Who Is Jesus? Who Are We?

The magi came on Epiphany and told us--told everyone they met including Herod--that they knew the king of the Jews was born. "Where is he who is born the King of the Jews? For we have seen his star." Who is this baby born to Mary? He is the King of the Jews.

Epiphany, the word, has to do with revelation. The revelation of Christ by the magi to be the King of the Jews is THE revelation that gives us the name of the religious day on January 6th. Epiphany can also be the revelation of any divine being, like in classical texts of Greek mythology or plays or other literature. I really like this word because it's got -PHAN- in it. This comes from a Greek verb which means to shine. With the EPI- at the beginning, it literally parses as "to shine upon." Jesus, the light of the world, reveals his divine nature to us by shining upon us. I think that's beautiful.

In this season after Epiphany, we continue to ask: Who is Jesus? On Sundays we have read about the baptism of the Lord--twice! In Matthew, we learned that Jesus is the one who comes to fulfill all righteousness. In John, we learned that he is the one who comes to take away the sin of the world. In both, we learned that he is the beloved one of God, and we saw him anointed with both water and the Holy Spirit. “Anointed” in Greek is “Christ,” and in Hebrew it is “Messiah.” Jesus is the Messiah long expected of the Jews, not only their newborn king. Jesus is “Jesus, the anointed,”--Jesus Christ.

We learned that Jesus is the one who takes up John's message to "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," and Jesus is the one who calls us to drop our nets and our livelihood and our family ties and to follow him. We will learn in February that Jesus is the one who blesses us, and Jesus is the one who teaches US how to fulfill all righteousness. Then it's Transfiguration Sunday, and we will see Jesus revealed in Glory, shining upon Peter and James and John. We will be told that Jesus is the one we are to listen to.

And then it's Lent.

Lent is one of the purple seasons when we try to be introspective and think about ourselves and what we can do better. On Ash Wednesday, we don't so much focus on who Jesus is as who WE are. We kick off Lent each year with ashes and remind ourselves that we are ash and dust and that we will return to ash and dust.

This year, the Ash Wednesday passage in Matthew says to do all this penitence and introspective self-examination privately, not to do any of it for show, so that our "Father who sees in secret will reward you." I both agree with this and disagree with it. We don't do things for public recognition; we do them because they're right and pleasing to God. Some sins are intensely private by nature and are appropriately kept "in secret" as we work on our own repentance. BUT, identifying and facing your own sin can be hard, emotionally. We have a community to support us in love. We can pray for each other and show that we care for each other. We can share with a close, trusted friend, or we can keep the facts to ourselves and still lean on each other for emotional support.

Also, we sin as we participate in systems of sin in our society. This is sometimes hard to understand from the perspective of an individual. What it takes is the perspective of the community and society. I knew a guy once who was opposed to having a prayer of confession in the worship service. "_I_ have not sinned in the past week," he said. Sometimes it's not about _I_, but about WE. Our church is good about supporting hungry people through the Samaritans Food Pantry, but is our society truly just? Do we prevent hunger to begin with as best we can? Is our larger economic system just? Our Father who sees in secret will reward us for our introspection and repentance, but also hold us accountable for how our society treats the widows and orphans and sojourners among us.

After kicking off Lent with that passage from Matthew, we will touch on characters in John. We'll see Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman at the well, the man born blind, and the siblings, Mary and Martha and Lazarus. John is often accused of having a too-high Christology (people say that in John, Jesus' feet barely touch the ground) but I say look at these fully-human interactions. I, personally, love the high Christology of John, but Jesus is also very human. He thirsts, he spits and makes mud and TOUCHES people, he weeps. It will be tempting to focus on Jesus, but these stories also tell us about us. John uses these stories about people that Jesus interacts with so that we can "try on" different ways that WE interact with Jesus. Do we get confused and withhold our commitment like Nicodemus? Do we run and tell everyone we know like the Samaritan woman. Do we worship like the man born blind? Do we hold grief and trust together like the sisters of Lazarus? I love these rich characters in the Gospel of John and how they inform us of the human condition.

Here's the thing, ultimately: Jesus became one of us. Jesus became like us in every way except without sin. As we examine ourselves and our human limitations, we are also learning about Jesus. When we learn about us, we learn about Jesus. Who we are--humans just trying to figure things out and make our way in the world--that's also who Jesus was. "Though he was in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself." He became limited like us. He had to step out in faith like us. Like us, he had to love neighbors and sojourners in spite of social prejudices and cultural norms that would prevent him from doing that.

AND ALSO: when we learn about Jesus, we learn about us. Jesus stepped out in faith; so can we. Jesus loved neighbors across cultural divides; so can we. Jesus cared for the beggar and helped him to see and grow and become independent and self-sufficient; so can we. Jesus humbled himself and became obedient to God's will; so can we.

February is a divided time, finishing up the themes of Epiphany and starting the introspection and penitence of Lent. The lessons we learn complete each other, though. We ask the questions "Who is Jesus?" and as we answer them we learn a little about who we are. We ask the questions "Who are we?" and as we answer, we learn a little about who Jesus is. By this back-and-forth process, Jesus reveals himself and shines his glory upon us, and we learn from him how to better follow him.

Blessings,

--Chas