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"Who is Jesus?"
By Dr. Mickey Anders
South Elkhorn Christian Church
Lexington, Kentucky
September 13, 2009

Scripture   Mark 8:27-30
 
Kathleen J. Crane, Director of Christian Education at First Presbyterian Church in Cranbury, New Jersey, tells the story about flying to Wisconsin to see her oldest son wrestle in a college tournament.  She says, "On my way back, two Sikhs, men from northern India, with their heads in turbans, sat down beside me.  We had a pleasant conversation, but I didn't force my beliefs on them.  I helped the older man next to me with his dinner tray, and I told him about a friend I had from India.  I told him the bishop of South India had visited the Princeton campus.  Our professor had asked us to befriend him, because his wife had died a tragic death, and he was very lonely.  I baked him some cake and took it to him, and he invited my husband and me to his home for an Indian meal.  As I told my neighbor on the plane this story, he seemed to have tears in his eyes.  Then he went to sleep.  As we neared Newark Airport, he opened his eyes and turned to me and said, 'Tell me about Jesus Christ.'" (Best Sermons 1, Harper & Row, 1988, p. 29)
 
You have twenty minutes before you land. What would you have said?  If someone honestly asked you to tell them about Jesus Christ, what would you say?  Who is Jesus Christ?   That is one of the most profound and important questions of life.  Who is Jesus?  It's the most important question in the Bible.  Christianity is named for him.  Who is this person who is at the center of our faith?  Who is Jesus?
 
That is a question that has been answered many times.  In our text, the question is "Who do you say that I am?"  It comes at the half-way point in the book of Mark, but for Jesus the time left on earth was short.  He wanted to know before he set out for Jerusalem whether anyone understood.  He didn't ask the question directly, he led up to it.  He first asked, "Who do people say that I am?"  They replied: some say John the Baptist, other say Elijah, and others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.
 
That's what the people then said about him.  Who do people today say Jesus is? 
 
In 1926, Dr. James Allan Francis wrote an essay entitled, "One Solitary Life," which has become a classic statement on the influence of Jesus' life.  Listen to his description of who Jesus was:
"Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village. He worked in a carpenter shop until he was thirty. Then for three years he was an itinerant preacher.
 
"He never owned a home. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put his foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place he was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but himself...
 
"While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied him. He was turned over to his enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves. While he was dying his executioners gambled for the only piece of property he had on earth - his coat. When he was dead, he was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend."
 
Dr. Francis concludes, "Nineteen long centuries have come and gone, and today he is a centerpiece of the human race and leader of the column of progress.
 
"I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built; all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life." (http://www.anointedlinks.com/one_solitary_life.html, 8/15/2000 -  - Dr James Allan Francis in "The Real Jesus and Other Sermons" (c)1926 by the Judson Press. Graham Pockett)
 
"Who do people say that I am?"
 
During the social unrest and rebellion of the 1960s, someone made a wanted poster like those you see in the Post Office, but this one said:
"Jesus Christ Wanted - For Sedition, Criminal Anarchy - Vagrancy, and Conspiring to Overthrow the Established Government - Dresses poorly.  Said to be a carpenter by trade.  Ill-nourished, has visionary ideas, associates with common working people, the unemployed and bums.  Alien - believed to be a Jew.  Alias: 'Prince of Peace,' 'Son of Man,' 'Light of the World,' etc., etc.  Professional Agitator, Red Beard, marks on hands and feet the result of injuries inflicted by an angry mob led by respectable citizens and legal authorities."
 
"Who do people say that I am?"
 
Phillip Yancey tried to answer that question by doing a careful study of Jesus.  In the end wrote a book that he entitled, "The Jesus I Never Knew."  He meant that his casual understanding of Jesus was nothing like the real Jesus he discovered when he carefully studied the Bible.  Who is Jesus Christ?
 
