Who do you say that I am?

 

 And it happened, as He was alone praying, that His disciples joined Him, and He asked them, saying, "Who do the crowds say that I am?"  so they answered and said, "John the Baptist, but some say Elijah; and others say that one of the old prophets has risen again."  

 

He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"  Peter answered and said, "The Christ of God."  

And He strictly warned and commanded them to tell this to no one, saying, "The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and raised on the third day."  

Then He said to them all, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.  For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.  For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?  For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and In His Father's, and of the holy angels.  But I tell you truly, there are some standing here  who shall not taste death till they see the kingdom of God."

 

- Luke 9:18-27 

 

 Then He called His twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases.  He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.  And He said to them, "Take nothing for the journey, neither staffs nor bag nor bread nor money; and do not have two tunics apiece.  Whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart.  And whoever will not receive you, when you go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet as a testimony against them."  So they departed and went through the towns, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.  Now Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was done by Him; and he was perplexed, because it was said by some that John had risen from the dead, and by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the old prophets had risen again.  Herod said, "John I have beheaded, but who is this of whom I hear such things?"  So he sought to see Him.  And the apostles, when they had returned, told Him all that they had done.  Then He took them and went aside privately into a deserted place belonging to the city called Bethsaida.  But when the multitudes knew it, they followed Him; and He received them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who had need of healing.  When the day began to wear away, the twelve came and said to Him, "Send the multitude away, that they may go into the surrounding towns and country, and lodge and get provisions; for we are in a deserted place here."  But He said to them, "You give them something to eat."  And they said, "We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we go and buy food for all these people."  For there were about five thousand men.  Then He said to His disciples, "Make them sit down in groups of fifty."  And they did so, and made them all sit down.  Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude.  So they all ate and were filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them.

 

  And it happened, as He was alone praying, that His disciples joined Him, and He asked them, saying, "Who do the crowds say that I am?"  so they answered and said, "John the Baptist, but some say Elijah; and others say that one of the old prophets has risen again."   My study Bible comments that, as in every generation, what the crowds have to say about Jesus is usually unpredictable and misguided.  

He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"  Peter answered and said, "The Christ of God."  My study Bible indicates that Jesus' question, "Who do you say that I am?" is the ultimate question in Scripture and in all theology.  It notes that how this question is answered will define the universe.  Christ (from a Greek word equivalent to the Hebrew Messiah) means "Anointed One."  This declaration by Peter that Jesus is the Christ of God reveals that Jesus is not simply another anointed king of prophet.  He is the long-awaited Savior.   

And He strictly warned and commanded them to tell this to no one, saying, "The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and raised on the third day."    My study Bible tells us that Jesus desires to keep His identity as the Christ hidden in order to avoid popular political and theological misunderstandings.  It's only after His Passion and Resurrection that His identity as Messiah can be understood.  Other factors involved include the growing hostility of the Jewish leaders, and our Lord's desire to evoke genuine faith which is not based solely on miraculous works or signs.  In St. Matthew's Gospel, Jesus quotes from the prophesy of Isaiah, emphasizing that Christ is the fulfillment of that Servant of whom Isaiah speaks (see Matthew 12:16-21).  My study Bible comments that this Servant first of all refers to Christ, and by extension to all who follow Him (as expressed in Jesus' words in the following verses).

 

 Then He said to them all, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.  For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.  For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?  For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and In His Father's, and of the holy angels."  My study Bible asks us to note two things.  First, that each person must take up one's own cross.  The burden in this world, it says, is different for every person, for each has been chosen by God to bear certain struggles for our own salvation and for the salvation of those around us.  Second, we note that our cross is to be taken up daily.  So, a commitment to follow Christ isn't merely a one-time event.  To follow Christ asks a continuing practice of faith and obedience -- even to the point of being shamed and persecuted by the world.  

But I tell you truly, there are some standing here  who shall not taste death till they see the kingdom of God."  My study Bible indicates that Christ is here referencing those who will witness the Transfiguration (Matthew 9:28-36).

 

 Jesus asks His disciples, "Who do the crowds say that I am?"  The disciples give the answers from the crowds:  "John the Baptist, but some say Elijah; and others say that one of the old prophets has risen again."  All of these answers are mistaken, of course.  The crowds don't know who Jesus is, and collectively they can't come up with the answers.  My study Bible remarks upon this that, as in every generation, what the crowds have to say about Jesus is usually unpredictable and misguided.  Perhaps in our modern day and age a similar problem has been magnified and is ever-present with us in the form of social media, the internet, and other popular media such as television, various news media, and film production.  As usual, the crowds so often get it wrong.  Today there are also new technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), that aggregate whatever information is available, and make computerized "guesses" to draw new conclusions, often extraordinarily wrong.  A friend is a distinguished academic, well known in his profession.  He told me that using AI in an internet search on his own name has become a strange adventure, as AI will generate all kinds of information that is made up out of whole cloth, in addition to whatever might be true -- even books he's never written, and awards that don't exist.  I'm told that in AI technology circles, this phenomenon is referred to as "hallucinations."  So what passes for the crowds in our modern, connected world is just as unreliable as in the time of Christ.  But what we need to focus on here is not necessarily "the facts" about Jesus reported by the crowds, because -- in whatever age we might choose -- even the facts available to us are not necessarily the reality presented by God.  For God will always surprise us and work outside of the box that is our daily, worldly reality.  God is not limited by what we consider to be worldly.  Christ's miracles and signs point to the presence of a reality beyond ours and not limited by our understanding.  So when we speak of Jesus, or when we today encounter God in the myraid ways that are possible for us (such as through worship, prayer, icons of the Church, saints, and so many other ways in which grace might express itself), we need to hold the door open, so to speak, for things we can't expect, for things we don't know, and facts we can't know which are beyond our grasp and in the mysterious working of grace and the Holy Spirit.  The truth about Jesus, that He is the Christ, is beyond the capacity of the crowds to grasp even as their own expectations of what the Messiah will be are false and skewed by their own desires.  Again, we live in a world in which every desire (and its fulfillment) is magnified and indulged through modern technologies, from the food we consume, to how we dress, to what we interact with online, and to things that are harmful such as certain drugs, and internet pornography.  In the ancient practice of the Church, our desires and passions are things we're taught to regulate, and to learn to master, in order to perceive spiritual reality more clearly, and not to be misled by our own fantasies.  Heresies are things that are defined by that which looks like the truth, and even resembles it, but they're not the truth.  One detail might be missing that skews the whole truth picture (for example, those who would say Christ wasn't really human, or that He wasn't divine).  This is why we turn to tradition to understand, why we practice traditional disciplines like fasting, we keep a guard on our hearts, we take note of how easily we can be misled by our own desires and fantasies.  Let us note here Christ's emphasis on His own suffering, on taking up His Cross, and how His disciples must do the same with their own unique crosses each day.  For our faith is not one based on fantasy or self-indulgence, but on the truth of God, and evading our own traps  and desires to find what Christ wants of us.  Jesus has come as Servant, not conventional or worldly king, to usher in a spiritual Kingdom that lives within us and among us.  In a world filled with crowds and pitfalls that grow ever more powerful, let us remember the tools we're given to stay grounded in spiritual truth, and the revelation of God that defies the world's predictions and expectations.  As my study Bible says, "Who do you say that I am?" remains the most important question we can ask, for the answer defines our universe and the way we live in it.