Who do you say that I am?
In every age since the first followers of Jesus made their profession of faith in him, men and women of faith have had to come to terms with who Jesus is and what Jesus means to them. Christians of every age have had to answer the question: “Who do you say I am?” and each generation of believers has brought its own experiences and insights to bear on the question.
The question “Who do you say that I am” is so powerful because of a simple human fact. We become what we behold. We become what we behold. And so, how we see God – how we behold God -affects not only how we relate to God, but how we are changed by what we behold .
All to often, however, we fail to see how God is revealed to us, and are guilty of making God in our image. Let me explain –
If we prefer order and security in our life, then we will tend to see God as one who likes order and security.
If we prefer to know what needs to be done and what the consequences are for not doing things, then we will tend to see God as one who tells us what to do and lays out clearly the consequences for not doing what God says.
If we prefer to live a life filled with caring and compassionate relationships, then we will tend to see God this way too.
We really do wear filters when we look at God, and those filters are often based on our own life experiences , our own preferences.
Peter’s profession in today’s Gospel transcended all of these human filters. He saw the truth that Jesus was God. He didn’t understand it, but truth does not rely on our understanding it.
Who do you say that I am? Peter’s answer cuts to the very essence of the question. For Peter, Jesus is the Messiah … For Peter, Jesus is God’s self-revelation to humanity. It is a message that Jesus had been teaching them all along.
And so, when we understand Peter’s answer ….. when we understand that Jesus is indeed God revealing to us who God is, then we can begin to see more clearly. We begin to behold God more clearly. And what do we behold? When we look at Jesus, what does it show us about what God is like and what God does? Well …
God travels light, not a lot of baggage being carried around
God is merciful, God forgives, God reconciles,
God spreads healing, usually through human hands
God brings people to an understanding of their own intrinsic dignity,
God overturns the paradigms of this world, the paradigms of expediency and usefulness and power and authority and instead God shows us the wisdom of love, of mercy, of leading from within and from behind, through service and what looks to the world like weakness––
God is someone who washes your feet. God is someone who serves you. God is not afraid to be broken up and crushed and passed out.
God is love and unconditional acceptance, as the Muslims say ir•Rahman ir•Rahim––All-Merciful, All-Compassionate, and as our Jewish forbears would say, Rachamim .. God is a veritable womb of mercy.
That’s what Jesus was like; that’s what God is like.
It is time we stop trying to make God conform to our frail and all too human images of what we think God should be like. It is time to stop making God in our image. It is time we start perceiving God as Jesus revealed God to us, even if we have challenges understanding it. And even when Gods image disturbs us
Because if our answer is the same as Peter’s, then we, guided by the Holy Spirit, are acknowledging in faith what we cannot grasp with our minds. And so we can stand humbly before the merciful and loving mystery of God and pray that we may become what we behold.