Who do you say that I AM?

Exodus 3:1-15; Matthew 16:21-28

Last week we heard Jesus ask his disciples, 

“Who do people say that the Son of Man is?"

 The disciples offered the prevailing theories of the people regarding Jesus- John the Baptist, the prophet Elijah, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.

We could add to that list from the people we bump into. There are those who think Jesus was an alien from outer space. There are others who think he was just a human teacher- a Rabbi- essentially an idealistic young man. There are some who see him as a heretic who led people astray by falsely claiming to be the Messiah. There are Muslims who see him as a Muslim prophet, but who was never crucified and never claimed to be God’s son. There are Hindus who see him as an avatar of one of the gods- one among many. There are Buddhists who see him as a Boddhisatva, one who helps others on the road to escape the suffering cycle of rebirth. … Everyone seems to have a theory, and every few years someone unearths some “new” theory, which often turns out to be a dusted-off old theory.

Jesus then turns to his disciples and asks, 

"But who do you say that I am?"

 The question becomes personal. …

I studied world religions as a part of my Religious Studies degree at the University of Lethbridge. I learned to describe religious things at arms length- 'Those people over there believe this, while these people over here believe this'. … But when I got to seminary in Toronto, I was asked what I believed about Jesus. Who was Jesus to me? Who do I say Jesus is? … Jesus doesn’t want an arm’s length relationship with us where we theorize about him. Jesus wants an intimate relationship with us.

In John 15 Jesus says, 

“Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing” (15:4-5).

 That doesn’t sound like an arm’s length relationship to me. It sounds like an intimate relationship. “Abide in me as I abide in you”. We can’t have an intimate relationship with someone we have a vague philosophical theory about. …

The New Testament was written to preserve the experience of those who knew Jesus. In John 17:20 Jesus prays to his Father saying, 

“I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word…”

 That is Jesus praying for you, knowing that the experiences of those original disciples would spread to others. And here you are in 2023, hearing the teachings of these disciples about Jesus- hearing their experiences with Jesus- so that you can believe and come to know him, so that you can abide in him, and he can abide in you.

And I know this is tricky for some of us because we don’t sit down with Jesus for coffee the way we do with other people that we have an intimate relationship with. But, I do believe that is what Jesus is asking of us. He is asking us to reach out to him in prayer, and invite him to dwell within us, and to embrace that mystery that passes beyond our normal rational mindset.

Jesus puts his disciples on the spot, as we are put on the spot. “Who do you say that I am?” Peter responds saying, 

"You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." And Jesus praises Peter, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven” (Matt 16:16-17).

And this leads into our reading for today. Jesus then tells his disciples that he is going to have to endure incredible suffering and rejection by the hands of the elders and chief priests. … At this Peter rebukes the one he just called “the Messiah, the Son of the living God”. He rebukes his Lord and Master, saying, 

"God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you."

Jesus’ response is a contrast to his earlier praise of Peter, 

“Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things."

Peter was placing his human expectations onto Jesus. At the time, the common image of the Messiah was of a king like David who would kick out all the bad guys, reform temple worship, and reunify their people. He was supposed to be a kind of warrior-king-priest. He was supposed to take over the leadership of the people. The Sanhedrin and high priests should bow to him and accept his leadership. The king should submit his crown to him. The people should be unified in their allegiance to him. The Romans should flee from him. … The idea of the Messiah being rejected and killed at the hands of those he should have authority and power over… well, it was just wrong. And Peter wanted to correct Jesus on this point. Not just correct, he rebuked him. “Rebuke” is what Jesus does to demons. It is a very forceful word.

Jesus sees the temptation. He is being tempted to conform to human expectations, rather than obey his Father’s expectations. He sees that as a temptation away from the cross, away from his identity as his Father defines it. It is a temptation he sees as being ultimately from Satan. It is a temptation to replace his identity with conforming to human expectations rather than his Father’s expectations. … This is about who Jesus is.

This is something we are tempted to do as well. We are tempted to impose human expectations on Jesus- to reshape him in our own image- to twist him to agree with us- to ignore his difficult and inconvenient teachings- rather than submit ourselves to him in humility.

In the 19th century, the liberal German Lutheran scholar Adolf von Harnack sought to look through the past and strip away any ‘pollutants’ from theology and faith, so that he could see the true historical Jesus. A contemporary Jesuit theologian George Tyrell commented, 

"The Christ that Adolf Harnack sees, looking back through nineteen centuries of Catholic darkness, is only the reflection of a liberal Protestant face, seen at the bottom of a deep well."

 Essentially, he is teasing him saying that Harnack’s image of Jesus looks remarkably like Harnack. … We are tempted to reshape Jesus to look like us- to agree with us, so that he won’t make us feel uncomfortable.

… This is all really about the question Jesus originally asked his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” If we can twist him to agree with us, then who is the real “Lord” in this relationship? Peter seems to be asking Jesus to submit to his understanding of the Messiah. … Perhaps he does this because he sees that if Christ has to suffer, then he will have to suffer as well, if he is going to continue to follow him.

In our reading from Exodus, Moses encounters God through a burning bush on Mount Horeb, which is another name for Mount Sinai. 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?"

Again, we have this question of identity. Moses is asking who this God is. Initially, God introduces Himself as “your father’s God”. Now Moses is asking for God’s name.

God said to Moses, 

"I AM WHO I AM." [And,] "Thus you shall say to the Israelites, 'I AM has sent me to you'" (Ex 3:13-14).

The holy name that God gives to Moses is notoriously difficult to translate. It is a verb. Some translations say, “I Am Who I Am”, or “I Shall Be Who I Shall Be”, or “I Will Be Present To You”, or “I Am He Who Is”, or “He causes to be”, which is abbreviated to “I AM” (YHWH). A name that Jesus sometimes seems to apply to himself- Such as when he says, 

“Before Abraham was, I AM” (Jn 8:58).

 This is the name that was so holy that God’s people considered it not to be pronounced lightly, and rather than read it would substitute the word “Lord”. It is the revelation of the intimate name of God. There has been a lot of writing dedicated to trying to understand what this name means. Some think it points to God as Creator, others think it points to God as the only necessarily existent reality- God is not capable of not existing- “He Is”- “He Exists”. The difficulty in translating and understanding this holy name points to the incomprehensibility of God. God transcends categorization. We cannot fully wrap our minds around God, and so we cannot hope to control Him, or shape him into our image, or our expectations.

This is also the God who said, 

“You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth” (Ex 20:4).

 No image will be imposed on this God. He is not to be treated like other gods- just one among many- no. This God is unique and immune to our categories. Which is not to say that He can’t be known, but He will be known on His own terms.

God came to show Himself to you through Jesus- through the experiences that the disciples had of Jesus. Colossians says, 

“He is the image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15).

 To look at Jesus is to look into the face of God. … And this God wants an intimate relationship with you. One where He abides in you, and you abide in Him. … But, we don’t get to impose our images on this God. We don’t get to reshape God in our image. … We are the ones who get shaped in this relationship. AMEN.