Who do you say that I am? And what do they say of you?

              Just who was Jesus?  That is a very complicated question. To most Christians, he is the divine son of God.  But this is based on a certain reading of scripture that is not necessarily shared by all. Exactly what does it mean?  This is not common to all, and is in fact different for every Christian. Who did his disciples say he was?  Jesus asked this of his disciples in Luke 9:18 – 9:22. “Once when Jesus was praying by himself, and his disciples were nearby, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” They answered, “John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others that one of the prophets of long ago has risen.” Then he said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered, “The Christ of God.” But he forcefully commanded them not to tell this to anyone, saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and experts in the law, and be killed, and on the third day be raised" (Luke 9). The “Christ of God” translates to “Messiah” or more specifically “one who has been anointed by God.” Peter called Jesus "anointed of God" just as the prophets of the Old Testament were anointed. Then Jesus predicts his own death.  Some would say he must be divine to predict his own death.  But I think he was just stating the obvious and the writer of Luke added the specific of being raised on the third day. Three is a significant number meaning completion in Jewish scripture.  We see the number three used throughout the story of Jesus to signify completion.  Jesus prayed three times in the Garden of Gethsemane before His arrest. He was placed on the cross at the 3rd hour of the day (9 a.m.) and died at the 9th hour (3 p.m.). There were 3 hours of darkness that covered the land while Jesus was suffering on the cross from the 6th hour to the 9th hour. Three is the number of resurrection. Jesus was said to be dead for three full days and three full nights, a total of 72 hours, before being resurrected on Saturday, just before sunset. Specifically, I believe that the Gospel writers were trying to picture him as the completion and fulfillment of the Old Testament law and the fulfillment of the messianic predictions by the prophets.  He says when he dies on the cross, “It is finished.”  It is complete - it is “3.”

              So, if his followers just thought he was the anointed of God, what did he think?  Well, this is also very complicated.  We are seeing his words through the lens of the Gospel writers who, at least in the case of John, explicitly trying to portray him as divine. John said he was the Son of God.  He also said he was one with the father.  But so am I.  And so are you.  And so is everyone who has turned their attention to God since Jesus’s saving work.  And this quote appears in John - the Gospel most concerned with establishing his divinity. Just like “anyone who has seen me has seen the father” appears in John in response to Phillip. But even the Gospel of John leaves this bent on Jesus’s words from time to time as it retells Jesus through the people’s eyes.  In John 10 he claimed to be the son of God and asked why he should be stoned for that.  The Jews in the temple at the Feast of Dediction were crying blasphemy because that is the world view they were coming from.  I do not share this view with the ancient Jewish religious authorities. Nor was it necessarily the world view of his followers or the common Jew who proclaimed him the messiah.  The Messiah was generally thought to be the coming savior of Israel who would throw off the oppression of the Romans, most likely militarily.  They were waiting for a warrior king.  Instead, what they got was Jesus.  He is much like the Old Testament prophets, but was a teacher and agitator for change as well.  But just because I don’t believe he was delivered by angels to Mary in a literal virgin birth, does that make me a non-Christian?  I don’t think so.  I believe about Jesus what his original followers and the early church believed, that he was a man anointed by God and was so close to God in the way he lived that some people later called him divine.  (People like the Gospel writers).  I am more like the Samaritan woman at the well, who believed he was a prophet.  But he turned out to be more than this.  He turned out to be the messiah, defined as a man who would throw off the shackles of the religious institutions that had built up that separated people from relationship with God.

              I have never been rejected from a church because of my views.  In fact, quite the opposite.  I put these views on display every week in my blog and send them to my pastors at my new First United Methodist church.  It is a church in which I recently went through the membership class and will be confirmed as a member.  I have been accepted by my little church with open arms.  And this was true of my last church as well – a church that I attended for more than 15 years.  (I only changed churches because my wife got a job as the worship leader at the new church).  The response of the head pastor to my “Acceptance begets love” post actually, she said, moved her to tears. The church is meant to have open doors and to accept people for who they are, alternative or unorthodox views aside.  You become known and accepted for who you are: the good, the bad, and all the rest.  This is the church that Jesus founded.  The only fear is to be known, because we are not used to being known intimately in our modern western society.  But it is so good to be known.  It is so good to be known by the people that make up your church, and as an extension, known by God.  You see, I believe that God is literally present in the relationships you have.  This is because God is said to be one in eternal relationship with his parts.  And as Christ’s followers, we are the body of Jesus on Earth, one part of the triune Abrahamic God.  And this is actually a very orthodox view.  I thank God for meeting me through the warm people of my church.  In this way, I am enveloped by God just as much as when I am soaking to God Mixes and laying on the couch or reading scripture or praying.  God is tangible in this way.  God is tangible in his body on Earth.  I think this is just what Jesus wanted. He wanted to establish a group of people that would love each other and then go out and change the world by loving others.  That is who Jesus is.