Who do YOU Say that I am?

This year, as I have blogged about before, I have been blessed with a work, a work God planned for me before He knit me together in my mother's womb. I have been (with the help of a fabulous team of amazing people) writing the curriculum for our Sunday School classes, toddlers-4th grade. The entire year can basically be summed up in these two words "Jesus said..." because every lesson is on the words of Jesus. We have used quite a few different curriculum's over the years, some that I adored and have used for ideas, and some that well, I didn't use at all. But all of them had something in common; they told the same few stories over and over again. They told the wonderful old testament stories, going right along with the "Hebrew's hall of heroes". And they would talk about the birth, miracles, death and resurrection of Jesus. And all of those lessons are vitally important, but the problem is they left out the gems, pure spotless gleaming gems of Jesus' words, not just his miracles.

So far this year we have covered quite a few things that these kids had never heard taught about before. They are hearing the words of their Savior new and fresh, and I am probably just as excited as they are. Because having to write it, means having to read His words, and think about His words, and plan how to explain His words through games, crafts, lessons, and snacks; and this has meant a new love in my own heart for how precious those words are. I have read the Gospel many many times, and have been touched by it over and over again, but this focused attention on Jesus' words has shown me how every page is dripping with the love and heart of Jesus. He laughs, He weeps, He gently leads, He chastises, He has compassion, He has mercy, He extends grace, He lives and breathes all over every page.

Yesterday, the lesson I was teaching my 1st and 2nd graders was the passage Matthew 16:13-19 in which Jesus asks the fork in the road, make it or break it question "Who do you say that I am?". I looked forward to this lesson with eager anticipation, because this is the most important question anyone ever has to answer, including 1st and 2nd graders.

Now maybe as you read this, what I just said is causing you to bubble up inside, and you want to say to the screen in front of you "Here we go again, elitist Christians saying that Jesus is the only way. It's unfair. It's wrong, after all,all religions are basically the same and all roads lead to Heaven. And besides Jesus was just a great moral teacher." Fair questions, fair statements, but...

Here is why I think Jesus' question of "Who do you say that I am?" is the most important question you will ever have to answer.

1. Not all religions are the same, they can't be because they contradict each other completely. Just like 2+3=5 and 3+3=5 can't both be right, one is right, or both are wrong, but they can't BOTH be right. Christians say Jesus is God's son and the only way to salvation. Jews say God is sending a Messiah, but it wasn't Jesus. Muslims say that God is only one being, and it is blasphemy to believe in the trinity or Messiah. Some Buddhist sects don't believe that there is a God AT ALL. They can all be wrong, but they can't all be right.

2. Jesus claimed to be God incarnate. He claimed to be the ONLY road to salvation. So He's either a lair, which means He wasn't a great moral teacher. Or He's a lunatic, in which again He wasn't a great moral teacher, or He is Lord. So who do you say that He is?

Well I posed that very question to a group of squirmy, silly kids on Sunday. Not only did I pose the question, we read Simon Peter's words. "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God." I also typed up my own answers to "who do you say that I am?". I wanted to write a thousand different things, but then I remembered that I was talking to kids not adults, and I needed it to be short and to the point. So I told them that He is my Salvation, my Patient God, my Father, my only way to Heaven, My love, My Happiness, my Joy, etc etc.

I poured out my love for my Jesus in front of my squirmy silly kids, and the greatest thing happened. The squirmiest of the bunch, a boy full of imagination and joy stopped squirming, stopped fidgeting and stared at me while I explained who I say Jesus is. I mean intently stared, not a blank zoning out stare, but the kind of stare where you could tell our lesson was going from his head to his heart. He got it. He got how important that question was. A little squirmy wormy 6 year old felt the love and hope of Jesus down in His heart. It was one of the moments that make all the work seem like nothing in comparison. It was a moment in which I had forgotten that I had basically been teaching that class since January, on my own, with just a few Sundays off. It was a moment where I thanked God for allowing me to be His voice that morning to that little tender heart.

After our lesson we went on to our craft. The kids were to write a few phrases of what Jesus meant to them, and then cut them out, and glue them to a coloring page of Jesus. And this same little boy, who usually finishes his craft quickly so that he can play more sat there the longest, asking me to spell word after word after word for him. He had a whole lot of phrases welling up in his heart, and it took him twice as long as everyone else to finish; including the little girls who thrive on coloring precisely.

I left there with more energy than I came with, because when the Holy Spirit moves in you, and through you, there is nothing like it. And the best part of all, of the whole day was that it had nothing to do with me. It wasn't because I am a good teacher, it wasn't because I have a way with words and kids. It was because about 14 years ago Jesus asked me "Who do you say that I am?" And I was lucky enough to say, you are my Lord. It was all for His glory; all for His love to be shown, and boy oh boy was it!