Who do you say I am?

Luke 9: 18 - 22

Soon after Herod's failure to open himself to God's invitation, Jesus poses a similar question to his disciples. He makes the question personal for them. They have witnessed the crowds' responses to Jesus, and in their hearts there must have stirred increasing movements of awe, desire and drawing towards the person of Jesus. They had given up much to follow him - without much knowledge as to where they were being led.....they did not have the gospel teaching neatly laid out for them! They had been attracted to Jesus as he called each one personally and they had answered what their hearts told them....even without a well laid out 'game plan' (except that Jesus was an itinerant teacher and they would follow his lifestyle). Perhaps some of them held the hope that he would be the one to lead the nation out of Roman oppression.

Anyway, the question echoes down over two thousand years......the question is for each one of us too, people who have decided to 'follow Jesus'.

I find that today, if I sit down to write my own answer to Jesus' question, it would be different from the one I would have given say, ten years ago and that would be different from the one of twenty years ago. At one point in my Christian journey, I was so sure that it was easy to 'know' Jesus especially through the gospels. Today, I realize the folly (and probably pride) of believing I can demystify someone who is as much mystery as revealed. There are some things told about Jesus that are similar in all the gospels, but even in such narratives, each gospel writer wrote in very personal ways. Perhaps their writing reflected their personal experience of Christ. One Jesuit spiritual director the late Fr Tom Green, reminded retreatants that they are 'writing the fifth gospel' with their lives. And we all are. As the story of our lives are brought into focus by Christ's story we write the 'fifth gospel'. To the glory of God.