"Tell me, who do people say I am?" (v. 27b)

Every photographer knows the importance of having the camera lens in focus before triggering the shutter. You can set the right shutter speed. You can open the lens to its proper setting. But if that lens is not in focus, the picture will be worthless.

Anyone who’s trying to sell something these days knows the importance of having an accurate focus on the market for which a product is intended. Whether you’re trying to sell soap or soft drinks, it’s necessary to know exactly which people will most likely purchase your product. On what age group or sector of the public do you focus your advertising?

So Jesus realized that if people were going to follow him, and if his followers were going to be truly effective Christians in the world, they needed to know exactly who he was. They also needed to know precisely what was involved in being a Christian.

That’s probably one reason why he asked this simple, but all-important question in our Bible reading. "Tell me," he says, "who do people say I am?" And a little later he refines the question: "What about you?" he asked them. "Who do you say I am?" (verse 29).

By raising these questions, Jesus is reminding you and me today that if we want an effective faith one that uplifts us and makes a difference in the world - then we’ll need a religion in focus. Let’s talk about that now.

I

To do almost anything worthwhile in life, we need to have things in focus. Not to do so is to invite disaster. Take the matter of spending our money. The married couple that simply goes out and spends their paychecks at random, with no thought or plan about pacing their spending, may soon find themselves dreading the approach of the end of the month. Pinching pennies is not a pleasing experience. The simple practice of budgeting our spending makes things a lot easier and relieves a lot of potential tension. A budget, you see, is a way of bringing our spending into focus.

Imagine the conglomeration and mix-up that could result in any large urban area if there were no long-range planning for a freeway network. Engineers and city planners are paid large salaries to get traffic patterns in focus and to produce freeways that bring order and relief to clogged city streets. In the long run, it pays - during the planning stage - to bring a project into proper focus.

The same is true when we look at Jesus Christ, or when we consider what our religion is all about. We need to know who Christ is. We need to know what’s at the heart and center of our religion.

But an amazing number of people - including long-time Christians - don’t seem to have Christ or his church in focus. "Tell me, who do people say I am?" Jesus asks. The typical person on the street often spurts and sputters, failing to answer that question with any degree of focus. In a recent survey by the Gallup folks, over ninety percent of the people asked said they knew Jesus Christ. But when pressed about what they knew, they gave extremely unfocused replies. "He’s the main character in the Bible," some said. Others replied that he was a good and religious man who wouldn’t hurt a fly. Only a small percentage talked about him in New Testament terms of being "Lord" or "Savior." An even smaller percentage made any reference at all to the great events of the cross and of Easter.

"What about you? Who do you say I am?", Jesus asked his closest followers here. In the survey mentioned above, churchgoing Christians fared little better than those who claimed no identification with organized Christianity! They also gave typically unfocused answers about Jesus. Our Lord was mostly perceived as a great religious figure of the past.

An unfocused lens on the camera will not produce very good results. So are not Jesus and much of our religious activity quite meaningless because we don’t have them in focus? I suspect that’s the reason Jesus presses us with these questions, as he did his own disciples in the Bible reading.

II

Well, thank God, the whole purpose of the Bible is to bring Jesus Christ into focus so that we know exactly who he is. In the reading here, Peter gave the perfectly-focused answer when he said of Christ, "You are the Messiah" (verse 29b). That was the answer, and it was a good one. But obviously, in its brevity - one word, really - it needs to be explained.

Messiah! Throughout the ages mankind has needed and has longed for an answer to life’s meaning. People have looked with hope for someone who could pull the puzzle of life together. History is a witness to our bafflement about the human predicament and what to do about it.

All of the Old Testament becomes exciting in the sense that it holds out a hope that God is on his way toward us and that in his own elected Person he would bring revelation, clarity, and solution to the scene. So in one sense the Old Testament portrays an unfocused Messiah - a future Person who would tie things together and give meaning and sense to our human living. The Old Testament becomes a record of our human attempt to bring God’s salvation into focus, so that we can clearly see the way through life and have hope for eternal life.

