Luke 9:18-20
Once when Jesus was praying alone, with only the disciples near him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” They answered, “John the Baptist; but others, Elijah; and still others, that one of the ancient prophets has arisen.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered, “The Messiah of God.”
The reading I’ve chosen for today is not a standard lectionary choice for this season. It’s one that is most often read during Lent, as we are approaching Easter, not after. But this season we are talking about the earliest beginnings of what we today know as Christianity in all its multitudinous forms, and this little snippet of the New Testament seems to me to be ground zero for much that has risen out of it over the past 2000 years.
We call ourselves Christians, “little Christs” – followers of Jesus, followers of his way – and so it seems to me that it is of major importance that we be somewhat clear as to just who it is we claim to follow.
I chose to use the version from Luke’s gospel because we are reading Luke this year in the lectionary cycle, but this is one of the handful of stories that appears in all three of the synoptic gospels - Matthew, Mark, and Luke – and it’s there in almost identical form in all three.
The scripture is often quoted as the definitive answer to who Jesus is – “he’s the Messiah” – and yet how many of us understand what we are saying when we say those words? Just as there are roughly as many definitions for the word “Christian” as there are Christians – even in our small group here I imagine that we pretty much all agree on a big-picture definition of “Christian” but when we parse it down further I’d guess we each mean something slightly different when we say we are a Christian – so too, that word, messiah, has many, many meanings.
In the earliest stories of the Hebrew scriptures it’s clear that any messianic expectation was centered in a future event, not a person. It was God who would act – directly -- by shaping world events to benefit the Hebrew people and fulfill God’s promises to Abraham. Centuries later, when the people moved from their nomadic lifestyle to a settled urban/agricultural life, when they had demanded that God give them a king so they could be like the neighbors, the idea of a messiah began to be focused on the royal line. David and Solomon did for awhile raise them to that peak of freedom and international power and security that they associated with the promised messiah, but then things slowly fell apart and they returned to the idea of a messiah as one who would rescue them from slavery. One who would restore them to their former glory.
It is after the collapse of this flourishing kingdom and of the Davidic line itself, when the people are once again enslaved and scattered, that the idea of the Messiah begins to be fine-tuned into something in which we can begin to recognize Jesus when he comes. But even here there are multiple descriptions and we show a depressing tendency to pick and choose just the ones that match the Messiah we want.
In the writings of the prophets, the messiah is sometimes described like a leader of an army, a general who would lead the people as they march back in to forcibly re-take what is theirs. Our Palm Sunday story refers obliquely to these prophecies and points out the huge difference between what the people expected and what they got. In the 100 years or so before Jesus’ birth there had been a great up-welling in expectation of and longing for this military/political Messiah. The people were longing for revolution – bloody if necessary. What they got was Jesus and very few recognized them as the messiah they had been waiting for.
Our idea of Jesus suffering and dying for our sins comes from Isaiah in the time of the great exile with the Suffering Servant prophecies, but in rabbinic interpretation the “suffering Servant” is Israel itself – the whole nation suffering for the world – rather than any single person. Christians, however, read backwards into this prophecy and find Jesus there.
So the meaning of the word messiah has changed according to time and place and circumstance – just as almost all meanings change over time. All this matters to us because when we call ourselves Christians, this is what we are saying. Messiah and Christ are the same word – one in Hebrew, one in Greek – both technically mean “the anointed one” – and rather than clearing anything up this just clutters the conversation even more.
Anointing has been used for centuries in various cultures and is still used for a variety of reasons. We anoint priests, we anoint kings, we anoint the sick and the dying. Many denominations anoint babies and anyone being baptized. We anoint those we are sending out into special ministries and we anoint each other in our role as servants of Christ. Ancient anointings were full scale dousings in oil. Today we tend to stick with tidy dabs – but anointing is an ancient symbol. Calling Jesus “the Anointed One” still doesn’t help us a whole lot.
So with all these words we are back to Jesus and his question: “Who do you say I am?” When we call ourselves Christian have we really put some thought into what we mean? Are we talking about being a church member or do we mean something deeper? Do we think Jesus was a good guy or do we truly strive to live our own lives following the path Jesus laid out for us? Living our lives as Jesus lived his?
