I’ve been continuing to read the Mark passage from Mark 8:27-30 about who people are saying Jesus is. (read my blog from earlier this week) It seems to me that simply saying who Jesus is falls far short of what Jesus might hope for our lives. Sometimes I get the impression that for some people, figuring out who Jesus is ends the journey- knowing who he is and admitting it is some kind of key into eternal life in some ultra-cool country club heavenly place. I just can’t believe Jesus is interested in us paying lip-service to him; he’s hoping that figuring out who he is only the beginning of a long journey. The long journey is about determining how best to reflect who Jesus is in everyday living. If I am going to claim Jesus as “messiah” (literally, “anointed with oil, anointed one”), then what is it going to mean when I am driving on the beltway and get cut off, when I am in the grocery store behind a particularly challenging customer, when I am talking to my spouse or children or friends or strangers. I think Jesus is more interested in how I am going to live with the truth I’ve discovered about him than what I am going to do with the truth when I die.

So I’ve said Jesus is messiah and now I must struggle daily to make messiah real in my living. Jesus is most interested in my life, not my death. How will I shape it? What will I say “yes” to in my daily life and what will I say “no” to? Will love be a word that rolls off my tongue all too easily or will it be an action? Will love be both words and actions? More thought on the passage that is shaping the message this weekend…