Who do YOU say Jesus is?

That’s an important question. If Jesus is your friend, that’s good. We need to see Jesus as accessible. But if Jesus isn’t more than your friend, then maybe that’s a limiting vision.

If Jesus is one you can reliably call upon in times of need, then that’s good. But if, as J.B. Phillips observed, our God is so small that we merely relegate Jesus to the job of cosmic-Bellhop– then we only call upon Him when things are desperate. That’s a limiting vision.

If Jesus is One who has come to save, then that is essential. But if you see Jesus only as One whose job was to save you, then you can tune Him out and not have to listen to His deeper purposes that were intended to transform you.

Who you and I say Jesus is… matters. When life comes right down to it, if we’ve relegated Jesus to a role that is nice, but not central, then we may not trust His ways as much as we trust our own.

And that’s just not good at all.

Simon Peter had a clear and cogent answer in today’s scripture. For one shining moment, Peter jumped forward with just the right answer when Jesus asked “But who do YOU say that I am?”

A young friend of mine down in west-Central Georgia is a 35 year old African American pastor. He serves a church just minutes from where my wife grew up. Vinton brings such happiness to our lives, primarily through Facebook these days because we don’t live near each other anymore.

We stay in touch, and I bounce questions off of him. We chat about issues. He calls me a role-model, but the reality is we try to help each other understand the diversity of our world.

I have watched Vinton preach on video and livestreams. He preaches in many of the ways you might expect him to. He’s pretty animated, he sings a lot of his sentences, and occasionally he’ll do a 360-degree twirl right in the middle of a sentence.

If I tried any of that, my people would stare at me like a mule looking at a new gate.

Our worlds are different in so many ways. We remind each other of that sometimes. But one place where we intersect so powerfully… is what we believe about who Jesus is.

As we hear today’s scripture text, Jesus was coming down the home stretch of his time among us. As He entered Caesarea Philippi, He dared to ask His disciples a vulnerable question.

We studied this passage at my church one Wednesday night. And I can remember saying to the group that Jesus really hung it all out there when He asked this. I wonder if He cringed as He heard himself ask? “Who do people say that I am?”

Afterall, that’s sort of a pop-quiz administered by our Lord. One kind of answer might indicate that people still didn’t understand. Another type of answer might encourage him that things were getting through.

Nowadays, Jesus might Google His own name to see what people are saying about Him. That’s what I have to do as a minister and an author every once in a while. A time or two a year, I monitor what’s out there on me. It’d be irresponsible not to.

And once you especially put your words in print, you have to keep up a little bit with what people are saying.

Jesus, some of them think you’re “...John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others think you’re Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” Well that was one answer. But then, He asked the tough question. Because if your own followers didn’t understand you by now, you just might’ve just wasted your time to an extent, you could feel.

“Who do you say I am?” He asked of His disciples.

My father-in-law visited the Holy Land one time. These days, the merchants there are noticeably ready for the throngs of tourists that can visit when war is not going on. Especially, it seems, for those of us from the South. Her father brought back a sign that we still have somewhere. It says, “Shalom...y’all!” Jesus’ second question might be understood where I come from as “Who do y’all say I am?”

All…y’all, he meant.

Peter, as seems to have been his nature, spoke up first according to the gospel record.

“You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” And if an exhale is a true window to the soul-- then Jesus’ exhale, though not mentioned in scripture, was probably heard by the whole group.

Dr. Walter Shurden, in his comments about this passage, contends that when Jesus asked such a question in the first place, He was putting a new importance on personal response to Jesus’ ministry and negating the notion that an authentic interpretation of Him can only come by survey or majority vote or family heritage.

Jesus recognized that people perceived Him differently and responded to Him in different ways. But, it was the up-close and personal acts of perceiving and responding that no one could- or should- do for us, some of Christians have historically believed. Some call this, Soul freedom.

I had a person come to me one day. And he voiced that he had accepted the faith for himself. But, he wanted me to help him learn to pray. He said, “I just don’t know how to do it.” I said, “Well, it's a pretty hard thing to do wrong! Because we believe that prayer is communicating with God. It’s listening and talking. It’s confessing and asking. You can do this just as well as I can, if you know how to carry on a conversation.”

His face lit up, and then we talked a while longer to unpack all of that. Because something as simple as speaking with God is a direct expression of soul freedom. I acknowledge in some expressions of Christianity other than Baptist, sometimes that’s not the answer though.

If we believe that Jesus has let us choose personally, then our relationship with Jesus– and His teachings about our faith– will sound differently to us.

“You are the Messiah. The Son of the living God,” we might say. Immanuel, God come to live among us.

No one can keep you, me, nor my friend Vinton from climbing up into the lap of God any time it occurs to us to do so.

But let’s get back to the scripture. Because there’s another pretty compelling moment I believe that illustrates this fragile freedom that we ought to cherish probably more than we do.

In Hebrews 9, for instance, we were reminded that there was early-on a Holy of Holies that the ancient Hebrews had built into the sacred worship spaces. Only the high priest on duty could enter the holy of holies. And him armed with sacrifices and blood, and confessions on behalf of the people who sought to cleanse themselves with God.

They could go no further past that inner curtain, or veil. Not even the other priests could enter into that space with God. Isaiah 59 explains that this signified that humankind was separated from God by our sin.

There is a popular phrase that has been used in a lot of churches in more modern times. That phrase has been painted on church signs and printed in worship bulletins.

What is it? Every member a minister... and it speaks to our soul freedom and responsibility. To approach God freely, but also to serve and give generously. Lovingly and faithfully. That’s Soul freedom.

Why does that matter? Because who we say Jesus is… matters.
If you see Jesus as One who has taught us to love each other as neighbors, then your freedom before God will compel you to do just that.

If you see Jesus as One who has emphasized justice and equality, then your soul freedom will take you into His presence, and then on down those kinds of paths.

If you see Jesus as One who offers hope especially where there is so little, then in your freedom you will move from encounters with him to deliver hope where it’s needed.

Yes, what we believe about Jesus matters. Who we say Jesus IS… matters. Because our beliefs are good predictors of how we’ll live out our faith.

So… who DO you say Jesus is?