“Who Do Men Say I Am? Who Do YOU Say I Am?”

SPECIAL THOUGHTS FOR THE CHRISTMAS SEASON

“13) When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples: ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’ (14) They replied, ‘Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ (15) ‘But what about you?’ he (JESUS) asked.  ‘Who do  you say I am?’ (16) Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’ (17) Jesus replied, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in Heaven.” - MATTHEW 16:13-17 (New International Version)

THE PEOPLE OF FAITH WALKED WITH GOD

I’ll venture to say that those two questions posed by Jesus so long ago are the two most important questions ever asked in the long, troubled, and occasionally inspired history of mankind.  Peter the Hebrew fisherman, probably a minimally educated man at that time, was asked the two questions around which the history of humankind on earth has revolved—indeed the two questions which essentially divided ALL time into  a “before” and an “after”.  He who asked the questions was “God Incarnate”, who came among men, a fact that people of other faiths, and indeed some who “call” themselves “Christians”, cannot bing themselves to accept. 

As our LORD Jesus proclaimed to the disciples with him, the TriUnity of Eternity revealed this truth to them.  The “Second Person” of that TruUnity (or “Trinity” as true Christians refer to our Creator) had just revealed to His probably somewhat incredulous Disciples that the person they called Jesus was, indeed, THE MESSIAH long promised by Hebrew Prophets!  A “man” in their sight, but so much more—not a “man” as humanly defined, but “God With Us” to take unto Himself the terrible burden of mankind’s “sin” and show us how to live with Him in eternity, thereby bringing to completion God’s plan from eternity to eternity.

It must have been more than a little shocking for the Disciples to realize, if only imperfectly at that moment, that God the Creator had taken on a human form, come to live among men, and teach them  what they could not understand until then, and   perhaps only imperfectly at that time.  Talk about being “dumbfounded”!  I surely would have been.

Being faithful, or at least practicing, Hebrews, they surely knew all of the ancient prophecies that told the people of Israel that in God’s own time He would send a Messiah to “save” them (i.e. Isaiah 7:14 where the Messiah is to be named Emmanuel, or “God is with Us” in ancient Hebrew).  Undoubtedly they pictured Jesus, their newly revealed Messiah, as a warrior King who would send the cursed Romans back to Italy where they belonged, or dispatch them all to “Sheol” and  re-establish the Hebrew Kingdom of David there in Jerusalem.  They must have been dismayed, and perhaps initially disappointed, when they discovered the Messiah’s true motives.

PROPHECIES ABOUT JESUS AS THE MESSIAH FROM THE OLD TESTAMANT, WRITTEN BY PEOPLE OF FAITH OVER CENTURIES

Many Christians and People of Faith don’t realize just how many references to Jesus as THE Messiah that there are in the Old Testament, written mostly in ancient Hebrew and ancient Aramaic, two distinctly Semitic languages.  Remember that some of these were declared and written down many hundreds of years (or more) BEFORE Jesus was born among men. Here are a few of them:

These are just SOME of the many prophecies.  I didn’t have space to list all of them!

ARE YOU ON YOUR “ROAD TO EMMAUS”?

Although this is the Christmas Season when Christians and people of good will celebrate the birth of the baby who was the Savior of all who would believe, we know that even some who walked in life with our Savior did not believe—or perhaps did not understand, at least at first.  One such instance is recounted in LUKE 24, starting with verse 13, when two men were walking on a road on their way to EMMAUS, about seven miles from Jerusalem.  As they walked they discussed the recent events of Jesus’ arrest, crucifixion, and resurrection.  Jesus was waiting for them, there on that deserted road.  Coming up and walking along with them, they at first did not recognize who it was that was now traveling that same road.

Jesus inquired what they were discussing as they waked along.  One of them, named Cleopas, replied:  “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who doesn’t know the things that have happened there recently?”  Jesus must have smiled as he asked: “What things”?

“About Jesus of Nazareth” they replied, as they recounted the recent events in life of the man they called a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people.”  Then they told their companion all of the events of that final wonderful yet traumatic week of Jesus’ life, and about His crucifixion by the Romans and the empty tomb that the women found. 

