“Who do you say that I am?” It seems like one of those “fish-or-cut-bait” moments, doesn’t it? Peter and the disciples have been with Jesus for some time. They have heard the sermons, listened to Jesus open up the deeper meaning of the Commandments, witnessed the miracles large and small, seen all the people healed, restored, and heard the amazing words of forgiveness and love. Wouldn’t it seem as though they have had enough time to know Jesus in a deep, intimate, and personal way?
“Who do you say that I am?” I am not sure what the other disciples were thinking, pondering or what answer they were formulating, but Peter steps right up and responds: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Short, sweet, succinct and …. What more could one say? It is the perfect answer. It is the answer that even now we are tempted to use, falling back on religious language we have inherited, language we know so well, words we could recite in our sleep. And sometimes I wonder if we give enough thought and attention to the question and the answer. Maybe we are just so used to the answer, or maybe we are a little timid wondering if our own answer would hold water, pass muster, or be bodacious enough.
Yet today’s gospel raises the question for each of us to consider: “Who do you say that Jesus is?” Don’t use Peter’s answer; take your time and consider your own response. Start forming our own response. I think “start” is the correct word to use. The German poet Rainer Maria Rilke noted that some questions are such that they have to be lived so that one day in the future, you might well live your way into the complete answer. I don’t mean that Peter’s answer is somehow provisional or that we eventually discover some different answer. Peter has it right. But perhaps some answers are so large that knowing the words is only the beginning. We have to spend a lifetime discovering what those words mean.
Maybe some are wondering, “well…preacher that sounds kinda’ fuzzy.” Afterall, it is a straightforward question which has an approved, creedal answer. It is a “heart-of-our-faith” question, requiring absolute certainty and conviction. Jesus is our Savior. Our Lord. Our Redeemer. Our King. There’s nothing ‘unsolved’ about Jesus; the Son of God isn’t a murder mystery. He’s the Way, the Truth, and the Life. The mystery isn’t uncertainty about who Christ is. The mystery is the inexhaustible depth of what it means to know him, love him, and follow him. The answer doesn’t change. What changes is the depth with which we understand the answer.
But you know…we are not unfamiliar with straightforward questions which have an expected answer requiring absolute certainty and conviction. Think about it! You have spent several years with your significant other, opening up to them, revealing more and more of yourself even as they do the same for you. You have shared moments of love, tenderness, and forgiveness too! Then comes the straightforward question: “Will you marry me?”
Hopefully the answer is “yes,” and boom!… there is nothing else to know. The question and answer were both wrapped in absolute certainty and conviction that this was the love of a lifetime. “I love you with all my life. I would die for you….” Of course, this is the love language we have inherited… words we know so well we can say them on the spur of the moment. And that’s ok because at the moment of the proposal, isn’t all known, all revealed, all uncovered? … ahhhhh…, not really.
Couples that have been married for a while can tell you there is more to be revealed each and every day after the proposal…after the wedding … after the first child…. After everything… In listening to stories from couples of long marriages, the language is different from the language used by fiancés. A new vocabulary arises that does not simply speak of the promise of love. It speaks of the trust and the experience of love that “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Cor 13:7)
Who do you say that I am? “The Love of my life” – it has one meaning at the moment of the marriage proposal. It is a different meaning 25, 30, 40, 50 and even 5 years into a life together. Married folks have lived the question and grown more deeply into the answer. They know what those words mean in a way they simply could not have known on the day of the proposal.
St. Peter had the same experience. This week he provides the succinct perfect answer. Next Sunday he will be on the hot seat when he suggests diverting Jesus from his destiny in Jerusalem. Jesus “turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me.’” St. Peter falls in line and follows Jesus, defends Jesus, denies Jesus, is restored and forgiven. Peter spends the rest of his life living into the answer he gave at Caesarea Philippi. “I love you with all my life. I would die for you….” and St Peter does, dying a martyr’s death.
For now, feel free to use St. Peter’s answer. It’s a very good answer. It’s the right answer. But don’t stop with saying it. Begin living it. “Who do you say that I am.” Live it fully, deeply. Live it until it resonates within you, until you feel the love of Christ. Trust in that love, knowing that in its power you can bear all things believe all things, hope all things, and endure all things.
Who do you say that I am? It is the question for a lifetime.
Amen.
Image Credit: Pietro Perugino, The Delivery of the Keys (c 1481–1482). Sistine Chapel, Vatican City | Public Domain
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