Who Do You Say That I AM?
12 Sep 2021
Richardson
Who do you say that I am?
......
Oh to be a fly on the wall. For a while I ran a number of customer service groups with one of them happen to be a team in Mexico. There was a bunch of extra work that needed to get cleaned up so I decided to pull in two of the ladies from Mexico to go up with me and dig in. So, the three of us sat in this little room banging away on or keyboards. The two would all talk in English with me but when the two ladies talked to each other, they spoke in Spanish.
Eventually their conversation turned to gossip and they began talking (all in Spanish) about one of their coworkers back in Mexico. I just sat quiet. Thinking I didn't understand, the talk got pretty explicit about the other lady’s escapades. The one term they were using during their descriptions was “chinky winky”. After they talked for a while the conversation dropped off again.
Wanting to see their reactions, without obviously looking up I just flatly said “comprende todo. Excepción, ¿qué es "chinky winky"? (meaning “I understood everything except what is chinky winky”?)
I had never seen darker completions turn so red as the both looked over at me wide eyed and said “NO TRANSLATION!” Never did get a good translation of the term but hope I didn’t just cuss in Church.
I had been waiting to see if they were going to talk about me, but that was an opportunity too good to pass up.
It’s human nature for us to talk about others. We all point out the highs and lows of each other’s individual personality quirks.
Obviously this has happened since the creation of man. Even Christ talked about the way we discuss each other when he talked about how we love to point out the mote in another’s eye.
I was reading an article about gossip and they said that a lot of what we talk about when we gossip about others really speaks more about the kind of person we are then what is says about the person we are talking about. They used an analogy of a dog looking in the mirror, barking and moving around because they see another dog, not realizing it’s a reflection. So when we spend all that time barking about others, we’re judging ourselves. (1)
I know. It sounds just like a line from the Brady Bunch parody move were the Mike Brady character says: “Cindy, you know by tattling on your friends, you're really just tattling on yourself. By tattling on your friends, you're just telling them that you're a tattletale. Now is that the tale you want to tell?”
But really though… the article I read pointed out that this goes back to Freud with the inner process called Projection. That’s when we unconsciously push one of our traits onto someone else and then judge them by it.(3)
So that gave me a whole new perspective to think about in Mark 8 it says:
27 Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, “Who do people say I am?” 28 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.”
What answer do you think he was looking for?
I think what he was really asking was “If they cannot picture me, whom they call the Messiah, as the Son of God, how could they ever picture themselves as children of God either?”
Man had only been told since the Garden of Eden that we were children of God, but how many of us act like it? Is it because we can’t picture ourselves in that manner? And if we can’t picture ourselves that way, then really, how on earth could we ever picture the Jesus as the Son of God?
The other thing it told Jesus was if people were willing to believe in the fulfilment of prophesy when it happens right before their eyes.
The people were well aware of the scriptures and what was said of the coming messiah There are hundreds of prophesies of the coming Christ. For instance, here a just a few of the prophecies:
2 Samual 7
2 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
Isaiah 11
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit
Zachariah says it most plainly in Chapter 9
9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
And Micah Chapter 5 even say of his birthplace
Micah 5:2
But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.
With all of these prophetic references, Jesus was able to see how many in of Israel just weren’t ready. Instead the Disciples told him the people said he was Elijah, John the Baptist, or a number of other ancient prophets returning. They had all seen and heard of the miracles. The prophesies had said Christ would be wise, a teacher, and healer. Yet with all the miracles they had seen, their answers spoke more of their lack of readiness to accept Christ.
Then Jesus asked his disciples a very pointed question when he said “But whom say ye that I am?”
Where were they in their beliefs? They themselves had seen the miracles with their own eyes. They themselves know of the prophecies. What as in their own hearts?
Had is disciples grown to the point where they realized that He was the Son of God, because they could now picture themselves as children of God?
If what we say about others also tells others of us, what did it tell Christ about Peter when answered “Thou art the Christ.”
It told Jesus that not only did Peter had discerned who he was. It told Jesus that Peter was ready to see Jesus transform into his true self; the Son of God. The very next chapter tells of Jesus taking Peter and James to the mountain, and there he became transformed in front of them.
