Who Do You Say That I Am?

Matthew 16:15

He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”

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I know there's a place you walked
Where love falls from the trees
My heart is like a broken cup
I only feel right on my knees
I spit out like a sewer hole
Yet still receive your kiss
How can I measure up to anyone now
After such a love as this

"Who Are You" by The Who from "Who Are You" (1978)

This may be the first question we ask. As the doctor takes us from the safe and warm place we call home and our mothers call their womb, before language the first question we ask is "Who are you?"

This question repeats itself as we become more aware of the people we see on this earth. We will ask it of parents, siblings, family, classmates, friends, and lovers, "Who are you?"

Even as we begin to wonder about our very existence and start asking questions about life and our place in it, we look to the mirror and ask one more time, "Who are you?"

This may well also be the first question we ask of God. "Who are you?"

There was quite a buzz about Jesus at this point of Matthew's gospel. The 5,000 had just been fed with five loaves and 4,000 more with seven loaves. So as Jesus entered Caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?"

They started giving Jesus the answers to his question, like any good student will respond to the Rabbi. John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, one of the prophets; answers abounded. Sure they were all wrong, but the breadth of their answers showed how wildly the crowd was buzzing.

Jesus then turned the question on them. "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter, the first guy to boldly go where angels feared to tread, responded saying, "You are the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of the living God."

I was once asked if the cup was half-empty or half-full. I said the cup is broken. I said it out of rage, knowing the cost of sin. Sung by The Who, this answer makes a different sound.

My heart is like a broken cup
I only feel right on my knees

Life is broken, but we are reminded of where we can go when there is no where else to go. We are reminded of the grace of being invited to take our broken cups to the throne of God's glory.

I spit out like a sewer hole
Yet still receive your kiss
How can I measure up to anyone now
After such a love as this

In no uncertain terms, our sin-soaked lives are a place where it would seem God wouldn't want to come. Humanity has taken creation, the garden, and turned it into a sewer hole. And still, we receive the kiss of God's grace--not the Judas kiss we more likely deserve.

It's true, if we could only come before God when we are clean enough, we would never ever dare approach. But God doesn't love us despite who we are, God loves us because of who we are, even when who we are is a a mess. We can't measure up to this love, but that doesn't stop God from inviting us. That didn't stop God from sending the Son to invite us. That didn't stop the Holy Spirit from coming and dwelling within us even today.

Such grace, such peace, such love, it makes me ask "Who are you?" And it makes me as glad there is an eternity to lovingly discern the answer.