Who do you say I am ?

For someone like me, sitting here on a computer terminal, it is very confusing sometimes.

I mean, I am reasonably educated. I never went to university, but I learned science at school, and know how the world works on a physical level. So, when I come up against stories of people parting th e red sea, or even walking on water, I tend to be something of a sceptic.

The Torah was written in the past tense and the third person.  Later on, people like Jeremiah and Joel write in the first person - they were big on morals and ethics, but light on miraculous deeds. I cannot help  noticing this, and want to bring this to your attention.

It is odd that we don't have any secular details on King Solomon. Ok, the Bible records him , but I know of no receipts, no entries in any ledger from another kingdom, no mention of any foreign princess who became one of his many wives. Nobody I know of has ever  found any mention of him in all the world outside the Bible. How about you? Isn't this a bit strange, if someone like Solomon can completely disappear - or did the Hebrew scribes just make him up?

Now, Jesus lived in obscurity, born in a small village under Roman occupation in a small cultural backwater in the Roman Empire. And although none of his contemporaries took any notice, there was a community of Christians living in Rome in 64 AD. Just 31 years after the crucifixion, Jesus has a following in the heart of the Roman Empire , hundreds of miles from where He was born. Again , I think this is extraordinary.

It is tempting to feel sometimes that it would have been wonderful to have been there when it all started, to have been someone who actually saw Jesus heal the sick and walk on water. But was it?

For when the disciples came back from a preaching tour, they said to him ' some say that you are John  the Baptist, while others say you are Elijah'. And Jesus asked them  "But who do you say I am?" And that is crucial. because the chief priests, the scribes and the  Pharisees saw the miracles too, and they were not impressed.

They could not deny that Christ did these things - but they accused him of doing it with the aid of Satanic powers. They were the the Establishment. the experts on the Law. And they said that if you believed in this lowly carpenter, then you were as damned as he was. Imagine how it must have been for humble Galileans like Peter, John and James to stand up against that sort of opposition.

Today, we know that Jesus was the man who changed History - if he wasn't the Messiah , then who else was? But back then , they only had Jesus. Sometimes, even John the Baptist had his doubts (see Matthew11:3), so it is no surprise if we are confronted with doubts today.

Wherever we stand in the stream of time we are faced with the same question  and the same problem when Christ asks us "Who do you say I am "? none of us can fully know all the facts - just what we are able to gather from our own standpoint.  like the Apostles of old, we must make our own leap of faith, going against public opinion and everything we learned in school if we want to say ' you are the Christ' - for that is not where logic, or the majority view, or the experts opinion will usually lead us.

Like me, Peter never saw the resurrection actually happen. Like most people would be perhaps , he was very sceptical when the women in the group came running back and said that the tomb was empty. But he still went there to make sure. And even when he found the tomb , i don't think he really understood what was going on. Like peter, I am still unsure on exactly how it all fits together. But , i am prepared to make the journey to the Empty tomb to see what all the fuss is about.

A few years ago, I went to Jerusalem , and took some photos. You can see my album on Facebook. as we approach Easter, I shall be posting and recounting my own experiences in the Holy Land. I  hope that you will join me on my journey, and share your own thoughts and feelings .about things as we go along.