My Imaginary Friend

Figuring out who Jesus is and thereby who we are

11/25/2018

John 18:33B-37 Pilate said to Jesus, "Are you the King of the Jews?" Jesus answered, "Do you say this on your own or have others told you about me?" Pilate answered, "I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over to me. What have you done?" Jesus answered, "My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews.  But as it is, my kingdom is not here." So Pilate said to him, "Then you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say I am a king. For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice."

If someone were to ask you, “Who is Jesus Christ?” how would you answer them? Before you reply, I would suggest to you that whatever answer you come up with will have profound personal and practical implications. Indeed, your answer to that question will play no small part in your own salvation. You may recall in Matthew 16 at Caesarea Philippi how Jesus asked his apostles, “Who do people say that I am?” And Peter’s faith-filled response changed his future forever. Because Peter answered that Jesus was “the Messiah, the Son of the living God,” Jesus dubbed him “Peter,” “Petros,” the rock foundation of the Church. How we answer the question about the identity of Jesus always sort of boomerangs back to shape our own identity.

In C. S. Lewis’ classic book called Mere Christianity, the Oxford professor argued there are only three possible answers to that question about Jesus’ identity. Put simply, Jesus is either a lunatic, a liar, or the Lord. Lewis explained: “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about [Jesus, that is] I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say.” Lewis continued: “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman, or something worse.”

By the way, I believe one reason people prefer to see Jesus as a great moral teacher is that puts Jesus safely inside a box and keeps him at arm’s length; he doesn’t get too close. Think about it: if Jesus is just a great moral teacher, we can listen attentively to his lectures, say how smart he is, and then leave at the end of class, and go back to life as before. But if he is the Lord, however, then we must serve and worship him like Peter did, and our life will never be the same.

In the gospel today, Jesus has a high-stakes interview with Pontius Pilate, over the question of his identity. At stake is not only Jesus’ pending crucifixion, but also Pilate’s eternal salvation. Two fates hang in the balance. Pilate asks first: “Are you the King of the Jews?” Remember that Pilate was a career politician, and his question was politically motivated because he wanted to know the ramifications of crucifying Jesus. Would it be politically expedient?  In effect Pilate was wondering, “Are you a lunatic, a liar or the Lord?” But notice how Our Lord replies with another question (as he often does), asking: “Do you say this on your own or have others told you about me?” The key words are “on your own.” In other words, don’t make this political or theoretical, but make it personal and practical. Jesus is asking Pilate like he asked Peter and the other apostles: “Who do you say that I am?” Our Lord tried to elicit an act of faith, like he did with everyone he encountered. Why? Because who Jesus is also concerns who Pilate is. And that perennial politician didn’t like being put on the spot, and asked each personal questions.

May I share with you who Jesus is for me? I don’t want this homily to be a theology lecture, that you can listen to and walk away unchanged.  But rather a personal testimony, that you have to take seriously. Jesus is my closest personal friend. Sometimes we see small children talk to an “imaginary friend” who is with them all the time, and we adults smile and humor them. Well, you will have to smile and humor me, too, because I have an imaginary friend named Jesus, who by the way, is more real to me than this whole cosmos was to Albert Einstein. Like small children do, I tell Jesus how I feel, if I am sad because someone died, or angry because of how people drive, or tired after a long day, or really excited because the deacon will preach at Mass and I get a break. I ask him to forgive me when I commit sins, and fall short as a Christian. I ask him to bless my family, my friends, and my parishioners who have problems. I ask him to give me wisdom to deal with hard pastoral problems and with hard-headed people. And that continuous conversation never ceases, even when I fall asleep, and maybe that’s when Jesus can finally say something himself because I finally shut up. In other words, Jesus is my personal Lord and Savior, but notice that necessarily means I am his disciple and servant. Who he is makes me who I am.

On this final Sunday of the liturgical year, the Feast of Christ the King - after having walked with Jesus, after having seen his miracles, after having heard his wisdom - the Church urges us to ask ourselves, “Who is Jesus Christ to me?” Is Jesus just a great moral teacher, like Mahatma Gandhi, or Buddha, or Aristotle? Is he merely someone we hear on Sunday, but keep at arm’s length the rest of the week? Is he your personal Lord and Savior, to whom you owe not only your salvation, but also Someone who can demand your discipleship? Or, is he an intimate and imaginary Friend, who others may not see, but who, as St. Augustine said, “is nearer to me than my inmost being” (Confessions, 3.6.11)? Is he Someone whose love is more important to you than life itself?

And be very careful how you answer that question about Jesus identity. Why? Because your own identity (like Peter’s and Pilate’s) hangs in the balance. Who Jesus is always makes us who we are.

Praised be Jesus Christ!