Wednesday, February 14, 2024 – Ash Wednesday: Jesus Asks, Tough Questions for a Lenten Faith

Then he asked them, “But who do you say I am?” Peter replied, “You are the Messiah.”  (Mark 8:29, New Living Translation)

                 Ash Wednesday and Lent were not really a thing when I was growing up in our Baptist church in Belleville, Ontario. But I have come to deeply appreciate Lent’s significance as an opportunity to engage Jesus of the Gospels more deeply.  He speaks to me there. Moreover, Jesus asks some of the people whom he encounters some very poignant questions. Those questions will be the focus for our encounters with Jesus over the Lenten season.

                “But who do you say I am?”

                Let’s get to the big question right off the bat. Who do we say Jesus is?

                There are limitless words, titles and names by which Jesus has been called, described and made known. Theologians have been searching, writing, deliberating, arguing for centuries over who Jesus is. Denominations have their dogmas and creeds.  Individuals have their own personal, favourite ideas.

                Jesus is a hard person to label with any one, singular impression. Just when you think you might have him pinned down, another facet of his character reveals itself. Just when we think we might know him, we discover that we haven’t scratched the surface of the Man.

                But we dare not give up in spiritual frustration. Answering the question about who we say he is is critically important. Sometimes, our answers might change slightly depending on the circumstances in our lives. That’s okay. It is stating the obvious, I know, but who Jesus is for you and me cuts to the core of our faith.

                So far, I have adeptly avoided the answer. Skirted the issue.

                I can’t answer for you, only myself. You can’t answer for me, only yourself.

                No one word is sufficient although Peter’s answer, “the Messiah” is intriguingly close, although it is, historically, a complicated word. But, for me, it captures the reassuring, compelling hope and promise of someone who makes a transforming, redeeming difference in our lives and even in our world. Jesus is the One who makes the world a better place, makes me a better person.

                After reading that last paragraph, it comes across to me as a bit of a stuffy or stodgy answer, not up to the task which I have put before us.  Jesus is anything but stuffy! It misses the importance of how I feel or what I experience in my encounters with Jesus, that “hearts-burning-within-us” experience which the two Emmaus-bound disciples felt when they realized that their companion along the way was Jesus. Answering the question is harder than you might think.

                Like Peter, we may say the right words about Jesus but get it so totally wrong as he did just a bit later. We may try to turn Jesus into our own personal benefactor, a magician to meet our wants, an ally for our prejudices and judgements.  But Jesus will have none of our attempts to put him in our boxes or use him to make the world like the way we want the world to be. “Get away from me, Satan!” he said. “You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.” (Mark 8:33)

                But even our mistakes should not mean that we don’t keep trying to know who Jesus is. Jesus of the Gospels is the deeply compassionate, inclusive, life-affirming agent for God. Jesus of the Gospels cares about the suffering of others, reaches out to the most untouchable people, forgives and frees. Jesus reaches out to you and me from the pages of the Gospels. No one word can capture all that.

A famous theologian, Karl Barth, who wrote copious amounts of theology, was once asked to sum up his faith in Jesus. He replied, “Jesus loves me; this I know because the Bible tells me so.” Maybe that is the best place to start with Jesus in our understanding of who he is. Jesus is Love incarnated!

                In the next two or three-hours, Jesus healed many from diseases, distress, and evil spirits. To many of the blind he gave the gift of sight. Then he gave his answer: “Go back and tell John what you have just seen and heard: the blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the wretched of the earth have God’s salvation hospitality extended to them. Is this what you were expecting? Then count yourselves fortunate!”  (Luke 7: 22 -23, The Message Bible)

                Now, that for me, is the essence of who Jesus is and what he is about.

                Yet, I feel that I have only scratched the surface. But we have to start somewhere.

                I challenge you not to just assume you know who Jesus is. This Lent, put some serious thought into your answer. You may be amazed at what you discover!

Dale