The Everlasting Question

“Who do you say I am?”. If you wanted to put a title at the beginning of each Gospel then perhaps that would be a good one. Of course, in real way that is what the gospels do. St Mark in the very first sentence of his gospel lays it out in full: the beginning of the good news about Jesus Christ, Son of God. St Paul does the same thing at the start of his letter to the Romans: this news is all about the Son of God. St John tells us at the end of his gospel that everything he has written down has been for one purpose, and one purpose alone; these things have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that believing this you may have life through his name. When you think about it then, we’ve been given some hefty hints at what our answer should be, and yet when we come to that moment how do we feel about our answer? Do we offer a bold and strident affirmation, or do we hold back and hesitate?

I wonder what Jesus himself was thinking when he asked the question, and have we understood properly what he was looking for in our answer? When Peter gives his answer, you are the Christ the Son of the living God, Jesus gives him a blessing. It’s a word we’ve heard Jesus use before. Blessed are the poor in spirit, the gentle, those who mourn, those of purity of heart, those who show mercy, who work for justice and peace, those who hunger for what is right. But those who are persecuted in the cause of right are also blessed and it is as if Jesus is hinting at the trauma that is to come and of which he will himself undergo.

Jesus is the one who brings about the coming of the kingdom of heaven, in which the seed of God’s word is sown into our very being. He has told the people through his teaching and his parables that he is the word of God and that his word and his action through his passion, must be the means through which the love of God is made real. No-one comes to the Father except through me is what St John records in his gospel. I am the way, the truth and the life. Our affirmation of Jesus as Son of the living God must contain within it an understanding of all that is revealed to us through Jesus. Not just in the happy, feel-good experiences of our lives but also in the harsh and cutting moments too, because in the world the way can be painful, the truth sometimes be disturbing and the life often tough and challenging. So let us be bold in our assertion of Jesus as Son of the living God, but also let us be understanding of what this all means in our lives and in the lives of those around us.