Jesus asked, “Who do the crowds say I am?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life.” “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

One night a large ship was struggling to make it through very rough seas. Through sheets of driving rain a seaman on watch picked up a light signal dead ahead; it flashed, “Change course, immediately.” The seaman relayed the message to his captain. The captain had him signal back, “No, you change course.” The signal came again, “No, you change course, now.” The quick tempered captain responded, “Who do you think you are! This is Captain Easterday of the battleship HMS Invincible; you change course now!” The message came back, “ I am seaman first-class Blackstone and I am in command of the lighthouse dead ahead. You change course.”

And Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” This question comes after the miraculous feeding of the five thousand men and their families with just five loaves of bread and two fish. It comes on the heels of Jesus teaching with amazing insight and authority, healing all manner of sick people, raising the dead, and with just His word stopping storms. Who could do such things?

The prophet Malachi had told the people to watch for a prophet like Elijah, who would come before the Messiah to turn the hearts and minds of the people back to God (Mal 3.5-6). John was preaching with the fire of Elijah. Isaiah had told the people to watch for one who could open the eyes of the blind, make the deaf to hear and mute to speak (Is 35). Moses had foretold that One would come, a prophet like me to whom the people must listen (Deut 18.15). Moses was the one connected to the manna from heaven, the bread from heaven that sustained the people for nearly forty years in the desert. This Jesus was now providing bread in a more miraculous manner and doing all manner of other miraculous things.

In the whirlwind of all this comes Jesus and He is asking, signaling, “Who do you say that I am?” I ask you now, “Who do we proclaim this Jesus to be?” And if you really know who He is, how should that answer alter the course of our lives?”

This past week we had Vacation Bible School. The lessons were about proclamations surrounding Jesus. The first lesson was about the birth of Jesus. It was entitled A Little Truth. The angels proclaimed to the shepherds: Do not be afraid, for we bring you great news of great joy that will be for all people. For today in the city of David a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord (Luke 2.10-11). Look in the manger, who do you say that this baby is?

Now most of us gathered here would say, He is the Christ, the long awaited Savior of the world, and we would be right, but for many of us that would be end of it—that declaration would not change much about how we live each day. Ruth Ann collects those Demdaco angels. She has a bookcase full of them. Part of her collection is a Christmas set. She leaves it up all year. It sits atop our entertainment center, and honestly I don’t give it much thought, but I should. It speaks a profound message: God is faithful in keeping His promises; He loved us enough to come and be among us; He came not to be served by us but to serve us and save us. If we took more time to ponder that on a regular basis, how might that alter the course of our thinking and our days?

The second lesson was entitled a Wet Truth. It told the story of the baptism of Jesus. People were coming to John the Baptizer. They came to have their sins washed away and Jesus who is the sinless Son of God came gathering up their sins—they went into the water dirty and emerged clean, Jesus went clean and emerged carrying the load of our sins. After His baptism, the heavens opened, the Holy Spirit descended on Him in the form of a dove, and a voice from heaven was heard and It said, “This is My Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased listen to Him” (Matt 17.5) .

Listen to Him …. How much trouble has the world gotten into because we listen to self-declared holy men, those claiming new revelations from God, those who are self-enlightened, and even those who listen to the whispers of the Prince of Darkness? How much trouble have some of us gotten into not because we don’t want to listen to Jesus, but because we were too preoccupied with our own words to listen, really listen to Him? How often is hearing selective, only hearing the Words of God that are pleasing to our ears and disregarding the rest?

It is good that Jesus was never too busy to listen on our behalf. He spent time with the Word and teachings of His Father and passed those things along to us. Mercifully He even forgives us for all the times that we let ourselves get too busy or distracted for the things of God. Additionally, He crosses our paths time-and-time again that we might hear His timeless Words.

The third lesson was called A Merciful Truth. It told the story of the ten lepers who were healed by Jesus. The ten came begging Jesus to have pity on them—to whom else could we go? Jesus tells them to go and show themselves to the priests; along the way they realize that they have been healed—a miracle of Biblical proportion has happened: not just one was healed as in the days of Elisha but ten were healed. We don’t know what happened to the other nine but Jesus took note of the foreigner, the Samaritan, who came back proclaiming all that Jesus had done for him, giving thanks and worshiping Jesus.

How many miracles has Jesus worked in our lives and we have failed to return to Him and give Him proper thanks? We have been healed of the leprosy of sin; we heard it in the words of Jesus’ absolution. Yet how many of us really stop and ponder what those words cost Jesus: He had to suffer and die for us to earn the forgiveness that backs up those words of absolution – I died in your stead that you may be forgiven … Have those words become so commonplace to us that we take them for granted? Has the healing of His forgiveness become like electricity: we don’t miss it, don’t give it a second thought, until there is a power-outage? Forgive us for sometimes being so ungrateful. And Jesus said on our behalf: Forgive them Father they know not what they do (Luke 23.24). How might that forgiveness alter the course of our lives especially for those of us who are great sinners, those whose lives have run aground? Father, help us to live as a people truly and completely forgiven by God. Help us to live lives that have been and are daily restored by the hearing of Your Word and sacrament.

The fourth lesson was entitled An Empty Cave Truth. This truth was proclaimed by a number of people. It dealt with the crucifixion and the resurrection. There a convicted felon, a thief, a misfit, and a social outcast proclaimed the truth of Jesus’ identity. Hanging from his own cross next to Jesus, he may not have understood everything about Jesus but he professed and proclaimed Jesus was Lord with the words: Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom (Luke 23.42). Three days later the women went to the tomb expecting to find a still dead Jesus; they carried spices with which to anoint His body. The course of their lives was altered with and by the profound words of the angels at the empty and open tomb. Why are you looking for the living among the dead; He is not here. He has risen just as He said He would (Luke 24. 5b-6).

We know that He rose on Sunday and we come here and proclaim that truth on Sundays but Satan waits just around the corner hoping to shipwreck us with submerged rocks of Monday’s problems. May the Holy Spirit be at work refashioning and renewing our lives by and through the hearing of the Word, the remembrance of all the promises made to us in baptism, and the reality of Jesus’ real presence of Christ in communion. We can build our lives on the foundation that because He lives we will live. If He who can overcome even death is for us, then who could be against us?

This Wednesday we will celebrate the Fourth of July. We are keepers of truth about freedom: the freedoms we enjoy today were bought at a great price. It is important that we tell the stories again and again that others may be brought to treasure what has given to us.

The last lesson was about The Keepers of the Truth. It was a lesson about Pentecost. Jesus had declared to His followers: You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1.7). We are to tell the story of the ultimate freedom from sin and death that was won for us by and through the stable, the cross and the empty tomb. We are to tell everyone again and again of this great treasure. All around us are many people out there on a collision course with the rocks of disaster, sin, and death. They need to hear, as we have heard, about the One who has come to alter our course from hell to heaven. They, like us, need to hear about Jesus; they need to see how His ongoing forgiveness changes the course of hearts, minds, and hands.