WHO DO YOU TELL THEM I AM?

So we’re eating pizza and Philly cheeseteaks and my wife says, “I don’t know why people don’t take the question Jesus asked more seriously.”

If you’ve never talked to my wife, you don’t know that she often begins conversations out loud where she left off the conversation in her mind.

The question Jesus had asked was, “But who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16: 15).

Sheila said, “I don’t know why people don’t take the question Jesus asked more seriously. If it was your boyfriend or your husband, you’d know it was serious.

‘When people talk about you to me, what do they call me?

‘And who do you tell them that I am?’

That’s like a major question.  Why don’t they think that was important to Jesus?”

Sheila (as usual) is right.

We treat “the question” like a kind of casual theological pop quiz.  Like Jesus was checking to see if the disciples had an adequately orthodox view of Christological doctrine.  (Google it if you have to.)

But “the question” wasn’t casual.  It was major.

It still is.

When you’re away from church and other Christians and your sin-loving friends are talking about Jesus and judging His body (the church), what do you say?  Do you say anything?

When your buddies from other faith-traditions are talking about Jesus, calling Him this and that, do you laugh and agree so they don’t think you’re weird?

Do you call Him a teacher because that’s what they called Him?  Do you nervously make little of His divinity?  Do you hasten to make sure that they know that you don’t think He was any more of a big deal than any other spiritual figure?

Do you call Him your Lord, and Savior, and God of everything?

Or do you say, “He’s just a friend”?

I know.  Not everybody comes from the same tradition.  Everyone's entitle to their own beliefs. We’re all children of the same God. 

I know.  I know.

“But who do YOU say that I am?”

That’s what Jesus wants to know.

And the answer majorly matters to Him.

---Rev. Anderson T. Graves II   (email:  atgravestwo2@aol.com )

Anderson T. Graves II is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church (5220 Myron Massey Boulevard) in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

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