Who do you say I am?
When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.”
Matthew 16:13-16 (NIV)
I absolutely love this passage. I believe this is the first time that Jesus reveals Himself through the lips of a man; demon-possessed people would declare it, but Jesus would always tell them to be quiet or not to speak. But this is momentous in that he reveals Himself through human revelation. I’m tripping out right now because it’s just so powerful! Can you imagine Jesus Christ asking you who He is? I love the Scriptures and I love the Word of God with my whole heart, even though I don’t read as often as I should. But every single time I come across such beautiful passages, I end up tearing at the eyes.
It doesn’t matter what anyone says about Christ. They could say He is a fraud, a fake.. “John the Baptist, Elijah,” etc. but in the end, it only matters who YOU say He is. It always interests me why Jesus says the things that He says. Why does He first ask the disciples who others say He is? Why? He could have just asked them straight up, “Who do you say I am?” and gotten the same answer.. the same answer, but perhaps without the same recognition. I think He wanted to evoke a thought from the disciples.
See, everyone thinks He is something other than what they think.
But Peter answers the beautiful statement: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.”
Who is He is your life? Who do YOU say He is? Do you say He’s just some great prophet, some awesome moral-values teacher? Or do you say He is exactly who Peter said He was? Do you say He is exactly who He declared Himself to be?
I get shivers when I really think about this. It’s a bit like this point where Jasmine in the movie Aladdin is pretending to be a beggar, but after she gets angry at a palace guard for his wrongful actions, she throws off her coat and reveals her royal clothing and crown, to which the palace guard realizes she is the Princess. In that moment, the guard realizes the majesty of who she really is because she revealed herself to him. Now Jesus did not shove it in our face by saying something like, “Do you even know who I am?” and He definitely didn’t come at us with his glorious angels and chariots of fire (yet). He received great glory and honor by asking a humble question that could have gone wrong (Peter could have answered, “Uh, I say you’re Elijah, too?”), but instead, Jesus got the beautiful recognition He deserved by way of changing the disciples lives and by changing others’. He didn’t self-declare His Glory to win the hearts of the disciples—the disciples realized His glory themselves through their own lives. It’s powerful, because He knew that was what Peter would say.. and by asking, He brought glory unto Himself in such a powerful way—not by straight-up showcasing it in the FULLNESS of His glory, but through others’ self-realization of it in their lives.
The end thought, besides all of these interesting thoughts about the why’s of why He asked those questions, is that no matter what anyone else says of Jesus Christ, I know who He is in my life. It’s constantly a question of “Who do you say I am?” I think if we imagine Him asking that to ourselves every day, when we’re going through trials and tribulations, or even when things are going great, it puts us in the correct perspective to remember His Majesty and Sovereignty in our lives. Because when I answer with, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God,” it reminds me of Who I really serve—of Who is in control of my life. We serve a great and mighty and powerful and loving God. It’s a beautiful question. One of my favorite sayings of Jesus.
Feeling refreshed and ready for work. Sort of. Kind of lazy to work today, though. Ahhhh!
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