who

Who is a question we see asked over and over again throughout Scripture. We see it asked of John in John chapter 1. We see it asked by Jesus in Matthew 16. We even see Moses ask it of God in Exodus 3. We see it in countless other places as each story in Scripture ultimately answers one of the three questions: Who is God? Who is Christ? Who am I in light of that?

I don't believe it is ever a coincidence when things come full circle in Scripture. As I've read through these three stories, I believe that each of them work together in a critical way and that they each have applications in my own life today.

If you look at Exodus 3, when Moses encounters the Lord via a burning bush, Moses's reaction seems much calmer than I imagine mine would have been. Regardless, I believe that our reactions still had something in common. The Lord tells Moses to go to Pharaoh and his reaction is, "Who am I, that I should go..." Who am I? Why me? I think that we spend the entirety of our lives asking this question and while day by day we figure out more of the answer, we may never be able to neatly wrap up into any coherent thoughts exactly who we are. But the Lord's response to Moses is simple: "I will be with you." I think Moses begins to catch on somewhere around here because his next questions is this: "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you' and they ask me, 'What is your name?' Then what shall I tell them?'" A much better question. At the heart of it, Moses initially sounded a lot like me if I'm honest with myself. His first thought and first reaction was centered around himself. Who am I? God's response? The better question is who He is. What mattered is not who Moses was, what is far more important than that is who God is. Moses stood in the face of a bush caught on fire and didn't even recognize that first hand... I have to wonder how many times a day I stand before the Lord and try to make it about myself. And it isn't. It can't be.

If you look to John chapter one, you'll find John recounting times when people asked him about who he was. People were wondering if he was the prophet spoken about in scripture. They ask him in verse 22: "Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?" Good question... what do I say about myself? Who am I? John's noble response came straight from words borrowed from Isaiah: "I am the voice of one calling in the desert, 'Make straight the way of the Lord'." John came, like many others, to clear a path for Christ. He recognized himself merely as a servant of Christ. People saw his life and wondered if he was the prophet spoken of in the old testament and we see here that John was quick to defer any glory from himself. One of my favorite visuals in the entire book is just after this in verse 27 when John describes Christ as "...the One who comes after me, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie." John knew that in comparison to the Christ who was to come, He was nothing. He was nobody. Same to us, right? How would it be if I truly viewed myself as one who wasn't even worthy of touching the dirty shoes of the Lord? Yet we are valued and dearly loved by Him.

If you look to Matthew 16, you'll find Jesus Himself asking the question of who when He asks Simon Peter who people say He is and who Simon Peter himself says that Christ is. (side note, I think it's cool that later in the first chapter of John we see through a chain of people Simon Peter's first introduction to Christ. These stories are clearly tied) Christ asks him who He is and his response as follows: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." This answer shows Christ that he truly understands who He is-- that Christ is the one the scriptures had prophesied about and that He is in fact both fully man and fully God. And from that, Christ's response to Simon Peter is "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church..." See? In Peter's understanding of who Christ is, Christ told him who he was also and expressed His plans to use him. It's the exact same in our lives. We cannot know or understand who we are until we first recognize and begin to understand who Christ is. We were created in His image and created for His glory. Therefore, how could anything about me ever matter except in light of who He is?

Moses's encounter with the Lord only began to uncover a question that Peter's story gives us a little more insight into, but one that is still relevant in our lives today. Who am I? No, the more important question is who God is and who He creates me to be in light of that understanding. That has to be the question that comes first. Who are you, Lord? What is your name? and when He asks us who we believe Him to be and sees our heart of willingness and understanding, that is when He sends us out and when He tells us who we are. He provides that calling and that sense of identity in our lives but only in light of who we understand Him to be. Any other way and the glory would belong to us... My prayer and my heartbeat is to look in the mirror and see not myself, but Christ. That's the ultimate goal, right? So day by day as I figure out who I am, I should be realizing more and more of who Christ is and who I am merely in light of the Gospel. If that's who you are, Lord, then what does that make me? And His answer? Loved. That makes you loved.

May we understand more clearly today who Christ is. Nothing else could even compare.