Good Morning Friends,
Now someone reading the Bible for the first time and coming across this writing might well be a bit bewildered by it all but whether this is a first read or 10,000th about Jesus, the amazing thing is that Christ is revealed throughout scripture. And the first experience might be like a potter and the clay, without much life and rather inanimate but still functional. And then we might become more like a sheep following a good shepherd, alive but not always intelligent on the part of the sheep. Then ultimately, we are to have a relationship with God as a friend, family member and collectively in a strong marriage. But today we seek something beyond these marvelous metaphors, and I think that the scripture of the day reveals the growth in our understanding of how we are to respond to violence as well. We are to move from an eye for an eye to the reality of a love of our enemies for our own survival. Hard to imagine. But then the Bible is filled with a lot of approaches that are surprising. Who Will You Say Jesus Christ Is On The Day You Die?
Scripture: Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.” When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. But Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I AM has sent me to you.'” God also said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you’: This is my name forever, and this my title for all generations.
Exodus 3:1-8a, 13-15 (NRSV)
At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.” Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.'”
Luke 13:1-9 (NRSV)
I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, and they were struck down in the wilderness. Now these things occurred as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil as they did. And do not complain as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. These things happened to them to serve as an example, and they were written down to instruct us, on whom the ends of the ages have come. So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall.
1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12 (NRSV)
Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
Matthew 16:13-16 (NRSV)
Message: If you want vision, courage, strength, and power to exceed your expectations? And who wouldn’t? And yet, they are all available only to those who can answer His ultimate question correctly. Christ first asked life’s ultimate question on the road to Caesarea Philippi. I have walked there in the ruins of a Roman city on the Mediterranean coast of Israel. Few places could have provided a more significant setting for this question to be asked. When Jesus was there the city was in its Roman glory. Here Herod the Great built a translucent temple of white marble. And there was an open-air theatre large enough to seat several thousand people. Around it was magnificent villas and palaces added by Herod’s son Philip, who had renamed the city from its original name of Balinas which honored the pagan fertility god to a name that honored Caesar. The power of Rome was in the air, but so were the sins of orgies as worship of the pagan god, Baal. Framing the view and overshadowing the region was Mount Hermon, a metaphor of Israel’s quest for God. It was here in this region of symbols of humankind’s lust for military might and the religious quest for meaning, that Jesus stopped, turned, and confronted His disciples with a two-part question. The first was “Who do men say that I am?” The answers were very complimentary. They told Jesus that the fears of Herod Antipas, who murdered John the Baptist, had promoted the theory that He was John raised from the dead. Others believed He fulfilled the prophecy of Malachi that He was Elijah come to prepare the way for the Messiah. Still others surmised that the vision given to Judas Maccabaeus was being realized: He was Jeremiah who had come with a golden sword to wage war for the deliverance of Israel. Others simply said Jesus was one of the prophets. It was at this significant moment that Jesus pressed home life’s ultimate question. Surrounded by geographical and topographical evidence of humankind’s longing for an answer to the riddle of life, and in the emotional context of the varied, but false opinions about His real identity, Jesus asked the disciples, “But who do you say that I am? Only one could find his voice to answer. Simon’s response motivated by a gift of faith from the Father. His voice must have been alive with excitement and insight as he answered: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Clearly Simon acknowledged Jesus not as forerunner of the Messianic age, but as the Messiah Himself. Here this ultimate question is hard because it forces us to be honest in how we answer. When Jesus asks us, “Who am I to you…really?”, that cuts like a laser into the core of our being and forces us to evaluate our priorities, values, and attitudes. There is no middle of the road here. How we answer Christ’s ultimate question determines what we will receive from Him. Friends, if you are not able to adore Jesus, something is missing from your religion. Know that Jesus is the light of the world…Jesus is the door and good shepherd…. Jesus is the way, the vine, the water of life and the resurrection.
And So, our answer to the ultimate question will determine how much we know and experience of God our Father and the Holy Spirit, our source of power. The great I AM is who we seek to engage in a relationship and God will be who God will be and we will be who we will be. The thing is to break the cycle of violence and that takes the love of God and knowing Jesus. For learning who Jesus is helps us to interpret today’s stories about people who were victims through no fault of their own. For Jesus was such a victim and so when he says to repent, he also shows us how to have a forgiving heart for our own good. If we are honest, every one of us has questions about our faith and how to live. We ask ourselves things like: ‘Is the Bible true?’ ‘Why does God allow suffering?’ ‘Am I truly forgiven?’ ‘Will I really go to heaven when I die?’ There are at least a hundred questions Jesus asked. They are not hard to understand just hard to live by. Still one of them stands out. Ultimately it is not a “what if” question or a “why” question that is the most important. It is a “who” question.
Pray we offer mercy. Pray we realize that how we answer Christ’s ultimate question determines our ability to live the abundant life He promised. Pray we realize how we answer Christ’s ultimate question determines our ability to receive and give forgiveness. Pray we realize that to become Christ like is the only thing in the world worth achieving. Pray we realize the authentic Jesus of the Bible tenderly cares for us when we hurt, but He tenaciously exposes anything that keeps us from being all He intends for us to be. Pray we realize that how we answer the question determines our courage to face death. Pray we are freed of all anxieties for we belong to Christ. Pray we are motivated to committing our lives to Christ, and ready to receive the mysterious, but transforming dynamic of Christ’s cross and our own. Pray we realize that Christ must be at the center of our lives. Pray we overcome the temptation to call ourselves Christians without Jesus.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 