Mark 8:27-30
One
of the important questions that everyone must answer is, “Who am I?” Who am I
in relationship to my ‘self’, my family, my world, and in relationship with the
LORD. The answers to these questions
direct the rest of life. If I am just the result of an accidental lightening
strike on a pond of ooze, then my life will take an a very different character
than if I believe I am created in God’s image and likeness and placed here with
a purpose of glorifying Him.
If
we believe parents are interchangeable units of adult protoplasm, then their
actual biological connection to their offspring is not very important. Babies
could be housed in warehouses with computers programmed to hold, talk to, feed,
diaper, bathe, and sing a lullaby. Shifts of adult substitutes could be brought
in to supplement the computers, giving a random human face to the occasional
cuddle.
Unfortunately,
this sounds like too many families today, raising their children on TV,
internet, games, day care and a rotation of adult inhabitants of the primary
home. It certainly answers the question about who we are with a resounding, “Not
much!”
In
working to focus His disciples on what is important Jesus asks the question
about His identity. He wants to know what the disciples are hearing and
thinking. He wants to know their conclusions about Him, and consequently their
conclusions about themselves as His disciples.
Our
identity is always wrapped up in our understanding of our connections. I am
George & Teen’s son, Bev’s husband, and Karissa and Ben’s dad. I am also ‘Pop
Pop’ to some grand children. I have brothers and a sister, nephews and nieces,
in laws and out laws.
But
I am also a Jesus-follower, forgiven and a work in progress. To put it in
theological terms, I am already and not yet. I am also a member of His body, an
integrated network of living, breathing individuals charged with living a life
of holiness in a fallen world, and thus showing this fallen world the
possibility of a different way of living.
I
am not part of a political movement or quick-fix group. I am about the fundamental
transformation of people from death to life, sinner to saint, empty shell to
holy vessel.
Who
are you?