I used to be a confessing fan of baseball, specifically the Houston Astros. Now when I say confessing I mean that I had declared my faith in and allegiance to the Houston Astros as a baseball team. I was 100% behind them as a fan. I could name all the players, I could tell you their statistics, I could talk about their history and share my hopes for their future. I collected baseball cards, I had hats and shirts and jerseys to wear. I knew all the rules of the game. I was a passionate fan; a 100% confessing, faithful, believer in the Houston Astros and baseball.
So what do you confess to? In what do you put your faith? What are you passionate about? Music? Art? Cooking? What is something that you follow with all your heart and would tell any of your family and friends and maybe even complete strangers about so that they too might share the joy of what has brought so much light into your life? That’s what it means to confess, to declare your faith. You want to share what you believe in with the whole world because you want them to experience your joy and see the light that has been revealed to you.
If any one of these passions turned to you and asked, “Who do you say that I am,” would you not be able to answer in a heartbeat? I’d almost bet my bottom dollar on the fact that you could answer the question, you could confess your faith. If the Astros would have asked me in high school, “Who do you say that we are,” I would have been able to answer them without skipping a beat; I could have confessed my faith in the Astros.
Today we are told by Mark that the disciples are “on the way” with Jesus. Now this is important. The phrase “on the way” is Mark’s code for telling us that Jesus is going to talk about what it means to be a disciple. The “way,” hodos in the Greek, is a word that points to the teachings of Jesus that tell us what it means to be a disciple, to journey with Jesus and reorient how we walk through this world. When we read or hear the phrase “on the way” or “along the way” in Mark’s Gospel we should prick up our ears and listen.
So the disciples are “on the way” with Jesus when he turns to ask them a simple question; “Who do people say that I am?” They squeeze out a stock answer, we’ve heard these names before. They answer Jesus; “John the Baptist; and others Elijah; and still others one of the prophets.” The disciples know there is something about Jesus, there is a reason they left everything to follow him, but sometimes they just can’t put their finger on it.
But before they can add to their answer Jesus turns the real question; “Who do you say that I am?” And here the story comes to a grinding halt. This question is not just pointed at the disciples who must have stood around with searching eyes, hands in their pockets, until Peter musters up the strength or just can’t stand the awkward silence anymore and speaks. No this question is pointed at us, the listener. Two thousand years later this question jumps out of the Gospel and grabs us because it is this question that we have to answer for ourselves. Even with the witness of the Gospels, the letters of Paul, the two thousand year, broken history of the church, we still have to answer the question of Jesus; “who do you say that I am?”
Now I know that every week most of us walk into this building and come to worship. We sing hymns, pray, and confess our faith in Jesus using one of the Creeds of the church. We confess our faith on a weekly basis and while these confessions may be genuine and true, they are not the whole picture of what it means to answer Jesus’ question “who do you say that I am?” The question that Jesus is asking seeks an answer that goes deeper than a memorized Creed. The answer to his question lies in the way we live beyond these four walls. The answer to his question belongs out in the world, where the rubber meets the road and our faith is lived out in the ordinary moments of everyday life.
You see, we confess with more than just our lips. The way we live speaks much louder than words we use. As the old saying goes, actions speak louder than words. Our true confessions come through our hands and feet, the way we choose to live and the way we treat those we encounter in life. Our true confession of Jesus Christ is lived out in our relationships with our brothers and sisters, our friends and spouses, and the strangers that we meet. Our true confession of Jesus Christ is lived out when we are at work or school or in the grocery store. Our true confession of Jesus Christ comes when we are so filled with his love that our lives are transformed and we cannot help but share that love with the world through the way we live. We want to tell everyone about the amazing love of Jesus Christ and it shows in our lives. The rubber meets the road moment of being a disciple comes when we will not let our following of Jesus Christ take a back seat to what is happening in the world around us.
Because we too are “on the way” with Jesus and our journey of being a disciple of Jesus Christ begins with his question; who do you say that I am? The other confessions we make in our lives, sports, music, food, are just temporary. Sometimes our passions fade. After high school I lost faith in the Astros. My childhood heroes retired. The management drove the team into the ground and I found new passions. I confessed to new things in my life. Earthly passions, temporary confessions go in and out of style. But our confession of Jesus Christ, our following in the way of Jesus, echoes from our lives today into the kingdom that is yet to come. When we confess Jesus Christ, when we follow in the way of Jesus, we are living into the image in which we were created by God.
During this season of Lent we are talking about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, how we live “on the way” with Jesus in our lives. Today we are met with the first and most important question of this journey. The life of a disciple of Jesus Christ begins when we answer his question; “who do you say that I am?” Through the power of the Holy Spirit we have the strength to answer his question with our lives. Through our new life in Jesus Christ we have the strength to daily confess our faith in Jesus through the way we live. So while you are “on the way” this week, how will you answer the question of Jesus; “who do you say that I am?” How will you confess Jesus Christ with your life?
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