Now it’s time for us to do a little introspection. Think back to your last conversation you’ve had where you talked about another person. We all do it. We all join into the office gossip. Come on, you can admit it. What is it that you were saying about them. Were you flattering? Were you critical? Did you point out the mote in their eye?
Now what did you tell everyone about yourself as you talked about them?
Are you that confident in yourself enough that you now look for the very best in others? Do you show you’re strong by the way you’re always lifting others up, and trying to elevate how others see them too?
Or, did you just point out the flaws? But now your words of degradation just pointed out the world that you yourself have flaws that you're trying to hide them by pointing out others. You use opportunities to claw at anyone almost as a shield to deflecting the attention to others. Maybe you subconsciously think that if you can point out enough imperfections that others will think your faults seem relatively minor in comparison.
But we all know that doesn’t work. Others usually look at the source of the message. The more time you spend tearing down others, the less time anyone wants to spend with you. Others soon realize that your insecure degradation isn’t limited to only one target, and think “if you tell me that about others, what do you say about me when I’M not around?”
What if Christ asked the same questions of us as he did in the Gospel of Mark? Who is that others say that he is in our modern society?
We’ve been going through more and more bitter elections with both sides telling us what Jesus would say.
Some refuse to name Christianity as part of the platform while other used it as a club to bludgeon their opponents. It’s easy to see that both of groups used Jesus to represent their own view but many times it seems pasted with arguments that one political group cares more about the poor, or the other cares more about morals. Usually the people saying those things don’t abide by any of what they say.
Jesus was meant for neither political side. In truth I never really read of Jesus speaking on politics, only against hypocritical leaders who use their position in to further their own desires. Not to say that we should vote with without prayerful consideration of who would best lead us to become the shining city on the hill.
What else are people saying? In a Barna Group poll, only 6 in 10 Americans say they’ve make a commitment to Christ. What’s most unusual is that the richer you are, more educated you are, and the younger you are, the less likely you are to believe. It shows that the more someone is rewarded with an easy life, the more likely they are to turn their backs on Christianity. (2) Kind of like a fair-weather friend.
Another thing that surprised me in the pole was that here in America with each generation, although they believe Jesus was an actual historical person, fewer believe in his Divinity.
To me this says the same message Jesus got from his question to the Disciples, if they can’t picture him as the Son of God, how can they picture themselves as Children of God?
……
But back to the question. What is it that YOU say?
I guess, more importantly, what does your description of Christ say about you? What are you think you’re telling others about yourself?
If you truly describe yourself as a Christian, then you believe that Christ died to save your life. Now you also have to ask yourself, what do your actions follow the words you said? Do your actions reveal about who you think Christ is? Because if you truly believe, you know he died so that you can live! How would you thank someone who died in your place? How could you ever put into words your gratitude?
The best thing you can do is follow the advice on a plaque I say hanging that says “Live your life in such a way that those who do not know God, learn of him through you”
We are fickle bunch of people. The Israelites had been taught they were children of God, but once left alone, they decided to build the Golden Calf. What were they thinking? It’s like they were saying “we the children of Cattle?”
But are we so different? In modern times we have the trolls. People who hide behind the anonymity of a fake user name to say vile things on the internet. What is it that they are saying about themselves?
I think in the end, we were given many gifts and talents. Speaking is one of the more powerful ones. I think it’s all in parallel with the sign I read. We need to always use our gift of speech by speaking, whether it is about Jesus or our fellow human beings, in such a way that those who do not know Christ, learn of him by how we talk.
References:
1. Wake Forest University. "What you say about others says a lot about you, research shows." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 3 August 2010.
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100802165441.htm
2. What Do Americans Believe About Jesus? 5 Popular Beliefs
https://www.barna.com/research/what-do-americans-believe-about-jesus-5-popular-beliefs/
3. What we see in Others is a Reflection of Ourselves; http://thedreamcatch.com/what-we-see-in-others-is-a-reflection-of-ourselves/
