The Gospel of John
Matthew Philip
Who Are You: 1:21-22
They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?”
He said, “I am not.”
“Are you the Prophet?”
He answered, “No.”
Finally they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”
Quick, complete this sentence: “I am a ___.”
More likely than not, you would have responded with your professional occupation or job title.
I can hear my seven-year-old daughter responding, “I am a girl, a pretty one,” to declare her perceived superiority over her brother (and all things male). If a student, your level of education may have been the first thing that came to mind, “senior in marine biology,” for example. Those into personality types may respond cryptically, “ISTJ” (Myers Briggs) or “DiSc” (the DiSC profile).
In non-Western cultures, more commonly heard are relational responses: “I am a Kenyan, Masai to be exact” or “grandson of Mathai” or “wife of José.” Many of us have patiently sat through multiple sentence descriptions that meander through family trees and across generations, as a relative is introduced. Even beyond blood lines, neighbors, teachers and friends merge in the social warp and woof of one’s cultural identity.
“What do you say about yourself?” the priests and Levites asked John the baptizer. Instead of waiting for an answer, they project onto him their assumptions. Patiently John rejects their categories, in spite of the slivers of truth in each one. He was not going to let a shade of gray about the messenger affect his message. John, supremely self-aware, was able to articulate both who he was not and who he was.
“What do you say about yourself?”
Go ahead and take a minute to write out a response. Do ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, political leanings, vocational choices, and professional affiliations make your list? It is fascinating to reflect on the categories and phrases we use to describe ourselves. Not only do they reflect our values and priorities, but are also indicators on how we perceive those around us.
How about faith? Just a few years ago I remember listening in on a vigorous debate between two doctoral candidates: Am I an African Christian or a Christian African?
“Fundamentally, a new creation in Christ, born again, but in an African body” argued the theological student.
The ethicist argued, “My ethnic identity is at the core of who I am, even as a Christ-follower.”
What do you think?
In 1977, Richard Wurmbrand of Tortured for Christ fame visited my home town, Trivandrum, sharing on the persecution of the church in Romania and the then Soviet Union. During his evening talk, he took a few minutes to address us - students in the crowd.
“What is your family name?” he asked.
A chorus of voices yelled out their last names, “Philip, Varghese, Koshy, Tharakan…”
I’ll never forget his response as the din died down. He quietly said, “As sons and daughters of Christ, you bear his name too. I am no longer just Richard Wumbrand, but Richard Wumbrand Christ.”
My world expanded that night. Internally I re-embraced my new identity, as John says, as a child of God (1:12,13). My major self-descriptors of Malayalee, male and student all slipped a notch down as I struggled to re-frame myself in Kingdom terms. Externally, I suddenly realized that this preacher and I had the same family name, Christ. The Malayalee-Romanian divide was crossed, the age barrier dropped. Cherished categories that differentiated, faded to the background as I gained a new elder brother, Richard.
“What do I say about myself?” The answer to that question affects my understanding of myself, and others.
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