Who Do YOU Say I Am?

Luke 9:18–27 NRSV

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.” He sternly ordered and commanded them not to tell anyone, saying, “The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” Then he said to them all, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it. What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words, of them the Son of Man will be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. But truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.”

On the first day of classes on my 6 year journey of theological education I walked into a class called “The life and revelation of Christ.” It was the most important class I ever took, because it introduced me to the Jesus that I had never known.

Now obviously I had known Jesus, but what I did not realize was that there was so much more depth to the person of Jesus Christ than I had grown up understanding. Maybe you can resonate with this… coming of age in the 90s basically introduced me to a Jesus who was born on Christmas and then died for my sins on Good Friday and wanted us to wear really nice clothes and fancy hats on Easter Sunday to celebrate that fact.

And honestly that was kind of it. But anyway. On this first day of class a Large man with kind eyes who reminded me of my Uncle Bob turned took roll and then turned to the white board and wrote “Dr. B” on it. Then underneath that he wrote “Who do you say that Jesus Christ is?”

Then he said — “This is the most important question that every person in this world will ever answer.”

Over then next 15 weeks I would learn that while Jesus was born on Christmas and was crucified for our sins on Good Friday, there was a whole life in between that serves as a guide for living a life of deep purpose.

So the question “Who do you say Jesus Christ is?” for me is answered like this: Jesus Christ is the savior of the world and someone who is worth following with everything that I have.

This is the last week in our series “Follow Me” where we have been looking at the radical life that we are called to live when we say yes to following Jesus.

The disciples were asked who people were saying that Jesus was — remember this is the most important question. And the crowds it turns out are not far off. They just aren’t thinking big enough. They are like well the people think you are your cousin John, or maybe Elijah, or another prophet from the old days.

Which when you think about it is pretty bold of folks to claim about Jesus. These are all people who are now dead. So to claim that Jesus is one of them shows that they don’t think that he’s an ordinary man.

Just like I didn’t believe that Jesus was just an ordinary man back when I stepped foot into that classroom. I believed that Jesus was the way, the truth, and the life. I just didn’t truly know what all of that way, truth, and life entailed. I was thinking about heaven, but what I learned was that Jesus lived to teach me and you and anyone else how to truly live.

But Peter, well Peter thinks Jesus is more. He says you are the Messiah of God. This word is so packed full of meaning, but we often lose that meaning because we use it in the Christian sense so often. But for Peter and his Jewish compadres, this word was not just thrown around to describe people.

To be the messiah, the long awaited king and liberator of God’s people was to be an almost inconceivably high honor — so inconceivable that the general population was quicker to believe he was a dead guy than to believe that he was the messiah.

But Peter, well Peter just goes all in. And I can’t love him more for it. Peter is like listen man, if I gave it all up — the job, the safety and comfort of my home, the predictable and generally controllable life, my plans — to follow you, you better be the big cheese brother. You’d better be the messiah, or I’ve got some serious explaining to do to my wife. And I don’t want to be doing any explaining. And the beauty here… is Pete got it right.

And Luke then launches into this long diatribe of Jesus where he foretells his death, and then details the cost of following him. Jesus is like listen, you aren’t wrong about the Messiah thing, but if you’re thinking that I’m some conquering king who is going to wage war against Rome, you’ve got it all wrong.

I’m going to be rejected and die. So if you want to follow me, that’s where we are going. That’s the life that we are facing head on. That’s the fate that we are journeying toward together. So, if you want to follow me take up your cross daily and follow me.

I think culturally we are conditioned to think of following Jesus as a casual life decision that shouldn’t be a great disturbance in our lives. And to be honest we are watching as our world really shifts away from tolerating Christianity as a disruption in our lives.

The number of juvenile sports and events that now take place on Sunday mornings is staggering. I don’t know if I ever played a baseball game on Sunday, let alone Sunday morning. We live in a world where it’s much more acceptable to allow travel sports teams to disrupt and inconvenience our lives than we are to allow the King of the Universe to.

And here’s the thing. I’m not even mad about that, because Sunday morning isn’t the only time that we can worship Jesus and practice following Jesus. There are adaptive communities that meet on different days of the week. I’m pointing this out just to make us all aware that we Westerners are generally pretty unwilling to be inconvenienced.

But Jesus says, if you want to be my followers — get comfortable being inconvenienced every single day. And look, I am not into this part of the whole deal. Ask anyone around here. When I’m in the throws of administrative stuff or some project or another, about the last thing that I want to do is be interrupted. But God is in the interruption. God is in the inconvenience. God is in the emails and the text messages.

