Lent V
The Rev. Dr. Carol Flett
“Who do you say that I am?”—the question that Jesus asked his disciples when they were gathered quietly together on retreat in Caesarea Philippi. This question is the turning point in the gospel for the disciples and for the reader. It changed the direction of the disciples’ journey, their ministry and their lives. I have wondered why Jesus led his disciples into this non-Jewish territory (present day Syria) and then asked them this challenging question about his identity. Perhaps he knew that sometimes it takes being in an unfamiliar setting for us to search our soul for answers to life’s challenges. Imagine the disciples faithfully following Jesus, witnessing his ministry and perhaps wondering if he was the long-awaited Messiah. Jesus’s question may have caught the disciples by surprise, or it may have been the dialogue that they long hoped for.
Jesus began the dialogue by asking, “Who do people say that I am?” After the other disciples stumbled with what others were saying about him, Jesus asked, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter responded, “You are the Christ, the son of the living God!” Peter’s spontaneous and honest response to Jesus’ question may have startled Peter himself. His confession of faith in Jesus as the Christ became the foundation of the Church. For Jesus told Peter, “On this rock (meaning Peter), I will build my church.” The Church continues to be grounded on the confession that Jesus was then and is now, the Christ, God’s anointed One.
Jesus said, “But who do you say that I am?” This is also a question that Jesus asks Christians in every generation to answer for themselves. Several years ago, my daughter began her college education. Living away from home for the first time, she was assigned a roommate who was Jewish. Several of her new friends were also Jewish. After they had gotten to know each other fairly well, her Jewish roommate asked her a challenging question—a question that she had probably hoped one day to ask a Christian, “Who do you think Jesus is? Why do Christians think he is the Messiah?”
My eighteen-year old daughter was stumped. She had attended church all her life and could talk about how the church celebrated his birth and resurrection. She remembered some of the parables he taught, but she did not have clear answer for her Jewish friends. This led her to search for an answer for herself. Who would she say that Jesus is? Being away from home and in unfamiliar territory, she was forced to consider the question of Jesus’ identity, and to search for her own religious identity. For seven years, she explored Christianity and Judaism, and after living as a Jew for three years, she chose to become an Orthodox Jew. She claimed her own religious identity, and is now happily married to a wonderful Jewish man and they are the proud parents of two young children.
My daughter’s conversion to Judaism sent me into unfamiliar territory—I no longer rested on my traditional assumptions about my faith, and I heard Jesus’ question directed to me, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter responded and confessed that Jesus was the Christ before Jesus’ death and resurrection. My faith in Jesus as the Christ had always depended upon the biblical record of the witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection. In a sense, my faith was given to me as a gift. How do I discover who Jesus is for me? I prayed and turned Jesus’ question back on him, “Who do you say that I am?” Through prayer and bible study, I rediscovered that I am a follower of Jesus as the Christ. I realized that, like Peter, I would have followed Jesus before his crucifixion and resurrection. For it is Jesus’ life and ministry that I strive to imitate—his concern for justice—for the sick, the poor, and the outcast and marginalized. I sense the presence of the risen Christ in the sacred meal of bread and wine that unites me with all his followers and strengthens me to continue Jesus’ ministry of reconciliation.
Now when people ask me, “Who you do say you are?” I introduce myself as a Christian; a wife, mother and grandmother; and an Episcopal priest. This spiritual journey has also led me to a ministry of connecting interfaith relationships and building an interfaith community. I have studied Judaism and Islam, the Torah and the Quran, participated in worship in synagogues and mosques. My understanding and faith in God has been joyfully deepened and broadened by my experience in interfaith dialogue and relationships. Jesus crossed social boundaries, geographical borders, and helped Jew and non-Jew alike, and showed us how to be in a loving relationship with those whom we consider as “the other.” I have learned anew that we are all children of God and People of the Book, who worship the same God and obey the same commandments. It was only by reaffirming my Christian identity that I am able to engage confidently in interfaith dialogue, to praise the oneness of God and to learn from the teachings of the three Abrahamic traditions. Like the disciples on retreat in Caesarea Philippi, sometimes it takes being in unfamiliar territory to force oneself to examine the depth of our religious commitment and identity.
Now when I am asked by my Jewish and Muslim friends, “who do you say Jesus is for you?”, I respond, “He is the Christ, the one who leads me to worship the one and only God, in spirit and in truth.”