Editorial January 29, 2018 Issue

What it means to be spiritual

Kim Crooks Korinek

Scrolling through my social media accounts, something caught my attention: #IAmNotMyProfile. A quick read-through of some of the tweets carrying this hashtag brought up several posts, all refuting the claim that one’s identity could be condensed into a certain number of characters, or simply made up of some manipulated image or stereotype. The message was clear. We are all much more than a category subject to interpretation, whether we’re dealing with gender identity, digital identity, identity based on age, race, and personal preferences, or even mistaken identity.

Toward the end of his career, Jesus had his own identity issues to deal with. Multitudes were crowding him and were healed, inspired, and fed, both spiritually and literally. The Pharisees and Sadducees kept provoking him. But who actually was he? There was confusion about this, as recorded in Matthew. When the disciples gathered together one day, Jesus asked them: “Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?”

Then Peter set the record straight: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” (16:13–16). Peter saw beyond the human sense of things to the spiritual reality of Jesus’ identity—the Christ, the divine representation of God.

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Bible Lens—January 29–February 4, 2018