Prayer Warriors@ St Mary Help Of Christians Church, Aiken, South Carolina at 118 York Street SE, Aiken, SC 29801-4568 US - Who is Jesus? Who is Jesus to us?

Our readings today are filled with questions.  Asking questions is a normal, healthy consequence of being created with intellects and free wills.  Little kids ask all kinds of questions -- why, why, why -- but frequently aren’t interested in the answer.  They ask the next question before you finish answering the previous one.  Teens ask questions, too, but often in an attempt to change the subject.  When I taught 7^th Grade Sunday School, I would sometimes get some really weird questions, and I know some of them were trying to get me off track. 

Even St. Paul asked questions of God in our 2nd reading:  “Three times I begged the Lord about this, that (the devil tormenting me) might leave me, but he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you.’”  His question is “Why me, Lord?‘’  “Can’t you make this go away?”  We ask these kinds of questions of God  But do we really want to hear His answer, or do we just want God to make the uncomfortable situation go away?

The people of Nazareth were asking questions, too.  “Where did this man get all this?  What kind of wisdom has been given him?  Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary?  Are not his brothers and sisters here with us?”  Those are all legitimate questions, but the next line reveals their heart.  “And they took offense at him.”  How?  If you look closer at the questions, they are moving in the wrong direction.  They started with important questions, “where did this man get all this?“  But before they thought about the answer, they went onto more trivial questions such as “Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary?“ They ended up focusing on the wrong things, and so the truth about where Jesus got His wisdom is something they didn’t comprehend.

What about us?  Are we questioning, but not just why, why, why?  More importantly, are we asking the right questions in a search for the truth?  There is a skill to asking the right questions.  There is greater skill to know when to stop asking and wait for the answer.  The people in Nazareth had seen the miracles and heard the stories about Jesus, but didn’t make the connection between what they had experienced and their first two questions.  “Where did this man get all this?  What kind of wisdom has been given him?“ The people didn’t wrestle with the more basic question of “Who is this Jesus?“  They thought they knew the answer -- he‘s the carpenter‘s son.  They only saw the tip of the iceberg. 

Just because they didn’t struggle with the question, doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t.  Maybe you think that because you’ve been baptized  that you don’t need to ask the questions any more.  I think that if we call ourselves Christians -- disciples of Christ -- we should ask the question all the more.  The answer affects how we should live our lives.  “Who is this Jesus?  Who is Jesus to us?“  Fortunately, the Church has safeguarded the answer in the Apostles Creed .  I believe in Jesus Christ, GOD’S ONLY SON , OUR LORD .  -- The Creed describes who Jesus is in relation to God - His only son..  It also describes who Jesus is in relation to us - our Lord.

The Apostles Creed tells us that this Jesus is different from every person who came before him and every person who came after him.  He is the ONLY son of God.  He’s not just another famous teacher.  All other famous religious teachers came to proclaim a message.  They pointed away from themselves to their message.  But Jesus pointed to himself:  “I am the light of the world.”  “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life.”  Moses and Muhammad claimed only to be prophets of God; Jesus claimed to be God.  The difference cannot be overstated.  Jesus is the central person in God’s plan for humanity.  Don’t be fooled by those who say “All religions are the same.”  They aren’t.  This Jesus of Nazareth is different from all the rest. 

In the early Church, gallons and gallons of ink and even more gallons of blood were spilled over the question of Jesus as the true son of God.  It is why, after several hundred years of questioning and wrestling, the Creed was expanded to include a deeper understanding of the truth:  Jesus is “God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God, begotten not made, one in being with the Father.” 

As Catholics, I think that we have a basic understanding of the first point  -- Jesus is the only son of God -- because it receives special emphasis during the Advent, Lent, and Easter seasons.  It’s the second point, Jesus is our Lord, that causes us more trouble.  Why?  Because the focus of the questioning changes.  It gets personal.  The question changes from “Who are you, Jesus?” to “What do you want me to do with my life?”  Jesus Christ is our Lord.  Jesus isn’t only “the Lord,“ Jesus is OUR LORD. 

Living in 21^st Century America instead of under a totalitarian government, the idea of having a lord in the literal sense is lost on us.  We don’t find it normal to think about the word “Lord” in relation to a king and his subjects.  But even that understanding would miss the more demanding Biblical sense of the word "Lord".  The Latin word for Lord, dominus (from where we get words like dominion and dominate), literally meant the owner of slaves.  To early Christians, many of whom were slaves or owned slaves, the word Lord referred to a master who really owned you as he would cattle and sheep.  Furthermore, the master had the right to kill his slave if he wasn’t satisfied with their work.

As uncomfortable as it might be, that is what the Apostles meant when they said “Jesus is Lord.”  Jesus owns us.  We dismiss that reality because He is so good and patient with us.  The fact is that He redeemed us, that is to say he bought us back from the devil.  We belong to Him.  On this weekend when we celebrate freedom, let us be careful to not let it distort who Jesus is in relation to us.

Even St. Paul struggled against a watering down of the term "Lord" in a letter to the Corinthians.  "It has been reported to me that there are rivalries among you.  I mean that each of you is saying, 'I belong to Paul,' or 'I belong to Apollos,' or 'I belong to Christ."  Is Christ divided?  Was Paul crucified for you?"  (1 Cor 1:11-13)  We need to let the truth sink in.  Jesus is “our Lord.”  That is why I said that we Christians need to ask all the more the questions “Who is Jesus?  Who is Jesus to me?”  The answer affects how we live.

Because we no longer live as subjects to an earthly king, is it any wonder that western culture no longer celebrates virtues that a servant would need, such as docility, gentleness, or humility?  As St. Paul said in the 2nd reading:  "Power is made perfect in weakness."  Our culture is so far away from these Christian virtues that just the other day I read an article that was making a big deal out of the fact that Americans were becoming more thrifty.  Well, forgive me if I’m not impressed.  I don’t think this represents a changing of spiritual attitudes.