of time with Jesus.

Peter discovered who Jesus was because Peter followed Jesus. Peter spent time with Jesus, and so Peter got to know Jesus. It’s because Peter had spent time with Jesus that Peter was able to give an answer that was more than Jesus as a teacher, more than Jesus as one of the prophets, more than Jesus as a great moral person. It’s because Peter had walked daily with Jesus that he was able to declare with all certainty, "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God."

How about you? How would you answer the question Jesus asks: "Who do you say that I am?" Are you content with observing Jesus from afar, or are you, like Peter, willing to discover who Jesus is by following him on a daily basis?

Who is Jesus? It may seem like a common, even trivial question. But the truth is, it is one of the most critical questions a Christian can answer. It’s critical for at least two reasons.

If Jesus is "the Answer", then your life will be different. Certainly that would be the case for Peter. It is at this point in Matthew’s gospel that Jesus gives Simon his "Christian" name of Peter, the Rock. It would take some time before Peter would live up to the caliber of discipleship of which Jesus speaks in this morning’s passage, but Peter would become the key leader in the early church. Peter will put his foot in his mouth a couple more times before he really gets why Jesus is "the Answer"; nevertheless, Peter will be the rock. It’s actually quite comforting to know that Peter was significantly less than superhuman, for it reminds us that God uses the ordinary to accomplish the extraordinary. If God can use a bumbling, headstrong fool like Peter, don’t you think God can use someone like you in His Church?

Friends in Christ, it’s impossible for Jesus to be "the Answer" in your life without making your life different. You simply can’t remain the same; Jesus won’t let you remain the same.

Who is Jesus? The second reason that this is a critical question is because how we identify Jesus will define the identity of the community of people that follow Jesus. In other words, the nature of the Church is defined in large part by how we have come to know who Jesus is.

There have been periods in the history of the Church that the image of Jesus as King of Kings has been used to justify warfare and empire-building. Certainly, such an image contributed to the Crusades, or to the cruel treatment of natives by Spanish colonialists. We see the same dynamic being played out in modern-day Islam, in which certain Muslims seize upon the call to jihad to justify terrorism and murder. On the opposite extreme, we have the image of people like St. Francis of Assisi or Mother Teresa, who came to know Jesus as divine love, and that’s how they came to proclaim Jesus to those around them.

How we know Jesus, how we answer the question, "Who is Jesus?", will determine the shape and content of our proclamation of Jesus to the world. If our image of Jesus is that of a Savior only of those we deem good enough to be saved, then we will write off the wretches of the world as hopeless. If our image of Jesus is that he is but one way out of many to know God, then we won’t be very invested in our proclamation of him – we’ll be kind of like the politician who remarked, "Those are my convictions; if you don’t like them, I have others." But if our image of Jesus is of One who is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, if our image of Jesus is of One who came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many, then our proclamation of Jesus will take on a more accurate appearance.

Michael Lindvall is a Presbyterian pastor who is now on the staff of the 5^th Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City. He previously served as the pastor of a small church in rural Minnesota, and he has written a book based on those experiences. He tells of the time just before Christmas when a teenaged unwed mother named Tina Cory brought her infant son forward for baptism. The session meeting in which the baptism was approved was an awkward meeting, with a deafening silence about young Tina’s situation. The tradition of that congregation was for the pastor to ask, "Who stands with this child?", and the family of the child would then rise and surround the infant. Only this time there would only be Tina’s mother, Mildred. But something special took place during that particular December baptism, something that proclaimed that the Jesus whose birth was about to be celebrated was a revelation of God’s unconditional grace and love.

The church was full, as it always was the Sunday before Christmas... After the sermon, the elder who was to assist in the baptism stood up at the baptismal font and read the words that were written out on a three-by-five card: ‘Tina Cory presents her son for baptism.’ He kept looking at the card and not at Tina...

Down the aisle she came, nervously, briskly, smiling at only at the pastor. She was visibly shaking as she carried month-old Jimmy in her arms... The scene was a painful one, every bit as much as everyone knew it would be. So young this mother was, and so alone...

The pastor read the opening part of the baptismal service, noting Mildred Cory sitting strangely out of place in a front pew. Then the pastor asked, ‘Who stands with this child?’ He nodded at Mildred slightly to coax her to her feet. She rose slowly, looking to either side.

Who is Jesus? The answer to that question is crucial, because how we identify Jesus will define the identity of the community of people that follow Jesus. How we answer that question will determine how we proclaim his gospel.

On that Sunday in rural Minnesota, were someone to ask, "Who is Jesus?", how do you think Tina Cory would have answered the question?

If someone were to ask you, "Who is Jesus?", how would you answer?

Let us pray.

"Help us, O God, to know Jesus, to really know Jesus as the revelation of who you are. Let our knowledge of Jesus transform our lives, and let our proclamation of Jesus be faithful and true. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen.