It’s hard for us to grasp what novel idea Jesus puts forth when he answers his own questions in this morning’s gospel. As Luke tells the tale, Jesus rises from prayer and asks his disciples, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” He and the disciples were very aware of those crowds, for, in Luke’s gospel, they have just come from the feeding of the five thousand, crowds on crowds on crowds. The disciples tell him that those crowds say that he’s John the Baptist or even Elijah or one or another of the prophets of old.

And, truth to tell, those crowds had been taught that there would would come one day another prophet like Moses to help God’s people. Luke himself begins his account of Jesus’ public ministry by having him enter a synagogue and read from the prophet Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor… to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind….” And then Luke says that Jesus proclaimed, “Today this prophecy has been fulfilled.” Luke thus places Jesus squarely in the prophetic tradition. So the crowds were right in what they said, or at least partly right.

Then Jesus turns the question on the disciples themselves: “But you, who do you all say that I am?” Peter, speaking for the group says, “You are God’s Messiah, the Anointed One, the Christ.”

And, truth to tell, Peter was right, or at least a little bit right. For he and all other Jews had been taught that a descendent of David, who had been God’s anointed of old, would arise to sake off the yoke laid upon their people by the foreign hosts, restore the ancient Kingdom, and usher in a new era of peace when all the world would worship the God of Israel. And Peter’s answer also jibes with what crowds were saying, because, as we have heard, those prophets of old also claimed to have been anointed by God to proclaim his word. So Peter too was more right even than the crowds— but still only partly right.

Jesus did not comment on either of those answers; instead, he gave his own answer which embraced both the others and carried them much, much further. “I am all that,” the gospels imply before he said, “and I am also the Son of Man who must suffer greatly, who must be rejected, who must be killed, who must be raised. And there is more, for if I am all these things that you confess and proclaim I am, then it means something vital for you and for the way you live your lives; it means that if you truly desire to keep on following me as my disciples you must turn over a new leaf once and for all and leave your old selfish ways behind once and for all and you must take up your own crosses, your own burdens of love, and keep taking them up day after day for as long as you live. For that’s what it means to say truly that I am the new Moses, the new David, the anointed one of God, your Lord and your Christ.”

We all know, because we’ve all heard it time and time again, that there are two major impulses in life. One is the urge to acquire goods, take what you need or what you want, hoard your possessions and talents, clutch them to your breasts, protect what is yours by hook or by crook from the other similarly grasping, clawing, grabbing, thieving folks who make up the citizenry of this world.

The other impulse is, of course, to serve and to give; it is the impulse to love.

The first way assumes that each of us is the lord of our own lives: as William Ernest Henly once avowed, “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul”— it’s up to me if I am going to be secure, if I am going to find any fulfillment in this life, if I’m going to take care of myself.

The second way confesses that God rules in the recesses of our hearts, that devoting our lives to the fulfillment of God’s redeeming will through benefiting others, through working to establish justice and peace, through tearing down barriers and reconciling others, through the creation of community, through the countless acts of love which make up the cross we are called to bear.

Who do you say Jesus is? What do you mean when you confess with Peter that he is God’s Anointed? Luke in his gospel is pointing us to look carefully at how we live in this present that is given us, so that we might become, day after day, who we shall be. Who we say Jesus is and how we bring that confession to bear on our own lives and the lives of those around us determines what Jesus will say of us in the future. The only real answer to the question, “Who do you say that I am?” is our day by day following of Christ and the way of love— and everything depends on that!

Back to sermons