Who do you say that I am? If Jesus was standing here asking you that question, what would you answer? Who do you say that I am?
To make this a little easier, we could ask: who is Julia Gillard? The obvious answer is the prime minister; but she has also been a lawyer, and is a sister, daughter and partner.
People know us in different ways, who people say we are depends on how they know us.
Jesus asks the disciples who do you people say I am? What is the word on the street? Matthew records answers that indicate people were waiting for God to intervene.
What would we say now about people’s response to Jesus; for some people Jesus is a swear word, to some he is a prophet, a teacher, a good person, an example.
Who do you say that I am? If Jesus was standing here asking you that question, what would you answer? Who do you say that I am?
It is Peter who answers, Peter who tried walking on water, Peter who will deny knowing Jesus, it is Peter who answers: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Well that is all good and simple, Peter answers the question and Jesus says well done. Does this mean all we need to be able to do is repeat the word of Peter?
Peter’s words did not come from a book; they came from his experience of being with Jesus, listening, watching, and being forgiven.
For us to be able to answer the question: Who is Jesus? We need to know Jesus, not just have read about him in the Bible, and not give someone else’s answer.
And when we know Jesus, and can say who Jesus Christ is in our life, then we too will hear a response from Jesus. Because Jesus doesn’t just give Peter a pat on the back and say well done, Jesus tells Peter he is the rock on which the church will be built. Now there is a word play going on here, because the Greek word for Peter is also the word for rock.
When we can speak of our relationship to Jesus, in the way Peter did, we too will become the people on which Jesus will build the church, not in a bricks and windows sense, but being the body of Christ here on earth.
In the first letter of Peter, chapter 2, we are described as “living stones, [that] are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood” [verse 5].
I wonder how often you feel like an important part of the priesthood, of the body of Christ.
I wonder how the midwives felt about their part in the Moses story. The Hebrew people were being oppressed in Egypt, and they cried out to God for help. And God intervened, not with chariots and an army, but with the birth of a baby boy. Moses was born in a time when the Pharaoh wanted to be rid of the Hebrew people, the non-Egyptians. He told the midwives to kill any boys born to the Hebrew women. The midwives saved many baby boys by refusing to kill them. The person with power in this story is the Pharaoh; the heroes of this story are midwives, a mother, a sister and the princess, who must have known that the baby she pulled from the river was a Hebrew baby. The heroes of this story have little power; the most powerful is the princess. If the ‘little’ people had not done their part, Moses would have died. But the midwives refused to obey the pharaoh and instead did the right thing; the mother of Moses knew it would be hard to hide him much longer, so she put him in a specially made boat in the river, in the hope he would be safe; his older sister watched to see what happened to him.
When you feel small and insignificant, remember the midwives in the story of Moses. If they had followed the command of the ruler, they would have killed him as soon as he was born. The action of the midwives was an act of civil disobedience.
God used ordinary people to be part of God’s work in important ways; the ordinary people and the outcasts, the midwives, the mothers and sisters, the fishermen and the tax collectors. God has relied on, and continues to rely on, people; people like you and me, people who sometimes, or often, feel small and insignificant; people who feel powerless to change the world. But the midwives and Peter did play a part in changing the world. And we too can play our part in working with God, we too are called to be a building block in God’s church. The church is built on Peter, and on all who join him in confessing, or naming, our relationship with Jesus.
This morning I am giving you a stone, to remind you that you are a rock; you are part of the church that God is building. Sometimes you will feel small and insignificant. Look at this picture of a dry stone wall; if you take out the small rocks, the wall loses strength. The wall is made of lots of stones, all different shapes and sizes are needed to make the wall. And a lot of different people are needed to be the church.
Who do you say that I am? If Jesus was standing here asking you that question, what would you answer? Who do you say that I am? And when you answer Jesus will tell you who you are. Our identity is found in our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. This relationship is not only based on our naming Jesus as Lord. We not only speak of what we know, but we live that as well. Are we willing to not only name Jesus as Lord, but to live in ways that confirm this relationship?
Are we willing to live out our faith, following the examples of Peter and the midwives?
If Jesus was standing here asking you that question, what would you answer? Who do you say that I am?
