"WHO IS JESUS?"

Prof./Evangel. Michael Howard

"But, who do people say that the Son of Man is?" (Mt. 16:13-19)

My grandmother had a favorite passage of scripture that came from the interaction between Peter and Jesus from Matthew's Gospel. She cherished this passage so much that it became my very first memory verse. Grandmom would take on Jesus's role and ask me, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" My role was to respond as Peter. I learned to say, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God," to make her happy and earn a slice of her delicious lemon meringue pie. However, if someone had asked me the meaning of this text during my teenage years, I would have replied that I didn't know. All I really understood was Peter's response to Jesus.

This experience reflects the sentiments expressed by Paul about the Corinthian community. Paul stated profoundly, "When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became an adult, I put aside childish things" (1 Cor. 13:11). I truly appreciate Paul's admonition. Sometimes, we examine a scripture passage and find no evidence of spiritual maturity; we merely echo what we have heard. In other words, we should not rely solely on someone else's text interpretation; instead, we should grow based on our personal encounter with Jesus. Once you have engaged with a text through your own experiences, you are meant to be "teachers..." (Heb. 5:12).

I had to move away from my initial understanding of Peter's conversation with Jesus (and, sadly, from my favorite lemon meringue pie) to truly discover who "the Christ, the Son of the living God," is. My experience with Jesus needed to become personal. It couldn't just be based on what my grandmother or priest told me. I needed to feel that Jesus was a companion who uplifted me when the world turned its back on me. Jesus had to be more than just a cliché, like "He is the lawyer in the courtroom." While I understand that He can serve that role, I have never found myself in a courtroom needing Him in that capacity. Moreover, repeating clichés can often lead them to lose their meaning and hinder our spiritual growth.

Therefore, who is Jesus to you, or better yet, what do you need Him to be for you right now? For me, I need Jesus to be my peace, especially as world leaders seem to believe that dropping bombs is the best way to negotiate peace talks. I need Jesus to be my truth, as fake news has become so pervasive that it’s hard to distinguish between truth and lies. I need Jesus to be the Author of life, as we encounter individuals who are ICE cold and indifferent, looking around for migrants when, in reality, there is no such thing as a purely United States citizen; we all come from somewhere else.

As a child, I learned the title, "The Christ, the Son of the Living God." As an adult, I now embrace the belief: "I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through Him all things were made."

Who do you say that Jesus is?

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