Who are you?

Isaiah 61.1-4, 8-11 He has sent me to proclaim a year of favour from the Lord

1 Thessalonians 5.16-24 May you all be kept safe for the coming of our lord Jesus Christ

John 1.6-8, 19-28 ‘There stands among you the one coming after me’

 

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Who are you? What is your identity? Are you this, are you that?

 

This morning’s gospel gets topical because identity - who I am, what makes me, me, and how I want the world to perceive me - is a hot topic in wider culture.

 

It’s even known as identity politics.

 

The question of identity hinges on how I understand myself to be.

 

This can be a source of some anguish for those for whom their identity confusing, uncertain or a source of pain.

 

And indeed for people in that position compassion and love is profoundly important.

 

As we consider identity in relation to the Christian life the gospel passage seen through the lens of John the Baptist today drives home a key point.

 

‘Who are you?’ Is the very first question John is asked.

 

Let’s be clear, they know his name, they have heard about him, but they want to know more – who, at the deepest level, are you?

 

Before we look at that question, and how John replies, the passage began with an assertion of the identity of John the Baptist as narrated by John the Evangelist, in the Prologue to his Gospel.

 

This is who John is: he is sent by God; his name is John - a name which means ‘God is gracious’ - rather than his father’s name Zechariah, as custom would have had it; he is a witness - no more, no less - and he testifies to the light, so that all might believe through that light, and not through him.

 

Apart from the clear statement that John is not the light he is defined in the positive.

 

This is who John is; this is his identity.

 

Contrast that with what he says of himself when he is subject to the interrogation of the priests and Levites sent from Jerusalem: I am not the Messiah; I am not Elijah; I am not the prophet.

 

Who the heck are you then?

 

And we see, John is ready to declare his identity.

 

‘This is what I say of myself, ‘I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, “Make straight the way of the Lord”’.

 

Even then he is quoting someone else; it’s what the prophet Isaiah said.

 

So John identifies himself solely in relation to the Coming One: Christ, Messiah.

 

It’s entirely of a piece with his declaration in St John’s Gospel when he says of Jesus, ‘he must increase, but I must decrease’ (John 3.30)

 

In other words, the Christian life s one that allows Christ to shine through, undistorted by our petty rivalries, fantasies and jealousies but rather enhanced by our unique gifts and our faith and love.

 

Of course, this is not just about John however important he is in the story of the Coming of Christ.

 

What the Gospel points us to is what John the Baptist points us to the profound question for us all to contemplate: who is Jesus Christ?

 

St John’s Gospel tells us: He is the very fullness of the presence of God: the Eternal Word from the beginning; in him is life; he is the light to enlighten all human lives; he is the Word made Flesh; he is the bringer of grace and truth.

 

So, John the Baptist’s ‘I am not…’ declarations provide a contrast with the ‘I am…’ declarations of Jesus.

 

I am the Bread of Life (John 6.35); I am the Light of the World (8.12); I am the door of the sheepfold (10.7); I am the Good Shepherd (10.11); I am the Resurrection and the Life (11.17);  I am the Way, the Truth and the Life (14.6) I am the true Vine (15.5).

 

In declaring his identity as ‘I am…’ Jesus identifies himself with the Divine Name of God revealed to Moses, ‘I AM THAT I AM’ (Exodus 3.14)

 

And when Jesus says, ‘before Abraham was I am’ (8.58) he is declaring his identity as the Eternal Son of God, before all time.

 

So who are you? What is your identity?

 

The Gospel calls each man, woman and child to find their identity as fundamentally rooted in Christ, our entry point into the life of the Holy Trinity.

 

For when our identity is shaped on him then the salvation of our souls is made possible.

 

That shaping of Christian identity begins at our baptism and is shaped by our spiritual lives, that is growing in prayer and devotion; by our lives of love and service to those in need around us; an supremely by the sacraments, those channels of God’s grace, especially the Eucharist, what we are doing now.

 

In that way of life we become who we seek to be: children of God, who live a life directed towards the Beloved and hear his call.

 

The word ‘martyr’ means witness, and to be a martyr means a deep identification with Jesus Christ such that we even go to the cross with him.

 

In 2015 Islamic State beheaded 21 men on a beach in Libya, because they were, in their murderers’ words, ‘People of the Cross, followers of the hostile Egyptian Church’.

 

As they died each called out, ‘Jesus, help me’. That itself says that their identity  was with the crucified Lord.

 

And on that beach the twenty first captive was not Egyptian. He was Ghananian man called Matthew Ayariga. Because he was not Egyptian he might have been spared, yet when asked ‘who are you?’ he simply replied, ‘their God is my God’.

 

The witness of John the Baptist, also beheaded for his fidelity to Christ and the witness of the martyrs spurs us on to claim our identity in Christ.

 

Who are you? I am a Christian.