Who do you think Jesus is? Or do you KNOW? … Sunday, June 23

Arius tried to figure out who Jesus was on his own and got it wrong. Some things never change.

Luke 9:18-24 “Once when Jesus was praying in solitude, and the disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” They said in reply, “John the Baptist; others, Elijah; still others, ‘One of the ancient prophets has arisen.’” Then he said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter said in reply, “The Christ of God.” He rebuked them and directed them not to tell this to anyone. … He said, “The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.” Then he said to all, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”

“Who do the crowds say that I am?” The question was controversial 2,000 years ago and seems, for some anyway, to still be open-ended. Is it unanswerable? You know, for what ever else He is or isn’t there’s one thing certain. He’s still an attention getter after all this time. “And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of scandal, to them who stumble at the word, neither do believe, whereunto also they are set.” 1 Peter 2:8.

I’ve heard some very interesting, and down right odd, opinions over the years. Like … A misunderstood rabbi, the Archangel Michael manifested in the flesh, a “God” who is a glorified man, a Prophet, a false prophet, just a man with God in him (thank you, Arius, for beginning an error that seems to have no end), only one manifestation of God among many, the Antichrist (go figure that one out), and just some guy. I know of one denominational group that was formed about a hundred years or so ago and the very first question that went ’round the table was “Who is Jesus?” And because they couldn’t make up their minds they split. Even John the Baptist sent a question about the identity of Jesus at one point. “Are you the Promised One or do we look for another?”

So there are lots of opinions and thoughts and discussions and arguments. But for all of this there is only one Truth. St. Thomas answered it when he said “My Lord and my God.” Jesus didn’t correct him, He blessed him. Peter answers Jesus in the above reading when he says “The Christ of God.” Jesus didn’t correct him either. So who and what is Jesus? Lord and God and Christ. And its His Body, the Church, and only His Body the Church, that has the authority, guided by the Holy Spirit, to clarify just what those words mean. For all the complications set forth by the worldly-minded the answer is no harder to understand, from the human perspective, than the catechism. Sadly, folks don’t want to hear this. What they want to hear is debate and new thoughts and contentious rantings. Which tells us what WE are, doesn’t it? We’re fallen. Being fallen, what makes anybody think they can figure out Jesus without help?

      “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself … “

We must accept Him on His terms, not ours. His ways are perfect, ours aren’t. We have to accept that His way is hard and that it will be hard for us as well. If He suffered so will we. If He carried a cross we must do the same. We have to give up our life, handing it over to Him regardless, in order to save it. We MUST be Christians. And THAT’S what WE are. Or it’s what we’re supposed to be. If we are that, if we are truly Christian, we’ll know Who He is just like Peter and Thomas. And all the ramblings of the earthy people with worldly minds who think they have a truth won’t be able to shake us in our conviction, in our personal knowledge. I say personal knowledge because when we REALLY know Him we’ll really KNOW Who He is. No debate.

Get ready for Exodus, part 2 … Sunday, February 24

Exodus. Get ready, because it’s coming. Again. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Luke 9:28b-36 is the Gospel reading for today, the second Sunday of Lent. It tells about the transfiguration of Christ, with Peter, James and John there with Him. They witnessed the miracle. Moses and Elijah appeared and talked with Jesus. It must have been very exciting, to be there, to see all of this.  Peter was excited, excited enough to ask Jesus to let them build three booths, one each for Jesus, Moses and Elijah. The scripture also says that Peter didn’t know what he was saying. Sounds like Peter doesn’t it? But in fairness the three apostles had fallen asleep and this is what they saw when they woke up. Peter, like a lot of us, was probably disoriented when he first woke up. I know I don’t make much sense until I’ve moved around a bit and had my tea. I was taught not to pray in the morning until I’d gotten the cobwebs out of my brain. After all, who wants to go to the King and Creator of the Universe and babble incoherently? So we can garner a short but meaningful lesson on prayer right there. But there’s a lot more involved.

Moses and Elijah talked with Jesus about His “exodus” that He was going to accomplish in Jerusalem. It’s interesting that the word “exodus” is used here. Exodus means “a going out; a departure or emigration, usually of a large number of people.” Jesus was going to His crucifixion. But there was more to it than that. He was going to Heaven a little later. See John 20:17. So that was His exodus. But the definition of exodus includes others. “A departure or emigration, usually of a large number of people.” So who else is involved?

Prior to Christ and His making a way into Heaven for us where did people who were right with God when they died go? They couldn’t go to Heaven because the Sacrifice of Christ for their sins hadn’t been made yet. They wouldn’t be sent to hell because they died being faithful to God and right with Him. True, they would go to Purgatory if they needed to but they wouldn’t be held there longer than necessary, so where would they go after Purgatory? They had to go someplace, so where? The place gets called different names by different people. Some call it “Abraham’s bosom” while others call it Limbo. What we call it isn’t as important as realizing that it was there, it was real, and it was full of people waiting for the Sacrifice of Christ so that they COULD go to Heaven. And THIS, taking all these people with Him to Heaven, was a part of His Exodus.

“Wherefore he saith: Ascending on high, he led captivity captive; he gave gifts to men.” Ephesians 4:8.

When Jesus ascended into Heaven He took all these people, people who had up til then been held “captive”, with Him. Can you picture the sight? Can you imagine the joy, both theirs and the joy of the angels in Heaven? It boggles the mind.

Do you think the three with Him that day on the Mount of Transfiguration understood any of this? No, not at that time. All of this was a great mystery. They heard but they didn’t understand. A little like having all the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle but not having the box with the picture on it. You see the pieces but you can’t fathom the whole picture. Yet.

There are a lot of things in this world that we don’t understand. Yet. Sometimes we get all excited and, like Peter, start talking without knowing what we’re really saying. It’s OK to be human. It might as well be OK because we’re going to be human any way. But we really don’t need to worry ourselves about those things we don’t know, that we don’t understand. Again, we’re only human and can’t know or understand it all anyway. Only God knows and understands it all and, well, we ain’t Him. But not to worry or give up hope. All things come in their proper order and at the right time.

“We see now through a glass in a dark manner; but then face to face. Now I know I part; but then I shall know even as I am known.” 1 Corinthians 13:12. All we need to do is wait, faithfully, for our own part in that Exodus of His.