"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic-on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg-or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to." (Mere Christianity New York: Macmillan, 1943)

Liar, lunatic, or Lord. These are the three options Lewis sets out for us in answer to Jesus' question "But who do you say that I am?" And yet, as compelled as I am by the beauty of Lewis' rhetoric, I am left feeling that such an apologetic somehow misses the mark. For it demands that we make an intellectual decision about an historical figure, when what Jesus asks for is not a decision, but a relationship. Now, certainly such decisions can lead to just such a relationship, and for those intellectuals of Lewis' ilk a well-considered choice may be the most direct path to the Saviour. But this morning I'd like to lay the stress on the relationship end of things, for it is that end that has the power to determine how we live and who we understand ourselves to be.

The disciples of Jesus' day were less preoccupied with whether he was a liar or a lunatic and more attuned to the neighborhood gossip. "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" Jesus asks. The disciples reply "Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." But Jesus quickly turns the question around, showing he's not taking a Gallup poll, not gauging his Neilson ratings, but asking for a commitment.

And so it is that Peter's response garners the strong reaction it does when Peter professes "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." Coming close on the heels of their experience walking on the water of the Sea of Galilee, it is no surprise that Peter's answer should be so full of conviction. But Jesus points out that it isn't just Peter's life experience that has led him to this conclusion, but God. God has led Peter into a relationship with Jesus that leaves Peter convinced that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God.

In response to Peter's willingness to enter into a unique relationship with Jesus as Messiah, Jesus proclaims that "you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." Sounds pretty good to me. But we should not misinterpret this statement as a hand-over of divine power carte blanche. Rather, it is a promise that despite our human foibles, Hell will not prevail over the Church's relationship to God through Christ Jesus our Lord.

This promise is implicit in Jesus' subtle humor in this text. Apparently, Jesus loved wordplay. There are instances of Jesus' puns and wordplays all over the gospels, and Matthew 16:18 is a prime example, for Jesus says in Greek, "you are Petros, and upon this petra I will build my church. I don't know that this play on words extends in Greek as far as it does in English, but essentially, it could be translated "your name is Rocky, and upon this rock I will build my church." Of course, "rocky" also means "unstable" in English, and looking at Peter's behavior throughout the gospels, but particularly here and on the Sea of Galilee, we can have an appreciation of just how "rocky" old "Rocky" really was. Further, in English "petrified" means "solid," literally, "turned to stone," as in the famous Petrified Forest. But it also means "scared stiff," which again Peter was on the Sea of Galilee. Good old petrified Peter, our rocky Rocky, the rock on which the church is built. How ironic.

But what's the point of all this wordplay? Well, let's turn back for a moment to Lewis' assertion that Jesus is "liar, lunatic, or Lord." I began to think of who might be the liars and lunatics of these stories of Jesus' lordship, and clearly Peter stands out. He goes crazy with fear when he begins to sink on the Sea of Galilee, and next week, we will hear the verses that immediately follow this gospel reading, the second half of one conversation, where Jesus says to Peter "Get behind me, Satan!" Of course, Satan is the father of lies, and Jesus' reaction to Peter is essentially to call him a liar, and we know that Peter does lie later on in the gospel when he denies Jesus three times.

To put it simply, I began to reflect that Jesus is Lord even in the midst of liars and lunatics, some of whom turn out to be his own followers! To bring it home to our own day, I'm willing to go so far as to say that even when we're liars and lunatics, Jesus is still Lord.

So, why is Jesus Lord? Not because he's not a liar or a lunatic (though indeed he is not), but because we're liars and lunatics, at least sometimes. But even when we're liars and lunatics, Jesus is Lord. For in the end, even petrified Peter pulls out of his panic and professes that Jesus is Lord. Why? Because Jesus did not forsake him even when he was going crazy sinking on the sea of Galilee. Later, lying rocky Rocky repents of his mendacity and professes that Jesus is Lord. Why? Because Jesus did not forsake Peter even when Peter was forsaking Jesus at his trial and crucifixion.

So, too, when we are petrified lunatics and rocky liars, we can count on a Lord who is there with us in our weaknesses and always ready to receive us back again with open arms. That's the relationship Jesus wants from us when he asks "But who do you say that I am?" Let's just hope that we're in our right minds and willing to tell the truth when it's our turn to take Peter's place. But even if we do turn out to be lunatics and liars-and who of us here can say we have never acted crazy or been dishonest?-even in the midst of our lying and our lunacy, Jesus can be counted on to remain Lord of all. In the end, that's what makes a relationship with Christ so compelling, in that our opinion of him doesn't change who he really is, and our sinfulness does not prevent him from loving us even when we're at our worst. Liar, lunatic, or Lord? I know which two we are. But who do you say that he is?