Who Do You Say I Am?

When I was much younger my family lived in a condo and right upstairs from us lived a girl named Amanda. Eventually Amanda became my little brother's “girlfriend” which was kinda weird because she was two years older than me, which made her four years older than him, and four years is a lot when you’re five. Anyway they got “married” one year around Christmas when our banister was decorated with a fake garland, from that point on, until she moved away, my little brother stopped calling her his girlfriend and started calling her his wife. Who she was to him had changed.
In Mark 8:27-29 Jesus asks his disciples a question…

Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, "Who do people say I am?"

They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets."

"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"
Peter answered, "You are the Christ."

I want us to stop and reflect on that question for just a moment. Think about it, who do you say Jesus is? Is he your Master? Is he your Shepherd? Is he your King? In Hosea 2:16 God tells his people what their response to that question will someday be.

"In that day," declares the LORD,
"you will call me 'my husband';
you will no longer call me ‘my master’.

God is saying that the day is coming when we will no longer look at him as merely a master, but as a husband. The Bridegroom is a title that is used to describe Jesus. Jesus has many titles but the Bridegroom is a particularly special one. You see, the King has subjects, the Master has servants, and the Shepherd has sheep, but the Bridegroom has only one bride!

We are the bride of Christ, and He loves us. Not just, the Bridegroom loves his bride the church, but the Bridegroom loves you, his bride. Jesus loves us, and we are his bride but too often our relationships with him resemble that of a bad arranged marriage. Where we are introduced to Him, and marry Him. But beyond that we do not pursue intimacy with our Husband.

Have you ever been rejected before? I have, let me tell you. I was in middle school, and I really liked this girl. I liked her for more than a year before I worked up the courage to ask her to the dance at the county fair. To summarize things, she said no. Ouch, that hurt.

I was devastated when she rejected me. I know now that it was just a middle school crush, but at the time it felt like there was no point in continuing with life, that’s how much it hurt. It’s the same way when we reject intimacy with Jesus. We are His bride. He chose us, He’s pursued us, He desires us, and we’ve accepted his marriage proposal but denied Him intimacy. He’s already doing everything that is necessary on His end, but still we hold back and then turn to Him and cry, “Why can’t I hear from you!” We need to give ourselves wholly over to Him. Holding back is the only thing keeping us from true intimacy with Christ.