Who Are You?
Knowing your true identity can change your life.
Remember the passage from Matthew 16:13-20 when Jesus asked
the apostles who the crowds said he was?
The apostles tell him, “They think you’re a prophet. You’re
a good teacher.”
Isn’t that how much of the world still sees Jesus? If I were
to ask you, what do other people say about Jesus, isn’t this close to what you
would say? He was a good man, a moral teacher or guide, a prophet, a religious
leader. Some might even say “Jesus is the Answer.” But here we see that Jesus
isn’t really the answer, he’s the question.
WHO DO YOU SAY THAT I AM?
Jesus brings it home. He cuts to the chase. No more dodging
behind what others think or say. Jesus puts the question of himself to the apostles
– and he puts it to each of us. How we answer that question literally makes all
the difference in the world. How we answer that question unlocks the mystery of
our identity and allows us to see our true selves, or it keeps us in darkness
and doubt.
Peter answered. By faith he recognized that Jesus wasn’t
merely just some good guy—he is God in the flesh. That answer changed Peter and
it opened to him the reality of who he really was and who he was called to be. This
was such a radical encounter that it even resulted in Peter’s name and destiny being
changed. No more was he Simon, the fisherman. Now he was Peter, the rock.
Each and every one of us is faced with that same question
from Jesus: Who do you say that I am?
So as you think about your answer to Jesus’ question I have
another question that may be just as important.
WHO DOES GOD SAY THAT YOU ARE?
Scripture tells us that God knew us before we were born,
that he knit us together in our mothers’ wombs, that before we even came into
existence he loved us and called us to be his.
He knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows our
innermost thoughts. He sees all that we do. He has numbered the hairs on our
head. He knows our true identity, and that identity is rooted in his love for
us.
Each and every one of us is so deeply loved and valued by
God that he would rather become a baby born in a smelly stable, be raised in
poverty, submit to being whipped, beaten, spat on, stripped naked and nailed to
a cross rather than risk spending eternity without you, without me.
But wait, there’s more! Not only did he become man, suffer
and die, he takes on the form of a piece of bread so that we can consume him,
so our bodies can be united with him.
We are loved. We are accepted. We are adopted into God’s
family. We are forgiven. We are chosen. We are his children. You are the child
of the Great King. That is your identity. That is your reality. That is your
destiny.
When we listen to the lies told to us by the world or the
enemy we forget who we are. We start to believe the lies whispered to us. We
doubt the good things God has for us. We doubt his love for us.
Each of comes with own baggage. We have our own histories of
hurts and sins.
Maybe you are struggle with an addiction.
Maybe you think your sins have put you beyond the reach of
God’s mercy
Maybe you’ve been hurt by what someone else has done to you
Maybe you just struggle with doubts, doubts about God,
doubts about yourself
Jesus wants you to know that you are not what you have done
You are not what has been done to you
You are precious. You are forgiven. You are LOVED.
I’ll close with these words from St. John Paul II, “We are
not the sum of our weaknesses and failures; we are the sum of the Father's love
for us.”
Let God love you and let that love become the foundation of
your true identity.
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