Answering the ultimate question of who Jesus is
04/09/2017
Matthew 21:1-11 When Jesus and the disciples drew near
Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two
disciples, saying to them, "Go into the village opposite you, and
immediately you will find an ass tethered, and a colt with her. Untie them and
bring them here to me.” The very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road,
while others cut branches from the trees and strewed them on the road. And when
he entered Jerusalem the whole city was shaken and asked, "Who is
this?" And the crowds replied, "This is Jesus the prophet, from
Nazareth in Galilee."
If I were to
ask you the question, “Who is Jesus?” how would you answer it? I suppose there
would be as many answers as there are people in this church today, and as many
answers as there are people in the world today. Let me give you some examples.
An evangelical Protestant would say, “Jesus is my personal Lord and Savior!”
Good answer. A Catholic would reply, “I don’t know, ask Fr. John!” Bad answer.
A first-century Christian would have just said one word, “ichthus,” which is
Greek and means “fish.” But it’s an acronym where each letter stand for a
different word: the “I” is for “Jesus” (iesous), the “ch” is for “Christ”
(Christos), the “th” is for “God” (theou), the “hu” is for “son” (huios), and
the “s” is for “Savior” (soter). Put it all together and you get “Jesus Christ,
Son of God, Savior.” “Icthus” is a one-word compendium of the whole Christian
faith, and that’s why they call Catholics “fish-eaters,” not because we eat
fish on Fridays.
The third
president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, tried to answer who Jesus was
by removing the parts of the Bible that he believed were not historically
accurate, and he therefore created the so-called “Jefferson Bible.” You may
squirm or scoff at Jefferson’s spirituality, but he, too, was attempting to
answer the same question, “Who is Jesus?” At the beginning of his book called
Catholicism, Bishop Robert Barron explains why this question matters, saying:
“One of the most important things to understand about Christianity is that it
is not primarily a philosophy or a system of ethics or a religious ideology. It
is a relationship to the unsettling person of Jesus Christ, to the God-man.
Someone stands at the center of the Christian concern” (emphasis in original,
Catholicism, 10). In other words, “Who is Jesus?” is not just any old question;
it is ultimately the only question.
In the
gospel reading during the blessing of palms, Jesus enters Jerusalem on a
donkey, and this became the burning question of the day. Matthew wrote, “And
when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was shaken and asked, ‘Who is this?’
And the crowds replied, ‘This is Jesus the prophet, from Nazareth in Galilee’.”
Jesus rides to the culmination of his career: his crucifixion on the Cross, and
it was imperative that people answer the question, “Who is Jesus?” You’ll
remember that earlier in Matthew 16, Jesus had asked his apostles the same
question, “Who do people say that I am?” And only St. Peter answered, “You are
the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
If Peter had spoken Greek, he would have just said, “icthus.” It is imperative and it is inescapable, it is
“the center of the Christian concern,” namely, the simple question, “Who is
Jesus?”
My friends, in trying to answer this
ago-old and aching question, we have to read the Bible and the Catechism. But
there is something else we can do. We can examine our own lives and see how
Jesus has touched and transformed us. Have you seen those “broken heart
pendants,” where one person wears half the heart and the other person carries
the other half? But it’s broken in such a special way that only these two
halves will fit together. That means that all the contours and crevices and
cliffs of your heart (and your history) perfectly match those same
characteristics of Christ’s heart (and his history with you). Studying your own
life will be a personal and perfect clue to answer the perennial question, “Who
is Jesus?”
Ponder these
questions today: How did you know Jesus as a child? When did you first meet
him? How did you fall in love with him? What miracles has he worked in your
life? What crosses has he asked you to carry? What secrets has he shared with
you? What lessons has he taught you? What gifts has he given you? By what paths
has he led you? If you can answer these questions, you are beginning to see the
contours of your heart (and your history), and they give you a glimpse of the
interior of Jesus’ own heart. In other words, besides the Bible and the
Catechism, your own life is “a little book” that Jesus has co-authored with
you, where you can find the answer to the question, “Who is Jesus?”
One day, you
will stand at the gates of Paradise, and St. Peter will ask you this precise
question. It was the question he had to answer, too, and he got right when
Jesus asked him at Caesaria Philippi, “Who do people say that I am?” And you
better not answer, “I don’t know; ask Fr. John.”
Praised be
Jesus
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