Who Is This Guy?
Reflections on Matthew 16.13-20
RCL Proper 21A
23 August 2020
Holy Trinity Anglican Cathedral
New Westminster BC
Who am I?
Many years ago I attended an event at our daughter Anna’s pre-school. As I entered the room I was given a lovely brown, leaf-shaped name tag that had written on it: ‘Anna’s Dad’. At first I admit that I was a bit taken aback. After all I was ‘The Rev’d Professor Richard Geoffrey Leggett’. But not at Berwick School that day. On that day, long ago, I was ‘Anna’s Dad’.
I saved that name tag for many years. It was on my office door at Vancouver School of Theology, right next to the name plate that said ‘The Rev’d Dr Richard Geoffrey Leggett, Professor of Liturgical Studies’. When I look back, I’m sure more people were impressed that I was ‘Anna’s Dad’ than ‘Professor Leggett’.
Each one of us possess a multitude of identities. We are sons or daughters. We are husbands or wives. We are fathers or mothers. We are uncles or aunts. The list of identities can be quite lengthy, whether we think of ourselves as ordinary or extraordinary. But all our identities come from relationships.
No doubt we all hope that our many identities are rooted in an inner integrity of being, our true selves. It’s not that we’re playing different roles as if we were actors. Each one of our identities is somehow linked to who we really are in the core of our being. Creating and maintaining that integrity of self is a life-long process. Sometimes we feel that we’re doing a good job and we face the world confidently. And sometimes we know that our many identities are not quite in order and we become uncertain.
There are even times when we feel that people aren’t taking us seriously. They’ve only seen one or two of our identities and they believe that they have us conveniently boxed. I’m sure that you’ve had this experience just as I’ve had whether at work or at home or in some other setting. There have been times when I just want to shout, ‘I’m not that guy!’
Who is Jesus?
When Peter gives the ‘right’ answer to Jesus’ question, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God,’ we may be tempted to think that this is the end of the conversation. But it is not. To say that Jesus is the Christ or the Messiah or the Anointed One or the Son of God or the Son or Man or some other description is an endless Christian conversation.
It is the conversation we’ve had within the many communions into which Christians group themselves. It is the conversation we’ve had with Jews, with Muslims, with people of numerous other faiths and with people who claim no religious faith at all. And why do we have these conversations? It’s because we’re still trying to understand who this Person is who commands our attention and our loyalty. We’ve made a choice to follow Jesus as his disciples, but we’re still learning what it means to do this. Even the most learned of theologians knows that Jesus remains as mysterious today as he certainly did to people two thousand years ago. The only thing we can all agree on is this: When you meet Jesus of Nazareth, you meet God.
For every Christian the question that Jesus asks is one we cannot ignore or simply say is beyond our ken. We claim that Jesus is the one through whom our most important relationship is shaped and nurtured: our relationship with God, the Holy One who is the Creator of all things, seen and unseen.
Our relationship with Jesus and with the One whom Jesus called ‘Abba’ is fraught with mystery. It’s not a mystery to be solved like some crime novel or crossword or sudoku. The English theologian and writer, C. S. Lewis, called it an onion that only gets bigger with each layer you peel away. Each question we ask, each experience we have, each prayer we offer, draws us deeper into this intriguing and engaging mystery which can surprise us with unexpected joys and challenge us with uncomfortable truths.
How do we answer the question?
We learn how to answer Jesus’ question for ourselves by belonging to a community of disciples who share our search. In community we share with each other what we know of Jesus, what we’ve seen of Jesus and what we do not understand of Jesus and the God to whom he leads us. Our assumptions can be lovingly challenged and new perspectives encourage us to persevere.
We learn how to answer Jesus’ question for ourselves by behaving like him when we do justice, when we love mercy and when we walk humbly with God and each other.
We learn how to answer Jesus’ question for ourselves by loving each other as God loves us, passionately, generously, steadfastly.
And even then, just when we think we know who Jesus is, he will show us another side of himself, something we may have glimpsed before but now see more clearly.
Who are those guys?
In the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid the lead characters, both men who stand somewhat outside the law, find themselves being pursued by a posse. The outlaws have a high opinion of their ability to lose the posse and they use every skill they have. But the posse keeps on their trail. After each unsuccessful attempt to lose their pursuers, one or the other of the outlaws says, ‘Who are those guys?’
Just as surely as you and I are pursuing this Jewish rabbi who has grabbed our hearts and minds, so too is Jesus doggedly following us. He shows up in the most unexpected places and in the most unexpected people. He shows up in the isolation and distancing that COVID-19 has imposed upon us. He shows up in the courage of people who do their ordinary jobs in these extraordinary times. He shows up in the faithfulness of a married couple celebrating their seventieth wedding anniversary. He shows up in the curiosity of a person who has never been to church but has dared to cross the threshold to see what might be found here. And in all of those places and more, Jesus reveals something of himself we have not seen before and shows us another dimension of the God who has loved creation into existence.
Who do we say Jesus is? Like Peter we know him to be the Messiah, the promised one who leads us into right relationship with God, with each other and with our very selves. But this is just one of the many faces that God’s Beloved shows us because God still beckons us to go deeper into the mystery.
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