Monday 29 June 2015

Psalm: Psalm 125

Background

The expectation of the Messiah underwrites much of the messageof the Gospels. The journey that the writers take us on is onewhich explores the expectations and the reality. And in many caseswe discover that what we expect is not what the reality of Jesuswas.

In this passage we find Jesus confronting the question head on:what do you expect? Am I it?

The disciples were ready and willing to drop everything andfollow Jesus when he asked and yet they still were dealing withtheir expectations. These expectations were deep in the Jewishsociety. It would have formed their upbringing. They would havewitnessed many other people who claimed to be the Messiah but whoended up falling short.

Who is Jesus to us? For some of us we come to this question withwhat other people have told us about who Jesus is as we havediscovered faith for the first time. For some of us we have grownup within the Jesus story, whether this is because of our familyupbringing or because of our social upbringing like the school wego to.

But it is at this point that we need to remember that we shouldnever stop asking ourselves who we think Jesus is. As societypresents competing pictures, from films, television or publicdebate, our concept of Jesus is constantly under pressure.

So who do you say the Son of Man is?

To Ponder

• How do you answer the question that Jesus gave hisdisciples?

• Think through when you have been told something and it turnedout to be something different. How did you respond?

• How can you share the question (Who is Jesus?) withothers?