From a meditation preached Good Friday, A+D 2009 (10 April 2009)
In a pan-Anglican Tre-Ore Service at St George’s Anglican Church (CANA/ACNA), Colorado Springs

“Who do you say that I am?” That’s the question that Jesus asked the disciples.  He asked them this while they were in the middle of Gentile territory – surrounded by pagans and worshippers of idols – the very idols that St Paul tells us are really demons in disguise.  And our Lord asked “who do you say that I am?”

That may be the most important question every Christian – every soul – has to answer. How we answer that question may be affected by the picture we have of Jesus.  How do we see Jesus?  Which Jesus do we see?  Which picture of Jesus do we carry around in our minds and our hearts?   What is the picture of Jesus we show the world?  Do we show the picture of Jesus we really see?  Or do we see one Jesus and water down that picture, pretty it up, clean it up,before we show it to the world – before we show it to the people we work and study and play with?   It’s easy to have a distorted view of Jesus.  It’s easy to see a Jesus that only slightly, if at all, resembles the real Jesus. Is your picture the gentle Jesus, meek and mildfrolicking gently with little lambs in the pasture? If that’s how you see Jesus – how you really see Jesus when you’re being honest with yourself – then I’m here to tell you that it’s time you grew up.