The answers continue to come to that question, “Who do people say that I am?” Listen to some of the replies: 
Ernest Renan, a French writer, called Jesus a sentimental idealist. 
German theologian David Strauss saw Jesus as a fanatic, maybe psychopathic. 
Psychologist William Hirsch said he conformed to a clinical picture of paranoia. 
Bruce Barton, an American businessman, said that Jesus was the greatest salesman who ever lived.
English poet A. C. Swinburne’s bitter lines refer to Jesus as “the Pale Galilean” who has caused the world to grow grey from his breath. 
Canadian psychiatrist Richard Bucke claimed that Jesus had “cosmic consciousness.”
The poet T. S. Eliot pictured “Christ the Tiger.” 
Black liberation theologian James Cone called Jesus “The Black Messiah.” 
German theologian Karl Rahner depicted Jesus as “a perfected human person.” 
Peruvian Catholic priest, Father Gustavo Gutiérrez sees him as “liberator.” 
New Testament scholar John A. T. Robinson claimed he was the “human face of God. 
Belgian Roman Catholic theologian Edward Schillebeeckx used the image of Jesus as “the sacrament of encounter.” 
German-American theologian Paul Tillich called him “the New Being;”
English clergyman Richard Rawlingson wrote of Jesus as the “Religious Ultimate”;
Lutheran pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer saw him as “the man for others.” 
German Protestant theologian Jurgen Moltmann asserted that he was “the crucified God.” 
Protestant preacher and author Norman Vincent Peal claims Jesus gives “peace of mind,” while
American televangelist Robert Schuller says he gives us “possibility thinking.” 
A musical drama was performed a few years ago portraying “Jesus Christ as Superstar.” 
 
"Who do people say that I am?"  There seems to be any number of answers to that question.  But in reality, that is not the most important question in our text.
 
In our text, Jesus moved the impersonal discussion to a personal challenge.  Jesus asked his first question merely as a tool to work his way into discussion of his real question, "Who do you say that I am?"   In the end, it doesn't matter who "people" say he is; it matters who you say he is.  It is the pivotal question of life for all of us.
 
When Jesus asked this question of his disciples, there must have been a moment of silence.  Suddenly, Peter responded, in his impetuous, loving way, "You are the Messiah!"
 
In Mark, this answer comes only near the end of three years of a shared life together.  In the gospels, we see the progression of the attitudes of the Disciples.  They followed him out of curiosity.  They may have been impressed with his charisma, but they knew very little about him at first. 
 
For some people, the better you get to know them, the less you think of them.  But as time went on, their opinion of Jesus kept getting higher and higher.  They knew he had an amazing relationship with God.  They knew he had unusual powers and an incredible understanding.  Perhaps they slowly came to Peter's conclusion and it was Peter who was the first to put it in words.  "You are the Messiah!"  It was the loftiest language Peter could find for Jesus.  We could debate the meaning of Peter's term "Messiah" and examine the expectations of the people at that time.  But I want to focus on the fact that Peter was so impressed with Jesus that he reached for the highest term he knew to describe Jesus.
 
Peter's answer is one of three notable answers to our question in the Bible.  In John 11, a woman makes essentially the same proclamation as Peter.  Martha's brother Lazarus has died, but Jesus knows that he will raise him from the dead.  Jesus tells Martha, "Your brother will rise again… I am the resurrection and the life.  Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.  Do you believe this?" 
 
It's as if the question about living again overwhelms her.  Finally, she doesn't answer that question.  Instead she answers Jesus' question put to the Disciples, "Who do you say that I am?"
 
Martha replied, "Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world" (John 11:23-27).
 
In John 21, we find Thomas' wonderful answer to our question.  You remember that Thomas doubted the resurrection and said that he wouldn't believe it unless he saw the mark of the nails in his hands and put his finger in the wounds.  A week later Jesus appeared to Thomas and asked him to touch his wounds.  Thomas answered, "My Lord and my God!"
 
I love this description of Jesus as "My Lord."  I want to suggest to you that Thomas' answer is the best one of all.  Who do you say that Jesus is?  My Lord and my God.  That word "Lord" is an important one in the Bible.  In Philippians 2:5-11, we are told that everyone will one day call him "Lord."  This is Paul's answer to that question, "Who do you say that I am?"
 
"Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross.  Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
 
I believe this is the central confession of the Christian life.  "Jesus Christ is Lord."  What does it mean to make Jesus Lord?  I quickly notice that this is not a particularly doctrinal statement.  It says nothing about the classic definitions of the virgin birth, the Resurrection, Jesus as God and man, as the Son of God, or even as the Messiah.  To make Jesus Lord is not a doctrinal position, it is practical one.
 
To make Jesus Lord is to say that Jesus is not just another great leader.  It is to say that we have decided to change the direction of our lives because of him.  Instead of doing just what we please when we please, we suddenly are asking the question, "What would Jesus do?"  And we feel compelled to do the same.
 
Jesus is Lord when he influences the decisions we make and the direction of our lives.  When we are obedient to the demands Jesus makes on our lives, he is Lord.  When we respond to the leadings of the Spirit, he is Lord.
 
Jesus is Lord when we confess that he is the one to most clearly reveal God to us.  Jesus is Lord when we say with the Disciples, "Where else could we go?  You have the words of eternal life." 
 
Who do you say that Jesus is?  I hope you can make the confession from Philippians, "Jesus Christ is Lord."