Today's Gospel

Test Your Christianity

Jesus was walking with his disciples in Caesarea Philippi. That's how this reading begins. And I have this strong, just these vivid memories of being there on one of our trips to the Holy Land. And there's just something about being in these places that get mentioned in the scriptures. And then all of a sudden, you're standing there. You're right there. And as a group, we then reflect on the scripture that happened right in that place. And this is one that had a very profound impact on me. My whole book, Rediscover Jesus, came from this experience that I had in Caesarea Philippi.

We had this phenomenal guide, and he was talking about the place and the history of it and the scripture reading and what happened here, and it just moved me. And I started to think about it a lot. Anyway, Jesus and his disciples were walking through Caesarea Philippi. And Jesus asks his disciples a question. Now, first thing is pay attention. Anytime Jesus asks a question, in fact, anytime in the scriptures that God asks a question, sit up, pay attention, something's coming. And it's big. Why? Because God has no need to ask questions. Why? He already has all the answers. Why does Jesus need to ask a question? He knows.

So when he asks a question, he asks not because he needs to know the answer, but because it's very, very important that we have the answer. It's like in the garden after an Adam and Eve that got the apple, ate the apple. God shows up. What does God say? He says, "Where are you?" All of a sudden, God's lost his bearings? God doesn't know where Adam and Eve are? God knows exactly where Adam and Eve are. Calls out to Adam and Eve, "Where are you?" Because he wants Adam and Eve to know where they are.

And they reply, "We heard you in the garden, and then we're naked and afraid, so we hid ourselves." First time in human history, man-woman was afraid. They'd never been afraid before. What is their reaction to fear? It's to hide themselves, but to hide themselves from God. That's the insanity of it, right? So Jesus asks a question. He says, "Who do people say that I am?" The disciples say, "Some say you're John the Baptist, some say you're Elijah, and some say you're one of the great prophets." Jesus asks another question. He says, "Who do you say that I am?" I call that the Jesus question. We all have to answer it, and not once in our lives.

We have to revisit it over and over and over again because Jesus changes? No, Jesus doesn't change. We change. We become more aware. We pay closer attention. And as we pay attention, we see facets of Jesus that we never saw before. So Jesus' second question is, "Who do you say that I am?" Doesn't matter what your parents say, doesn't matter what your teachers say, doesn't matter what your spouses say, your friends say, society says. None of that matters. It doesn't matter who anyone else thinks I am.

Jesus says, "Who do you say that I am?" Peter says, "You're the Christ, the Son of the living God." This is one of the great proclamations of faith in human history. What happens then? Jesus goes on to say, "Great." I mean, he doesn't say that, but [music] essentially goes on to say, "All right, you get it. You know who I am. Now let me tell you what's going to happen." What does he say? He says, "I need to tell you I am going to suffer. I'm going to be rejected. And I'm going to be killed." And the disciples are like, "Whoa, hold on a minute. We didn't sign up for that. You're the Christ. We're not going to let that happen to you." Jesus goes on to say, he says, "If any man wants to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." That's Mark 8:34. You ask people, "What's your favorite passage in the Scriptures?" Nobody ever tells you, "Oh, let me tell you. My favorite passage in the Scriptures is Mark 8:34." Never happens. Ask as many people as you'd like. Go your whole life. Ask every person you ever meet. And I'm telling you, nobody is ever going to tell you, "Yep, let me tell you about my favorite passage in the Scriptures. It's Mark 8:34." Let me tell you what it is, "If any man wants to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."

Jesus isn't confused about what it takes. We're confused about what it takes because we don't like the message. We don't like the message that Jesus has got to suffer and be rejected and be killed. And we don't like the message that the way requires that we deny ourselves and that we take up our cross. We don't like the message. And so this is where Christianity is most tested, right? It's in the parts of the gospel that are inconvenient to our very worldly view of reality, inconvenient to the way we like to pamper ourselves and enjoy ourselves and seek pleasure. Jesus says, "This is the way." And he says it very clearly. He says it very clearly. And the two marry together really well. The question, "Who do you say that Jesus is?" Because if he is who he says he is, the value, the power of these words change completely. Because then this isn't just another book, right? This just isn't another collection of readings or sayings or wisdom writings. But if Jesus is actually who He claims to be, then everything changes. Why? Because words have value based on who speaks them. If you've got someone in your circle and they're always lying to you, you devalue their words. That's natural. It's normal. It's rational. You devalue their words because you think, "No, I don't know if he's telling the truth or telling a lie." He lies a lot, so maybe we devalue. Words have value based on who speaks them. Jesus says, "Who do you say that I am?" Peter says, "You are the Christ, the son of the living God." If that's the case, the power of these words, the importance of these words, trumps all the other words on the planet.