Who is Jesus to me? When I was a young child, I grew up with a roman catholic mother who insisted I was baptised, confirmed and trained in the Catholic faith. My experience of learning about our Faith was from the Scripture teacher, the ritual practices of the Mass and the disciplines of set prayers learned through my Catholic school. But the scriptures were seen as a mysterious and daunting thing to me because they were difficult to fathom or comprehend for myself. If I looked at the pages, it was blurry and exhausting to read because it looked lengthy and foreign. The Scriptures may as well have been written in hieroglyphics. The reason for this may have been just because I had a short ADHD attention span, or no one ever attempted to show me how to read them. Nevertheless, if you asked me the question “who is Jesus?” then probably my answer would have been that he is “God’s Son who died for our sins” or something like “our Lord who was crucified” as my responses. On the surface these might seem like good orthodox answers and are not wrong in themselves. But what I could not say is who is Jesus to me as a friend? Saviour? Healer? Or even Lord? This is at the heart of what Jesus would ask Peter, when he said, “who do people say that I am?” Some say John the Baptist (i.e. a new prophet), and others say Elijah (i.e. an old prophet) or one of the prophets (Mk 8:27-29). These types of responses mean he is just another messenger of God. But Jesus wanted Peter to wrestle with his own conviction on who this Jesus is to him. For myself, Jesus was always really the person who remained on the crucifix and never rose. I never considered all the different characteristics of who Jesus was to me. Therefore, Jesus remained but a helpless Saviour who couldn’t save himself. A veiled figure who remained only on the pages of a Holy Book which was lifted in the Sunday mass, where the Holy Ghost mystically moved around when candles were lit for the faithful saints who departed this earth. And this picture sat behind the response I would have given someone if they asked me this question.
CYA2025 will soon start exploring this vital question, which we must answer either to be refreshed or see for the first time, because eternal life is only through a personal encountering of the risen Jesus Christ, not just stating a factual response.
耶穌對我來說是誰？我自小在信奉天主教母親堅持下、領受洗禮、隨之是堅振聖事及其他有關的陪訓，那時的我、信仰建基於聖經老師的訓導及儀式化地守彌撒、並跟天主教學校規定的格式祈禱。聖經好像是高不可攀、深不可測、難以理解的奥秘。如果我看聖經書頁，我會發現內容很模糊，讀起來很累，因為它對我來說又長又陌生，好像是一大堆古埃及的文字。這現狀可能是由於我當時患上注意力缺陷/多動症、或沒有人教我怎樣去閱讀聖經。不過、如你當時問我耶穌是誰、我可能答祂是神的兒子、並為我們的罪而死。或者是"祂是被釘十字架的主"。表面上、這些都是無可置疑、正統的答案。其實我未能真正解答的問題是祂是我的好友嗎？是我的救主嗎？能使人痊瘉的主嗎？甚至是我的主人嗎？這是耶穌問彼得的核心問題，他說：“人們說我是誰？”有人說是施洗約翰（意思指是新的先知）、有人說是以利亞（舊先知）、有人說是先知𥚃的一位。（馬可8:27-29）。這都是將主耶穌當為傳達神訊息的使者。但耶穌希望彼得認真思考耶穌對他來說是誰。對當時的我來說、主耶穌永遠是一個掛在十字架上的人、從未復活。我從未從各方面來思想祂對我來說是誰。所以祂只不過是一個不能自救的救主。一個戴著面紗的人物，只留在主日彌撒中舉起的聖經的書頁上，當為離開這個地球的信實聖徒點燃蠟燭時，聖靈神秘地四處移動。這就是當時的我想像到的背景圖畫。2025年英語青年團契快將開始探索這個重要問題。對已真正得救的來說可以重溫，對其他人則可藉此機會得知。因為永生只能透過與復活的耶穌基督的個人相遇而不僅僅是陳述事實的回應。
