They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say
Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.”
“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.”
Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.
When
Jesus asks, “who do you say I am?” he is asking for more than who the disciples
SAY He is. Jesus is asking them who they
believe He is. If I believe the man in
the cockpit is really a fully credentialed pilot, I will get on the plane to
fly to my destination. If I believe that
the woman diagnosing my health is a licensed and competent medical doctor, I will
submit to the treatment plan she offers.
You can say anything you want about a person, but what you do based on
who you believe them to be is what really matters.
At this
point in the book of Mark, it’s been mostly miracles and healing since the
disciples began their journey with Jesus.
The mood is about the change as we’ll see in the next several reflections. The question put to the disciples by Jesus in
today’s reading signals this shift in tone and brings what they really believe
about Jesus into focus. It is also Marks’s
way of putting the same question to us today.
Who do we say Jesus is? And just like Jesus’s first disciples, our
answer makes all the difference.
There
are many ideas even today about who Jesus is/was. If He’s a great teacher, then we will try to
learn from Him. If He’s simply a miracle
worker and healer, we might ask for a miracle or healing for ourselves. If He’s a prophet, we might want to check His
prophecies against what has happened since.
But if Jesus is all this AND He’s the Messiah, than we will submit our lives
to Him. The way we live our life each
day will be different if Jesus is our Savior and Lord. So today (or any day) is a good day to ask
ourselves the same question and spend some time reflecting on whether or not our
everyday lives reflect our belief about Jesus.
Question: Who do we believe
Jesus is? How are the decisions we make
each day affected by this belief?
Prayer: Jesus, show
us what we believe about you. May there
be integrity between what we say about you and the way that we live. Amen.
Prayer Focus: Pray
for people you know whose belief system is different than yours.
Song: Who Do You Say I Am? – David Phelps
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