A matter of identity
For me, one of the more heart-warming news items to hit the headlines during 2016 concerned the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby. In April he was presented with the fact that the man he had grown up with and known as Dad, and whom he would later care for through testing circumstances, was not his biological father. He had to cope with the news in the full spotlight of the media. How would he respond to this potential identity crisis?
He encouraged many Christians and offered hope to many struggling people from all faiths and none, by declaring ‘I know that I find who I am in Jesus Christ, not in genetics, and my identity in him never changes.’
Personal identity is an issue for many: displaced persons, refugees, victims of broken relationships and those questioning their gender identity and sexual orientation. Questions such as, ‘Who am I?’, ‘Where do I belong?’ or ‘What am I here for?’ may come to the surface more readily for these people than they do for others.
The Christian message addresses this issue of identity. It focuses the matter by asking all of us what is our identity in relation to God? This is important because we don’t want to find ourselves, on the Final Day, as being outside of God’s family, alone and lost.
Many of Jesus’ Jewish contemporaries, especially the self-sufficient and religious, were banking on their ancestry and religiosity. After all, weren’t the Jews God’s chosen people? Jesus had to disabuse them of their confidence. Similarly, today some people are hoping that by being religious, having a decent upbringing and living by a comparatively good moral code, God ought to see them alright at the end.
Jesus is the only man to walk the earth who had his own identity perfectly sorted. He knew where he came from, what he came for and to where he was going. The Christian gospel is about how we can become a brother or sister of Jesus. Whoever is so united to him will, of course, find themselves also being children of Jesus’ Heavenly Father. That’s the identity which matters to Justin Welby and to many others also, me included.
Now maybe no one has ever told you all that before; it is a lot to take on board. As a New Year’s resolution, why not find yourself a Bible-teaching church to go to and learn more?