‘Who do you say I am?’

Reflections on the season of Lent arriving, as spring emerges with the promise of new life.

Spring is emerging. I can feel it in the air, see it in the melting snow and in the few buds of crocuses pressing their tiny heads through the cold earth. I can hear it in the song of the birds in the morning. The earth is promising brighter and warmer days are just ahead.

Whether or not you espouse Lent, all around us there are preparations for new life. If we look to the Scriptures and decide to take this Lenten journey with Jesus, we will find that God will do in our hearts what is happening in nature. As God’s love warms our hearts, new life begins to emerge. Reading Scripture, especially the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ intimate relationship with His disciples is one way to prepare for a new awakening.

Chapter nine of Luke’s Gospel is pretty eventful. It begins with Jesus commissioning his 12 disciples and sending them out to “proclaim the good news and cure diseases everywhere” (Luke 9:6). Pretty tall order, don’t you think? Upon their return from this great adventure, the disciples witness a miracle when Jesus feeds five thousand people with five loaves and two fish.

The chapter proceeds with an intimate time away for Jesus and his disciples. “When Jesus was praying in solitude with his disciples, He asked them; “Who do the crowds say that I am” (Lk9:18)? The disciples recount different perceptions they have heard people express. Then Jesus says something very personal, exposing His heart and theirs; “And who do you say that I am” (Lk 9:20)? Consider the intimacy of this sharing between Jesus and His disciples. The disciples have this new mission to proclaim the gospel. People are being healed, miracles are happening wherever Jesus walks. Jesus knows the good and the bad things that are being said of Him. But at this moment all he really cares about is what his closest disciples think. He wants to know their hearts. He wants to know your heart. Hear Jesus ask you, “Who do you say that I am?”

Consider your answer carefully because it really shapes decisions in your life. For example, if we say that Jesus was a good person who did nice things for people, we can read about his life and be a little inspired to be a better person. If we read the Bible as an interesting story and Jesus’s life as a great metaphor, we are simply enlightened about another literary classic.

Peter took the disciples off the hook and answered the question for them. He assessed the experiences he had with Jesus. He thought about how his heart leapt when Jesus called him; about all the miracles he had seen. Peter had seen people healed, delivered from evil spirits and multitudes fed with just five loaves and two fish. In a moment’s reflection on his personal experiences with Jesus, Peter gave the “right” answer though he was truly clueless about what it meant. He said, “You are the Messiah of God” (v.20). In his answer, Peter acknowledges that Jesus was sent to save the whole world. He just didn’t know how that salvation was to come about, so Jesus gave them a glimpse of what was coming.

The plan that Jesus laid out for the disciples was probably a little less glorious than they imagined. Jesus told them that “the Son of Man would suffer many things, be rejected and killed and on the third day be raised to life” (v. 22). I doubt that Peter and the other disciples were thrilled by this or by the conditions of discipleship; “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it (vv. 23-24). I wonder if Peter or any of the disciples wanted out after that description.

Peter seems to have an advantage over us in answering that question because he lived, ate and slept with the person of Jesus. He witnessed the miracles first hand. After all, we lack this intimate experience of Jesus- or do we? What if Peter was right? What if the angel choruses and the Magi’s dreams and the healings and deliverances are all really true? What if Jesus really died and rose for me and for you?

How then do you answer that burning question; “Who do you say that I am?”

I propose that we can only answer this question in faith and then we will see that truth manifested in our daily lives. If we have no faith that Jesus is really the Savior then we won’t be able to see His salvation at work in our lives or in the world around us. But if there is even a small chance that Peter was right and the Bible is true, then maybe we each can say with Peter; “You are the Messiah of God”. Finally, we would have an answer to that burning question and we, like Peter would begin to perceive and interpret the miracles in our lives that have already occurred. In fact, if Jesus is really who He says He is, our whole lives are a miracle!

If He is our Messiah, then the plan Jesus laid out to His disciples describing suffering, death and resurrection can truly become our own. The seemingly useless suffering in our lives and in our world becomes part of a greater plan for redemption and resurrection. If we can acknowledge Jesus as our Messiah and Savior, then our eyes can be open to the miracles around us. The patterns of nature begin to resonate with the seasons of our lives. The conception and birth of a child is seen as a miracle of life; the death of a loved one as a cause to hope in resurrection.

I invite you to sit in solitude with Jesus, every day, from now until Easter. Breathe deeply and purposefully as you hear Him ask; “Who do you say I am?” I promise you: if you do, you will discover the answer warming within your heart. As spring emerges and the plants break through the ground, so will your answer emerge from the depths of your being, with the promise of new life.

Eileen Benthal has a B.A. in theology from Franciscan University of Steubenville. She is a writer, speaker and wellness coach at 40DaysToFocus.com and NOFO Wellness Center. She works with clients locally and around the U.S. who are excited about balancing their health in body, mind and spirit.

Eileen and her husband Steve live in Jamesport and have four young adult children. Their youngest, 16-year-old Johanna, is a teenager with special needs. Eileen can be reached at eileenbenthal@gmail.com and facebook.com/40DaysToFocus.

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