“When Jesus came into the coasts of Cæsarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.” (Matthew 16:13-17). As Jesus became more and more popular, different groups of people or individuals tried to put certain labels on him. Some of them were positive, or at least neutral. Rabbi, master, teacher, the carpenter’s son. Others were less positive. Traitor, insurrectionist, blasphemer. What labels do we try to put on Christ in our day? Whom do we say that He is? It’s a question that we must ask for ourselves, but the important thing is that there isn’t just one right answer. There is no name or word that can encompass the breadth and depth and height of the glory and majesty of Jesus Christ. Studying Christ and His names and titles and learning about Him will take more than our entire lifetime. Christ is infinite. He can’t be contained in any collection of words or ideas. We see over and over again that Christ defied the labels and the expectations of those who would try to squeeze Him into the tiny box that they had labeled Messiah. A true Messiah would not have come from Galilee. A true Messiah would not dine with publicans and harlots. A true Messiah would not do work on the Sabbath. What are the things that we say that the true Messiah would not do? What parts of Christ will not fit neatly inside of our little boxes? Christ says that He will forgive all that repent and come unto Him, but the true Messiah would not forgive me for the things I’ve done. Christ says that we should love our enemies, but the true Messiah would not ask me to love this particular enemy, not if He knew what they had done. The true Messiah would not allow children to get cancer, or whole towns get washed away by a tsunami, or thousands of other things that convince us that Christ is either not all powerful or does not really love us if He continues to allow such horrible things to happen to us. Any label or name or title that we give to Christ that puts limits on Him or His love or His mercy came to us through flesh and blood. But any name or title or label that invites us to learn and to love and to embrace our Savior more and more was revealed to us by our Father in Heaven. And the more that we seek such knowledge, the more names and titles that will be revealed to us. When we fall on our knees before Him with tears in our eyes we can confess that He is our Friend, Savior, Master, Teacher, Forgiver, Judge, Lord, Christ, the Son of the living God.
