Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” Today many of Jesus’ followers still seek to answer that question—in contemplation and prayer, in study, in Spirit-led service, in conversations with one another, and in searching their own hearts and souls. Lloyd Lee Wilson offers his own response, which arises from years of engaging with the question through his Quaker faith. This pamphlet invites readers to meet Jesus as Lloyd Lee has come to know Him, and to further explore for themselves, “Who do you say I am?”

Jesus asked His disciples: Who do you say that I am? Today many of Jesus's followers still seek to answer that question. The author offers his own response, which arises from years of engaging with the question through his Quaker faith. This pamphlet invites readers to meet Jesus as Wilson has come to know Him, and to further explore for themselves, "Who do you say I am?"

This pamphlet is important, laying out clearly the understanding and belief of this Christian Quaker (North Carolina YM Conservative) about Jesus as Messiah, the Anointed One to carry out God's plan to reconcile human beings with God. Jesus by teaching and example reveals the Kingdom of God and invites and shows us how to participate in it. God's justice in response to our sins against man and all Creation is a process of restoration, not punishment. Wilson explicitly rejects the traditional Atonement theory of Jesus' death. Jesus' work was to make the Kingdom of God accessible to all, teaching and showing us how to live in the Kingdom of God, along with the promise of resurrection, that evil and death cannot permanently separate us from that Kingdom.
Wilson observes that where we place ourselves in the broad tradition of Quakerism is shaped largely by who we discern Jesus to be. It is interesting to note that Howard Brinton, in PHP #156 (1967), distinguishes the various types of Quakerism in the spectrum by their relationship to mysticism, rather than their doctrine on Jesus. This raises the question of whether there is some relationship between the two criteria so that they indicate two aspects of the same distinction, or whether these two Friends just emphasize different matters. ( )

Synopsis

Jesus asked His disciples: Who do you say that I am? Today many of Jesus’s followers still seek to answer that question—in contemplation and prayer, in study, in Spirit-led service, in conversations with one another, and in searching their own hearts and souls. Lloyd Lee Wilson offers his own response, which arises from years of engaging with the question through his Quaker faith. This pamphlet invites readers to meet Jesus as Lloyd Lee has come to know Him, and to further explore for themselves, “Who do you say I am?”

A radically deep and thoughtful consideration of the questions to be considered regarding the meaning of the life of Jesus of Nazareth. ( )