One little thrill for any photographer is to look through the unfocused lens of the camera and gradually bring a beautiful scene into focus. The great thrill in reading the New Testament is to finally see the Messiah in focus. That’s who Jesus Christ is - God’s love, God’s saving purpose, God’s plan and future for people, finally coming into focus in one divine person, in the face of our Beautiful Savior. In this way Christ is the purpose of all the Bible, and the purpose of all the Bible is Christ.

That’s what Peter was saying when he answered, "You are the Messiah." And what a blessed faith we have when each of us can give the same focused answer. Jesus Christ is God’s appointed

Messiah. He comes precisely to be that suffering Servant of whom Isaiah sang. Christ brings our eternal salvation sharply into focus as he goes to the cross and as he rises on the third day. Forgiving me, accepting me, Christ pulls my life together. Now I can live in daily confidence and hope.

III

You and I urgently need to have Christ and our religion in sharp focus, because the stakes are high if we don’t. Jesus knew exactly who he was, and because he did, he was able to make the cross a time of victory, not one of defeat.

After Peter’s fine answer, Jesus proceeds to fill in the disciples about the coming catastrophic events that will lead to his great suffering and death. In verse 31 we read,

The Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the Law. He will be put to death, but three days later he will rise to life. He made this very clear to them.

Yes, Jesus made this all very clear to the disciples, because he himself was very clear about it. He knew clearly who he was - that divinely appointed Son who was called to bear the world’s sins and its lost hopes. Through his resolution and burden-bearing, defeat over death would emerge. New life would come for all the world! Because Christ had a clear focus on his own person and mission, he overcame the odds, though the stakes were high.

Christ was effective because he had his own person and mission in focus. As his followers we must do the same. If we want to be effective Christians, if we want our religion to make a difference in our own lives and in the world, then we need to have Christ and our faith in focus as well.

The stakes are high for us too! To carry the guilt of our sins alone is not only a heavy burden; it can be downright dangerous. Many today are weighed down over frustration and disappointment about their past failures. An uneasy depression nags them most of the time. Unrelieved guilt over past sins is not too pleasant. Sometimes it can devastate us to the point where we’re pretty well torn up inside. That’s not good, for us or those who must he around us.

But having Christ and his forgiveness in sharp focus can free us so that we are exhilarated and excited about life again. Yes, in Christ we can begin living again! His cross can mean the end of the guilt that shackles and spoils life.

The stakes are high when it comes to a sure direction and course for our daily living. Indeed, one of the characteristic marks of living today is a loss of direction, the sense that modern life no longer makes any sense. Unemployment, breakdown of family, the looming nuclear outbreak, and fears about advancing old age can bring any of us near the brink, where we feel as though we’re at the end of the line. Where am I headed and what’s the sense of it all?

This "Messiah," this Christ who went with determination and plan toward suffering and the cross, can now bring beautiful shape and meaningful purpose to any of our directionless lives. He takes the maze in which we stumble and brings life into focus for us again. In him we become convinced again that God does have "the whole world in his hands" - even my little world, my own life.

IV

As Christ gets things together for us, so we can move out to make a difference in the lives of others around us. Our religion makes a difference in the world, when with solidity of faith and self-certainty we can afford to share our faith and inner strength with others who do not have them.

Christ could love us so powerfully and consistently because he knew the Father loved him. He picked up our burdens because he knew God bore all his burdens. He endured, because a loving Father endured everything with him.

The world needs strong people. That’s not to say strong in the sense of being "the most powerful," of being "the most superior." Of the wealth-and-bombs kind of power we already have enough. The world needs the strength of people who have discovered faith and the power of God’s salvation amidst their own weakness. People all around us need people who have their religion in focus - who know the power and victory of Christ’s love and presence. People need people who know Christ!

That’s you, and that’s me, when again in this Meal today we are nourished by the bread that really gives our life strength and focus. In this Communion now, remember Jesus Christ again. Claim the forgiveness of his cross. Bask in the certainty of his resurrection. Come focus on him. Then go out and live your religion - in focus.