I’m not saying everyone needs to do all the technical biblical and theological studying – all you will get there anyway is what other people think. But -- have you ever sat down with Jesus and just said, “I like what I think I know of you. I want to follow you and your way. I want to do your work. I’m pretty sure I need you – whoever and whatever you are – in my own heart, in my own life”?
When Jesus asks: Who do you say I am? do you have an answer?
We call ourselves Christians, “little Christs” – followers of Jesus, followers of his way – and so it seems to me that it is of major importance that we be somewhat clear as to just who it is we claim to follow.
I chose to use the version from Luke’s gospel because we are reading Luke this year in the lectionary cycle, but this is one of the handful of stories that appears in all three of the synoptic gospels - Matthew, Mark, and Luke – and it’s there in almost identical form in all three.
The scripture is often quoted as the definitive answer to who Jesus is – “he’s the Messiah” – and yet how many of us understand what we are saying when we say those words? Just as there are roughly as many definitions for the word “Christian” as there are Christians – even in our small group here I imagine that we pretty much all agree on a big-picture definition of “Christian” but when we parse it down further I’d guess we each mean something slightly different when we say we are a Christian – so too, that word, messiah, has many, many meanings.
In the earliest stories of the Hebrew scriptures it’s clear that any messianic expectation was centered in a future event, not a person. It was God who would act – directly -- by shaping world events to benefit the Hebrew people and fulfill God’s promises to Abraham. Centuries later, when the people moved from their nomadic lifestyle to a settled urban/agricultural life, when they had demanded that God give them a king so they could be like the neighbors, the idea of a messiah began to be focused on the royal line. David and Solomon did for awhile raise them to that peak of freedom and international power and security that they associated with the promised messiah, but then things slowly fell apart and they returned to the idea of a messiah as one who would rescue them from slavery. One who would restore them to their former glory.
It is after the collapse of this flourishing kingdom and of the Davidic line itself, when the people are once again enslaved and scattered, that the idea of the Messiah begins to be fine-tuned into something in which we can begin to recognize Jesus when he comes. But even here there are multiple descriptions and we show a depressing tendency to pick and choose just the ones that match the Messiah we want.
In the writings of the prophets, the messiah is sometimes described like a leader of an army, a general who would lead the people as they march back in to forcibly re-take what is theirs. Our Palm Sunday story refers obliquely to these prophecies and points out the huge difference between what the people expected and what they got. In the 100 years or so before Jesus’ birth there had been a great up-welling in expectation of and longing for this military/political Messiah. The people were longing for revolution – bloody if necessary. What they got was Jesus and very few recognized them as the messiah they had been waiting for.
Our idea of Jesus suffering and dying for our sins comes from Isaiah in the time of the great exile with the Suffering Servant prophecies, but in rabbinic interpretation the “suffering Servant” is Israel itself – the whole nation suffering for the world – rather than any single person. Christians, however, read backwards into this prophecy and find Jesus there.
So the meaning of the word messiah has changed according to time and place and circumstance – just as almost all meanings change over time. All this matters to us because when we call ourselves Christians, this is what we are saying. Messiah and Christ are the same word – one in Hebrew, one in Greek – both technically mean “the anointed one” – and rather than clearing anything up this just clutters the conversation even more.
Anointing has been used for centuries in various cultures and is still used for a variety of reasons. We anoint priests, we anoint kings, we anoint the sick and the dying. Many denominations anoint babies and anyone being baptized. We anoint those we are sending out into special ministries and we anoint each other in our role as servants of Christ. Ancient anointings were full scale dousings in oil. Today we tend to stick with tidy dabs – but anointing is an ancient symbol. Calling Jesus “the Anointed One” still doesn’t help us a whole lot.
So with all these words we are back to Jesus and his question: “Who do you say I am?” When we call ourselves Christian have we really put some thought into what we mean? Are we talking about being a church member or do we mean something deeper? Do we think Jesus was a good guy or do we truly strive to live our own lives following the path Jesus laid out for us? Living our lives as Jesus lived his?
I’m not saying everyone needs to do all the technical biblical and theological studying – all you will get there anyway is what other people think. But -- have you ever sat down with Jesus and just said, “I like what I think I know of you. I want to follow you and your way. I want to do your work. I’m pretty sure I need you – whoever and whatever you are – in my own heart, in my own life”?
When Jesus asks: Who do you say I am? do you have an answer?
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