Proper 19, Year B
September 17, 2006
Christ Church, Covington
“But who do you say that I am?” (Mk 8:29).
It’s a good thing to know who you are. Not just in the sense of not having to
look at your license when you wake up in the morning, but in the more serious
sense of knowing what you value and how you will act. If you’re looking at your
license in the morning, I’ll grant that you’ve probably got some value issues as
well; isn’t there a Johnny Cash song about somebody in this situation? Well,
never mind. Identity is about character, “where we’re coming from”, and about
trajectory, “where we’re headed”. We’ve got to know who we are and where we’re
headed and how.
Our Gospel today is all about identity, but it does not start with us. The key
question in the Gospel perspective is not “Who are you?”, but rather Jesus’
question, “Who do you say that I am?”. Apparently it’s important for us to get
this one right. We need to know who Jesus is. We need to know where Jesus is
coming from and where he is headed.
There are a couple of clues to Jesus’ identity in our Gospel reading today.
First, “Messiah”, or “anointed king”: Peter’s own answer to the question of
Jesus’ identity. Many Jews in Jesus’ time were looking for the coming of a king,
who would restore the kingdom of Israel. But Jesus shifts the meaning
significantly when he tells Peter that his trajectory includes death and
resurrection. This scandalizes Peter. Second, “Son of Man”: a more ambiguous
phrase with a number of meanings, but which I take to indicate a primordial
figure who suffers, is vindicated, and who will judge all things on the Last
Great Day. In other words, Jesus is the pivotal figure of history.
Now here’s the truly amazing thing that brings us back to our own identity. It’s
important for us to know who Jesus is, not because it’s some theoretical
question that God is determined that we get right because it pleases him for
some obscure reason (a misunderstanding of faith that probably explains why more
people don’t take this question seriously), but because it contains the key to
our own identity. We’re not going to know who we are, “where we’re coming from”
and “where we’re headed” and how, until we learn who Jesus is and start walking
with him. Knowing him, we come to know ourselves. In his identity, we find our
own.
Just listen again to this. “If any want to become my followers, let them deny
themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save
their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the
sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole
world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their
life?” (Mk 8:34-37). Now that’s identity. It’s about character, about giving
oneself for others, and about trajectory, walking with Jesus on the way of the
cross that leads to death and resurrection. This is the way toward real life and
real identity.
We’re not really going to know who we are unless we stop living for ourselves.
We might as well be the poor guy who wakes up looking for his license, getting
it out and checking it against the face in the mirror. “Where did I come from?”;
“Where am I headed?”: trying to figure out who he is. On the morning of the last
great day we will be just as clueless. We won’t have any identity, not in its
deepest, truest sense. It can’t be “just about us”, “all about me”, about the
sort of identity we try to fashion for ourselves. “Get behind me Satan!” (Mk
8:33).
The Good News is that identity is God’s gift to us. We uncover it bit by bit, as
we live our lives: our character and our trajectory. We cannot make it up for
ourselves. Thank God we can’t, since we would no doubt make a horrible hash of
it. We have to discover our identity by becoming disciples, by coming to know
who Jesus is and by walking with him.
John Bauerschmidt is Rector of Christ Church, Covington.
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