“Renegade Gospel: The Most Important Question You Will Ever Have to Answer” Luke 9: 18-24

There is a book that I liked when I was little that was all about children asking their parents questions. Questions about why things are the way they are and how things work. Why the sky is blue and the flowers smell. As adults we also ask questions - some that are easy to answer - about what we do or who comprises our family - and others that don’t seem to have any answer at all - why bad things happen to good people. Our lives are full of questions, waiting for answers. 

In today’s gospel passage Jesus asks his disciples a question… or really two questions. First he asks them who the crowds say that he is. This passage takes places right after Jesus feeds the five thousand. A crowd that had gathered to hear him teach. A crowd who he fed both spiritually and physically. Some people in the crowd had only heard about him from others up until that point at time. Perhaps others had heard him along the way before. But they came. And now Jesus wants to hear from his disciples who the people think he is. 

The answers varied. Some thought that he was John the Baptist - the one who had came to prepare the way for the Messiah. Others thought he was Elijah - one of the greatest prophets ever to live. And still others thought he was another ancient person who had come back to life, at this time, to direct their paths. 

After the disciples had given their answers of what they had heard, Jesus ask them the second question - “but who do you say I am?” This is a deeply personal question, that emerged after the disciples had spent over 18 months traveling day in and day out with Jesus. Going where he went. Eating what he ate. Sleeping where he slept. Their lives had been a constant journey with Jesus since he called them to follow him. Jesus had called them, not the elite or the smartest, not the most devout or the typical choices, to be his followers as their rabbi. But they each had answered the call to follow him. Imagine what they must have saw during that time - the teachings and healings. Imagine what they must have experienced - being welcomed by crowds and being chased out of town. These men had been through it all with him for over the past year and a half and now he wants to know who they think he is. 

Peter, always the outspoken one, blurts out “You are the Messiah of God!” This isn’t the answer from Peter that we would have expected. Peter the impulsive. Peter the sometimes unobservant. But in this instance he gets it right. Jesus is the Messiah - the chosen one of God. Now maybe Peter knew what that meant, and maybe he didn’t, but either way through his journeys with Jesus he had come to know, somewhere in his heart, that Jesus would save Israel. The disciples probably had many questions about what it meant that Jesus was the Messiah, but they didn’t have time to ask. Not now. Not yet. For Jesus sternly ordered them not to. 

The questions that Jesus posed to his disciples are ones that we still need to answer today. Who do people say Jesus is? For some, he is a good person. For others a prophet, but not God. For still others, they don’t believe that he existed at all. The answers will vary from person to person. But the more personal question that each of us need to answer is who do we believe Jesus is. Who is Jesus in your life?

Christian writer, C.S. Lewis  believed that there were really only three ways that we could answer the question of who we believe Jesus is. First, Jesus could be a liar. He could have lied to his disciples that he was the son of God. The second was that Jesus was a lunatic. He may have claimed to be God, but that just wasn’t true. And he taught things that just sounded crazy. But there is also a third answer, that Jesus really is who he says. That he is the Son of God and Son of Man. Fully human and fully divine. Who has come to show us the way to God and bring his Kingdom to reign on Earth. Jesus is the Lord he claims to be. 

According to Lewis, we each have to choose if we believe Jesus was a liar, lunatic, or Lord. In his words, “You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse.” And lest you think that you can get away with not thinking about who you believe Jesus to be in your life, Pastor Mike Slaughter states, “Let’s not deceive ourselves - not answering, ignoring, avoiding, belittling, or postponing the question is still a response.”

We need to decide if Jesus is Lord of our lives or not. For some people they can easily turn to God, but only in times of crisis - times when they are in deep and disrepute needs. But believing in Jesus only in those moments does not make him Lord of your life. Only following God when it is convient for you, doesn’t grow faith - for the process of coming to know Christ and growing in your faith is much more gradual. And requires much more trust. In the words of Mike Slaughter, “Faith is not quick, faith is not easy.”

And just because you study about Jesus - going to church and Bible study doesn’t mean that Jesus is Lord of your life either. You can be able to tell people about who Jesus is - just as the disciples reported from the crowds that day - without ever truly letting him be Lord of your life. Slaughter writes, “Jesus becomes a Sunday morning habit, and the rest of the week we seem to get along just fine without him.” That is not making Jesus Lord of your life. 

Believing that Jesus is Lord of your life means that you have to deny yourself and follow Christ. It means realigning your priorities with Christ’s priorities. It requires a life commitment - not just when we feel it, or when we are in need, or when things seem easy - but all day, every day. Submitting our very selves to the service of Christ. Daily dying to our desires. Daily rising to accept Christ as the Lord of our lives. The one in complete control. The one who we honor and serve. The one and only. And that type of faith, that type of allegiance to Christ alone, requires action. We cannot stay the same way that we were before we met Jesus if he is our Lord. And we cannot have the same level of faith that we have today, tomorrow, if we are seeking to grow with Christ. 

Lest we deceive ourselves, many people start the journey with Christ. They can tell other people who Jesus is, but far fewer can say who Jesus is to them and live a life that matches. That type of dedication and sold out commitment, requires the support of a community of believers that encourage us to keep running the race. To keep growing in grace. Folks who help us sustain our commitment to proclaiming that Jesus is Lord with our lips and our lives.

Like the disciples we to need to be able to answer the question - but who do you believe that I am? Not just tell others that I am. Not just study. But believe in such a way that our lives reflect our beliefs. And that may just be the most important question that we are ever going to have to answer. Do you know what your answer will be? Amen.