A Question of Identity
September 12, 2021
Mark 8:27-38
27Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” 28And they answered him, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” 29He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.” 30And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him. 31Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” 34He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. 36For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? 37Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? 38Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
Identity, how we define ourselves, is becoming more and more complex. How many words would you use to describe yourself? When you were born into your family, everyone wanted to know if you were a girl or a boy. As you grew, you developed your gender identity. Now people share how they want others to refer to them. Identity is becoming more complex.
We have different skin colors which tell deeper stories about who we are and who our ancestors were. Ethnic factors add another layer. As does sexual orientation. Our work brings another dimension to our identity. As well as our travel experience, our education, our family, our marital status. Our faith shapes our identity. Our country, our state, our political perspective all make us who we are.
Today’s gospel focuses on identity when Jesus asks two big questions: “Who do people say that I am?” “But who do you say that I am?” Chapter 8 marks the center of this Gospel so the questions Jesus asks are central to our faith. Jesus glosses over the question about what others think of him since he wants to know what the disciples think of him. Jesus then goes on to disclose how he thinks of himself: “the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.” Jesus is correcting Peter’s confession of his being the Messiah by drawing from the portrait from Isaiah and identifies himself as the Suffering Servant whom God will raise.
Jesus asks us the same question: Who do you say that I am?
Perhaps some of us will answer with the words of the Creed which we will shortly profess. Each of us needs to answer this question about Jesus’ identity. Each of us needs to answer this question in words of our own, words which describe our relationship with Jesus, words which paint a picture of who Jesus is for us.
Alyce McKenzie, a bible scholar, tells us why we each need to identify who Jesus is for us since we have to answer this question: Who are we becoming as we live into Jesus’ identity that resides within us? Who are we becoming as we live into Jesus’ identity that resides within us? We need a clear answer to the question of who Jesus is because our identity is wrapped up in Jesus’ identity.
I would hope you will take Jesus’ expression of his identity into your answer, into the reality of who you are. Jesus defines himself as God’s beloved child. Jesus also defines himself as the suffering one whom God will raise. Part of your identity involves discovering yourself as God’s beloved child. Part of your identity involves finding yourself in Jesus’ process of dying and rising.
Yesterday we remembered the 20th anniversary of September 11. What does it mean for us as Christians, persons who have a Jesus identity, to remember that day? What would Jesus have done? I think of a friend, Father Oscar Mockridge, a retired priest, who went to St. Paul’s Chapel and ministered to those working the pile. Yes, Fr. Oz paid a price, the emotional cost of being so close to such unimagine pain, the physical cost of developing cancer which cost him his life. Whom do you remember as showing the face of Jesus shining through the way they act in the world?
I wonder about the cost of forgiving those behind the violence, the relinquishment of the desire for vengeance, the forgiving Jesus taught us from the cross of those who know not what they do. A great deal needs to die within us to find ourselves on the other side of vengeance, the other side of forgiveness. Deep within our Jesus identity lies this capacity to discover every broader boundaries for forgiveness, for compassion, for healing.
By pointing to the cross and resurrection as keys to his identity, Jesus invites us to learn how to surrender something small that something bigger might be raised up. That something might not feel small when we have to let go of feelings of hurt, a sense of injustice, the loss of someone dear. What can you create in place of hurt, in place of injustice, in the presence of grief?
The gospel begins with a question Jesus asks us about how we identify Jesus. As we answer that question we discover who we are. We discover ourselves, our deepest self, our truest self, our self as we discover ourselves in Christ.