Who do you say that I am?  Christ’s question to his disciples: Who do you think I actually am?  What am I?  What am I here for?  The crowds who followed Jesus were confused about this: some had expectations of a political savior who would come in full military glory, sweeping in and overcoming the tyrants of the age with unstoppable physical might.  Some saw in him a reincarnated prophet of either recent or distant memory: John the Baptist or Elijah.  The polls were divided.  St. Peter, inspired by the Holy Spirit, realizes the truth.  You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. 

What’s our answer to this question?  Who do we say that Christ is?  Just like in his own time, our world today has various insufficient explanations about Our Savior.  The most common goes something like: Yeah, Jesus was a great guy.  A religious philosopher who flew a little too close to the sun.  A social reformer ahead of his time.  An advocate for the poor and downtrodden: these kinds of things.  Our world tends to say, he was a good guy, but the idea that he was God, that was invented later by the Church.  These people would say that Jesus certainly didn’t intend to found a Church, or the sacraments, or any of this weird Catholic morality; he was against institutions, right?  Isn’t it interesting, brothers and sisters, how these various theories of who Christ is, so closely resemble the people who promote them?  God made us in his image; we don’t get to remake him in ours.  These assertions also make no sense.  Jesus claimed to be God.  Many times.  In many ways.  The Gospels are full of these scenes.  Including in today’s Gospel: “He began to teach them that he must suffer greatly and be rejected and be killed, and rise after three days.  He spoke this openly.”  This is what St. Mark says.  I love that line, “He spoke this openly.”  It’s like St. Mark is saying, No no, He said it out loud, guys.  He said he was going to rise from the dead, and then later, it happened.  That’s a God thing!  So this idea that Christ was just a good guy really makes no sense.  He claimed to be God, and did various things that only God could do.  So he either was, or he was diabolically wickedly blasphemous, or he was completely crazy. Those are really the only reasonable options.  I choose option 1.  He was who he claimed to be. 

And that is the fundamental question for us: do we accept his claim?  And then, do we joyfully accept that God made us in his image and try to live up to that by striving to be the person he made us to be?  Or, do we manufacture an idea of God in our own image?  Who do we say that he is?  Like Peter, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, we are led to proclaim that he is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, true God and true man, the perfect revelation of the Father.  Our world rejects this answer because we enlightened modern people so thoroughly regard ourselves as gods; we think we’ve got everything figured out, so we say, if we can’t perceive it with our senses or measure it with some scientific instrument that we’ve created, then it isn’t real.  But as Christians, brothers and sisters, we know that our God, his Son Jesus Christ, the saints and angels, the sacraments, love, the soul, these unmeasurable things are as real as anything we find on the periodic table.  Of course, our world bristles when any religion claims that it is real, that it is anything other than a series of opinions and preferences.  But when we turn to the Lord and say, “You are the Christ,” we are saying just that.  We respect and love our brethren of other faiths, of course, and we rejoice in the extent to which they participate in God’s truth, which in many cases is quite deeply.  But, if this is real, if we’re not just messing around here: if Almighty God exists, if he truly created the world from nothing, truly sent his Son to dwell among us as man, truly died for our sins, truly destroyed the power of death forever by rising from the dead: if all that actually happened, if all of that is real, then everything is different.  

So, who do you say that he is?  This question matters, because it leads to all kinds of other questions.  You want to lead a good happy life? The world says, Minimize discomfort.  Christ says, Take up your cross and follow me.  The world says, do want you want to do; be what you want to be; you’re the master of your own destiny.  Christ says, Look to me to see who you truly are and who you are truly destined to be.  Faced with these choices: in the words of the Prophet, we set our face like flint.  The Lord God is my help; who will prove me wrong?  The Lord’s question is also for us, “Who do you say that I am?”  We joyfully answer: You are the Christ.  You are the Sun of Justice.  You are our salvation.  You are what makes my life make sense.  You are the Lord of the world and the Lord of my heart, now and forever.