Who are you?

One day I woke up with a song, as I very often do, and I told myself I will write it down to not forget it. What do you think I did? Of course I did not write it down. When you're sleepy you just think "I won't forget it, I just want to doze a little bit more and afterwards I'll write it down", but as you maybe know, you forget it and regret not writing it down. I only know that the song was about lots of questions about who God is, how He is and what great things He does. I was pondering about these questions and then the same week the leader of the Mission spoke about how Jesus declared in John 6 who He was. When He declared who He was, most of the people knew Him only for a year. He shocked them by what He said:   

I am the true Bread of Life. Your ancestors ate manna in the desert and died. But standing here before you is the true Bread that comes out of heaven, and when you eat this Bread you will never die. I alone am this living Bread that has come to you from heaven. Eat this Bread and you will live forever. The living Bread I give you is my body, which I will offer as a sacrifice so that all may live. (John 6: 48-51)

Wow! To be bread? To eat a person? To live forever? Hm, how would've you taken all these in and still believe? I often ask myself this question and then praise God I wasn't living back then. I still can't answer my own question. Anyway... not only did He say all those weird things without giving any explanations or hints towards a figurative sense, but He also went on and emphasized what He already said:

 Listen to this eternal truth: Unless you eat the body of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will not have eternal life. Eternal life comes to the one who eats my body and drinks my blood, and I will raise him up in the last day. For my body is real food for your spirit and my blood is real drink. The one who eats my body and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in him. The Father of life sent me, and he is my life. In the same way, the one who feeds upon me, I will become his life. I am not like the bread your ancestors ate and later died. I am the living Bread that comes from heaven. Eat this Bread and you will live forever! (John 6:53-58)

 

This was the point where many people departed from Jesus and He even asked His disciples if they would want to leave, as well. Peter then spoke up and said that whenever Jesus speaks something inside of Him is quickened. This is where it becomes interesting... Let's look back a little: In Matthew 16 we recount the first time when Jesus acknowledged that He was the Messiah. He asked the disciples what people tell about Him and what the disciples themselves say about Him. The same Peter comes up with the answer to His question: “You are the Anointed One, the Son of the living God!” Jesus then calls Peter on his whole name "Simeon, son of Jonah" to fully capture his attention and then declared who Peter was. How could I have missed looking at it this way? This is the time when Peter receives a living word from God. The word for his life wasn't about what he will do or what he has to do, but it was about who he was. It's not about what call, what purpose, what plans, what achievements or expectations God has for your life, but it's all about who you are. Even when the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus as a dove, God declared Jesus' identity not what He will do. Why? Because identity prepares us for what is coming our way throughout our lives.

And we come to the conclusion: do we know who God is? Do we know who we are, who He says we are? Do we search to understand everything rather than give up everything to Him, who understands everything to the very core of an atom and of every planck length (theoretically, this is the smallest time measurement that will ever be possible)? I have a very thrilling idea: just start asking Jesus: 

Who are You?

And then continue with: 

Who am I?