Who Do You Say That He is?

In past weeks, much has been said and much has been remembered about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. April 4 marked the 50th anniversary of his assassination, and all over the country there were memorials, speeches, services and sermons that celebrated him and the life he lived.

We respect him.

We revere him.

We honor him.

And we marvel him. at his courage.

But the King we celebrate is not the King who said "America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds" and demanded justice an repayment of the debt owed Blacks in this country. It is not the King who called economic discrimination against Blacks "murder in the first degree." 

No, we like Barney - as in the big purple dinosaur - King, a King who is all light-hearted, all sing-songy, all smiles, and all here-we-go-round-the-mulberry-bush. We like the hopeful, inspirational soaring rhetoric that made us feel all warm and fuzzy inside - the part that does not challenge us or make us imagine or push us to acknowledge real barriers to equality in life. 

We like Fake King - kind of like we like Fake Jesus. 

Fake Jesus is warm and fuzzy. He was a good person. A powerful teacher. But He is no better than Buddha or Muhammad or Denzel Washington. He's just a really good dude.

The problem with this - like the problem with our reimagined Martin Luther King Jr. - is that that's not who he was.

Jesus is the risen King. Our risen savoir. He was all-God and all-man, born of a virgin, and He was/is a miracle worker. He walked this earth in power. He healed the sick and raised the dead. He preached, REPENT! He said, if any man will follow me, he must first DENY HIMSELF and take up his cross - and THEN follow Him. There is a work that comes with and is born of salvation! We can not achieve salvation through good works, but there should be some fruit in our lives that bears witness to the fact that we live and serve a risen THE risen savoir.

Jesus preached transformation! So, there should be evidence of this transformation in our lives. Has He sown forgiveness in your heart?  Has he mended your woundedness? Do you yearn to spend quiet time with Him, to know Him more? If the Risen Savoir truly lives in us – there is evidence.  

There is NO WAY you can look into the face of the Most High God, Our Creator God, and remain unchanged. Life in Christianity is not about what you stopped doing. It's about who you've become. It's about deep, spiritual reformation, a soul-changing rest that lets you - AND others - know that you've encountered the Master - and ONLY the power of God changed you.

Otherwise, we're walking billboards for a failed God. A dying world sees no hope in us. Instead, they see the calamity and chaos of who we really are – though we publicly profess Christ. Who wants that god? Who wants that king? 

Jesus was/is unflinching in His message that we must turn away from sin, and follow Him. But somehow, we've dismissed this and embraced a "He-knows-my-heart-theology." We've grown real comfortable in our sin. We defend it. We vote for it. We look the other way. And we don't use words like holy, sanctified, and righteousness anymore. Plus, we talk crazy to people who do.

Why is that? Do we no longer believe that we, as Christians, are to be called out and set apart?

In Mark 8:27, Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do people say I am? And his disciples answered him:

Some say John the Baptist.

Some say Elijah.

And still others, say one of the prophets.

Then Jesus asked another question: Who do YOU say that I am?

And Peter replied, The Messiah.

Is that our answer? Is He the Messiah? Full of glory, full of grace? All-powerful, life-changing and transformative? If so, what does His resurrected life look like in us?

Is His death, burial, and resurrection power at work in us such that someone will come running saving, what must I do to be saved?

If not, our lives lie on the Master. We're preaching and teaching a falsehood - much like the reimagined stories we tell ourselves about Dr. King.

Know that I love you each, L.