Who Is He to You?

Read

Matthew 16:15–17 (NIV) "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." Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven."

What it is speaking to me:

Notice what Jesus doesn't ask here. He doesn't ask, "Who does the crowd say I am?" He already knows that answer, and honestly, so did the disciples. They'd just rattled it off a verse earlier without breaking a sweat: John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, one of the prophets. Jesus turns the question personal. "But what about you?" Singular. Direct. No crowd to hide behind. Peter didn't say, "Well, the prophets say You're the Messiah." He said, "You are the Messiah." He put his own name on it.

I grew up in church, in nursery, Sunday School, children's church, home groups, classes, youth groups, college groups, Sunday School again... you get the picture. I have spent my life learning about Jesus. I was taught what to believe, how to understand it, how to share it.

At some point in all that though, I had to decide for myself who Jesus was TO ME. To stay within the context of this story, it was like I had to answer the question that was asked of Peter: "Who do YOU say I am?"

There is a certain sense in which Jesus asks all of us that question, maybe more than once in our lives. How do we answer it? Do we quote Scripture that we memorized in Sunday School? Do we repeat phrases that we have heard the pastor say over and over?

I am not saying memorizing scripture, repeating the pastor, or learning as much as we can about Jesus and His Word is bad. Quite the opposite.

I AM saying that ultimately at some point in our lives, we have to answer the same question for ourselves. And maybe it is good to revisit that question from time to time. Head knowledge isn't the finish line. A confession is.

What is it saying to you?

If Jesus turned to you right now and asked that same question...not "who does your church say I am," not "what have your parents taught you", who would you say He is?

Would your answer sound like Peter's, personal and convicting, or would it sound like something borrowed and repeated?

What are we going to do about it?

Take a piece of paper, or open a note on your phone, and write your own unvarnished, personal statement of who Jesus is. Your words, your convictions, in your own voice.