25: He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken!  26) Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?”  27) And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.  (Luke 24:13-27 N.I.V.)

WHY DO WE TRIVILIZE THE BIRTH OF OUR SAVIOR?

One of my real heroes of the Christian Faith was the late Rev. Dennis James Kennedy (1930-2007), Founder and long time Pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.  Back in 1994 he wrote a book: “WHAT IF JESUS HAD NEVER BEEN BORN”?.  Here is a quite pertinent quote from page 1:

“Some people have made transformational changes in…human learning…and their names are forever enshrined in the annals of human history.  But Jesus Christ, the greatest man who ever lived, changed virtually every aspect of human life—and most people don’t know it.  The greatest tragedy of the Christmas holiday each year is not so much its commercialization…but its trivialization.  How tragic it is that people have forgotten Him to whom they owe so very much.”

God’s Prophetic Word plainly rejects that false notion that the birth, life, teachings, death, and resurrection of our Savior Jesus the Messiah can be trivialized.  Yet that disrespect is the “mantra’ of our day, is it not?  Why do we seemingly forget, either on purpose or out of neglect, that EVERYTHING that Jesus the Messiah touched in our world He totally transformed?  His birth “touched” time, and everything involving “time” is measured either before or after His birth. 

How do you explain how an “itinerant young rabbi” walked around the ancient Holy Land for between three and four years, preaching His message of love and redemption and performing miracles, and thereby changed future time?  Could this have been the culmination of a “plan” that was conceived in the Creator’s mind before He created time, space, matter-----and US? 

Perhaps we need to look afresh at this ancient tale of the birth of a baby boy to a poor young couple—People of Faith who were Hebrews (or ‘Jews’ in more modern terms), in a filthy animal manger or stall, in a ramshackle shed or possibly a cave where only animals might feel “at home”, and look with new “eyes of gratitude” and hearts filled with LOVE that this “STAR” from our Creator brought the very essence of a personal God—our LORD AND SAVIOR—into the lives of sinful and desperate people;---into—at one time hopefully---OUR lives!

ANOTHER VERY ANCIENT PROPHECY WAS FULFILLED

“I see him, but not now; I behold Him, but not near; A Star shall come out of Jacob; a Scepter shall arise out of Israel….”  (NUMBERS 24:17). 

Considering that God’s Holy Spirit inspired Moses to write The Book of Numbers around 1500 years before our LORD Jesus was born among mankind, it’s obvious to us alive today, we whose eyes have been opened, who the “Star” that was to come out of Jacob was—and the identity of the “Scepter” that would rise out of Israel. 

What should we, who call ourselves “Christians”, consider to be our Creator’s “Christmas Miracle”?  Obviously we, as HIS people (if indeed we are) need to constantly re-explore just “who” was the God/Man that the Prophet Isaiah called, “Immanuel—God With Us”.  For most Christians throughout the world, December 25^th (an admittedly arbitrary date selected far back in our past) is celebrated as the day of the birth of the baby boy who DID NOT “BECOME” GOD, BUT WHO WAS  ETERNAL GOD, THE SECOND PERSON OF THE GODHEAD, miraculously incarnated within the womb of a young virgin teen girl to come among humanity as one of us, so that we could know His love for us—so that we could “Behold His Glory” without being consumed by it.  Do I totally understand this miracle—can I really adequately explain it?  No, I can’t.  I accept that reality in love and faith, as all Christians must.

That’s what we as Christians and People of Faith should be celebrating in this Holy Season and on Christmas Day.  Not the hoopla of Santa and presents and eating and drinking too much, and mindless sports and “politically correct” parades.  Let us rejoice that this “Son that was given” was the SAVIOR of all who have believed back into the mists of the distant past, and into the realm of a somewhat fearful future, including this very day when we pray for guidance to this Christ Child, named “Yeshua” in Hebrew, “Christos” in ancient Greek, “Jesus” in Classical Latin, and amplified in our language as “Jesus the Messiah”, the Christ who was long prophesied, who came and lived among us and told us how to live with HIM forever, IF we are called by His name---Christian!

May your  Christmas season and Day be blessed, and may we ALL remember whose Birthday Anniversary we are celebrating!