who do you say…?

…will win the national championship in basketball? A few million people answered that question before 12:20 EDT today. Everyone’s bracket is still perfect as I type. Everyone is right. Of course, by tonight there will be many a bracket that lay as ashes in a fireplace, a crumpled up ball underneath tonight’s dessert or as a few hundred pieces piled neatly in the bowels of a shredder; I guess we can’t all be right …

As fun as it is to predict the winner of the NCAA tourney, whether we are right or wrong about it really doesn’t matter much in the grand scheme of life. There are other questions, however, whose answers hold just a touch more significance. “Will you marry me?” The answer to that question matters… A LOT, especially to the nervous wreck of a guy who just asked it. “Did I get in?” The answer to that question is huge to the student who has spent years dreaming of going to med school some day. “What did the test say?” The answer to that question may forever change the life of a 16 year old girl who slept with her boy friend just a few weeks ago…OR to the couple who has tried for 10 years to get pregnant and has asked this question many times before …OR to the father of three young children as he sits in the oncologists office. There are questions and answers that matter more than others.

Perhaps none matters more than the question we’ll address this Easter … Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?14 And they said, Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.15 He said to them, But who do you say that I am? (Matthew 16:13-15) Big question. Personal question. Your answer has eternal implications that start the day you answer. Hope to see you this Easter as we look closer at this question together.

btw…good luck with your brackets. I had to pick my Kansas State Wildcats to cut down the nets. Win or lose, they are still my team and, remember, whether I’m right or wrong really doesn’t matter much.