I don’t know how true this story might be, but a businessman from Wisconsin went on a business trip to Florida.  Upon arrival, he immediately plugged his laptop into the hotel room port and sent a short E-mail back home to his wife, Jennifer Johnson, at her address, JennJohn@world.net.

     Unfortunately, in his haste, he mistyped a letter and the E-mail ended up going to JeanJohn@world.net, a Jean Johnson in Duluth, the wife of a preacher who had just passed away and was buried that day.  The preacher’s wife took one look at the E-mail and promptly fainted.  It read, “Arrived safely, but it sure is hot down here!”

      E-mail addresses do need to be precise in order for the person for whom they are intended to receive them.  Like our phone numbers, home and cell, our home addresses, our Social Security numbers, and several other dots, dashes, and numbers they define who we are.  Identity is crucial; therefore identity theft is on the rise.  I suspect that the more numbers we have the more difficult it becomes to protect them and say with some assurance, “This is who I am.”  Establishing an identity is important in this world.  We not only need to know who we are, but we need to know who a certain number of other people are, as well.  In order to do that, we generally ask questions.  Who are you?  What’s your name?  Where are you from?  What do you do for a living?  Or, down home, we ask about your mother’s people or who your Daddy is?  It is important to know certain things about someone else in order to make interaction and conversation easier.  Having some common place on which to stand is necessary for good social interaction and discourse.

     The reading from the Gospel of Mark, appointed for this Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost, is about Jesus the Christ attempting to find out if he had established his identity.  “Who do people say that I am?”  The answers are all over the map.  Some had identified him as John the Baptist come back to life.  Others thought he looked and talked a lot like Elijah must have looked and talked.  Still others said he was just one of the old prophets who had returned.  Every single one of those was a wrong answer.  So, he turned to those closest to him and pops the ultimate question.  “But who do you say that I am?” 

     After the second feeding of the multitudes, after refusing to give some miraculous sign for the scribes and Pharisees, and after reasoning with the disciples, Jesus wanted to know it they had understand anything about who he was?  After preaching in various synagogues, after healing the deaf man, and after going with his disciples to the towns and villages around the countryside, he finds a moment to take a poll on his current standing with the public and with each one of them.  This was kind of like a public opinion poll, so popular today.  He asked them about the views others held in order to prepare them for the personal question.  What had others been saying about him?  What do you say about him?

     Now I believe every person needs to examine philosophy, history, comparative religions, literature, archeology, and church history before attempting to say anything about who Jesus is.  Establishing one’s faith is not supposed to be a lazy enterprise, nor one that can be delegated to someone else, especially a preacher.  As someone has said very eloquently, God does not have grandchildren, only sons and daughters.  It is a truly sad sight to see people blindly accepting the opinion of some else regarding who Jesus is and the all-important relationship Jesus desires with each person.  Maintaining a degree of intellectual integrity demands that we do some hard work by ourselves, for ourselves, in order “to work out our own salvation in fear and trembling, for God is at work in us.”

     Understanding some history, doing some personal faith development work, reading about the identities other people, places, and times have assigned to Jesus, will help us develop a personal answer to the question about his identity.  After doing all that we still need to remember that the very best answer comes from a personal relationship and spending time with the one whom we wish to know.

     History is filled with various conjectures about Jesus.  The disciples said that some people identified him as John the Baptist, some said Elijah, others that he was one of the prophets.  Many have given Jesus great prominence in the scheme of history and in religious affairs, but without acknowledging the full truth.  Some have said and continue to say that Jesus is the first among the prophets of God.  Some hold that Jesus was one of the greatest rabbis.  Many see him as one of the greatest healers and spiritualists.  Very little of that is based on having spent any time with him.

     So, that brings us to the central personal question that none can ignore; or ignore at personal peril.  “But who do you say that I am?”  Surely the more important issue for Jesus is the identity his closest followers give to him.  Those near him had heard his voice, felt his touch, looked into his eyes, watched him tenderly healing and sternly rebuking.  Their opinion meant everything to him.  Some had heard about his deeds and had others repeat his words, but the disciples had been eyewitnesses.  Do they have some advantage over us?  Jesus would say to Thomas later, “Do you believer because you have seen me?  Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.  The advantage seems to be faith and not sight or sound.

     Finally, Peter answers for all of them and declares, “You are the Messiah.”  The truth had dawned in Peter’s heart, as it does in the hearts and minds of anyone who closely follows Jesus.  That is in reality the central tenet of our faith and establishes the unity among people who are brave enough to call themselves Christians, i.e., a Christ-person.

     Jesus sternly insisted on secrecy.  He wanted to slowly acquaint them with the inevitability of his being rejected and that he would suffer and be killed.  Only after the cross and only after the passage of three days would they be free to spread abroad his true nature and the purpose of the Incarnation.  They had to be witnesses of the resurrection before telling others about him.  Personal knowledge of Jesus can be strong only in those who know his ultimate victory.  The shocking nature of the truth, against which Peter rebelled, must become the fact that reinforces his disciples, then and now, and hold them steady with doubts and questions arise.  The faithfulness of the Sudanese church and the many Christians in other parts of the world who are being persecuted should be proof enough that God in Christ stills provides power to the faithful.

     No doubt, the fire will need to be faced, as he told them, and life itself must not be, cannot be, put above the Gospel.  The ultimate betrayal is to be so blessed to know who Jesus is and choose to accept worldly prosperity and turn one’s back on discipleship.  We must always and in all ways put discipleship above everything else.  Otherwise, we risk losing it all.  God would spare us that fate.  We only have to join with Peter and make the confession, “You are the Messiah.”  That way we won’t send an E-mail that says, “Arrived safely.  Sure is hot down here.”  Amen.