Jesus doesn’t say follow me to live your most comfortable, instagram worthy life right now. Jesus says actually deny yourself, take up your cross daily and follow me. Be prepared to lose your life and actually you’ll find that you’ve saved it.

I’ve lived long enough to know that there is no path of self indulgence that will bring me joy. At the end of every movie, TV show, or fantasy novel is a deep sense of dissatisfaction that it’s over — and a pining within for something more.

At the end of every high performance bicycle is a faster bike that I can’t afford, and a time commitment that I can’t make.

At the end of every video game is the timer that lets me know how many real life hours was spent exploring a make believe world.

At the end of every set of golf clubs is a score card that still isn’t low enough.

But there’s something that I’ve never come to the end of. I’ve never come to the end of the deep purpose that I feel when I finally give up my self seeking desires and do that thing that that person needs — no matter how inconvenient it is when the opportunity shows up.

To be honest, I’m learning from so many of you what it really looks like to follow Jesus in this way. When there is something here that needs to be done, it gets done. 2 weeks ago this church gave and astounding 577 man hours to make sure that 15 children had the best week ever at Music and Arts camp. That’s 38.8 hours per kid. A full week of work. That’s not normal. That’s what following Jesus looks like. We all had other things that we could be doing.

Ok so, following Jesus calls us to a life of holy inconvenience and self denial. But where exactly are we following Jesus to? Well this is where all of that “who do you say Jesus Christ is?” stuff comes in to play. Because I’ve told you that I believe that Jesus Christ is the savior of the world who is worth following with all that we have.

And following Jesus eventually means that we are sent by Jesus to do the work of Jesus. This is how Luke 9 begins:

Luke 9:1–6 NRSV

Then Jesus called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. He said to them, “Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money—not even an extra tunic. Whatever house you enter, stay there, and leave from there. Wherever they do not welcome you, as you are leaving that town shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” They departed and went through the villages, bringing the good news and curing diseases everywhere.

Look at this very first line. Then Jesus called the 12 together and gave them power and authority. Power and authority over what? Well demons and diseases of course. Which I don’t know about you — is probably the hardest 2 things to believe that Luke could possibly tell us.

Like Luke could say “he gave them power and authority over the local governing authorities” and we’d be like alright. That’s what i’m talking about. Or “power and authority over the rising cost of living” and we’d be like ok that’s impressive. I’d like that.

But no, Luke chooses to tell us that Jesus gave them power and authority over like the two greatest enemies to human kind. Spiritual evil and the frailty of the human body. Now I don’t know about you but these are not areas that I’m out boasting that I have authority over. In America we typically consider people that make these claims to be leaders of things called cults.

But Jesus sends them out and says “you’ve got authority and power, go live like that. Proclaim the kingdom of God and heal.” This is the real test for us. How do we know if we are following Jesus? Well because we understand that we have power and authority to go and live our lives the way that Jesus lived. Maybe that’s casting out literal demons and curing diseases. If that’s how the power and authority of manifests in your life, lets go.

But I think what Luke’s main point here is that Jesus was known for doing two things: casting out demons and curing diseases. But that’s not all Jesus did. Jesus knew that when his people went into a town and started doing these things, they would know that they came under the authority of Jesus of Nazareth.

Likewise, when you and I go into a town, into our work places, into where ever it is that we live our lives outside of Sunday morning and we do any of the many ordinary but radical things that Jesus did — like feed the hungry, comfort the afflicted, speak up for what is good and right and true, visit the hospitalized or imprisoned, sit with the children — its then that people will know that we are followers of Jesus.

Jesus has given you power and authority to go and proclaim the kingdom of God. And the kingdom of God is a simple but profound thing that happens when the people of God live the way that God lived when given the opportunity to inhabit the earth with all of the power and authority of the divine. He lived as a servant who went, found, and loved the world around him. This is who Jesus Christ is — the servant.

As we close this series, ask yourself — what would it take to close the gap for you? The gap between a life of radical followership in which you take the authority given to you to go and proclaim the kingdom of God in word and deed and the temptation to stay in a comfortable life of self-indulgence. Where is God calling you to take authority and go?

The true measure of your life is perhaps less who you say Jesus is and much more who you live like Jesus is. And if Jesus is the savior of the world who is worth following with everything that you have — then its time for all of us to begin to live that way.