Life is full of questions. Questions abound everywhere.
- What am I going to do with my life?
- What will I become?
- What will tomorrow bring?
Not only do these practical questions beg for an answer, but there are also questions concerning my spiritual life.
- Am I saved?
- When I die will I go to heaven?
- Why does God allow such tragedy to exist ….on the earth?
Then there are the philosophical questions:
- Which comes first the chicken or the egg?
- How many angels can fit on the head of a pin?
- If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it fall, ….. does it still make a sound?
- If a man is by himself in the forest and he speaks, …… is he still wrong?
All of these questions have one common element …… which is illustrated by the following story:
A college sophomore tried to prove how smart he was one day by asking his professor the following question, “Is the bird I’m holding dead or alive?” If the professor said the bird was dead, the boy was obviously going to free the bird and let it fly away. If the professor said it was alive, the boy was going to crush the bird. The professor looked at the young man and said, “My boy, the answer is in your hands.”
‘Who is Jesus?” This is THE central question – one that Jesus posed many times – in many ways – and that people are still answering – two thousand years later – all over the world.
Jesus asked His disciples “Who do men say that I am?”
The answers were very complimentary. There had been one or two denigrating titles – winebibber, friend of publicans and sinners, blasphemer – but the disciples bypassed these. They rehearsed instead the more serious speculations as to whom the Son of Man was. “Well – some say you are Elijah – some are even saying you’re John the Baptist come back from the dead – or another prophet – perhaps you are even the prophet”
The answers of the multitude, who ranked Him with the greatest prophets, were wholly inadequate. He is not to be compared with men of genius, giants though they might have been. Between Him and them is a great gulf fixed.
That is a pretty non-threatening question – it invokes no authority over your life to answer that one – “Who do men say that You are?” There is no claim on the heart, there is no claim on the life.
Jesus asked them “Who do you say that I am?”
The answer to that question is what guides all of life.
Peter’s identifying Jesus as the Christ meant the disciples see clearly ‘who’ Jesus is. Yet, they do not yet see far enough to understand ‘how’ He will fulfill His mission as the Christ.
You must also answer ‘Who Jesus is’? Your answer determines…
- …your relationship with God.
- …your capacity for daily life.
- …your character and conduct.
- …your capacity for love.
- …your courage to die.
- …where you will spend eternity.
You can also read a couple of my other articles about the identity of Jesus: The Case for Christmas – Fingerprint Evidence, Struggling with Identity – Jesus & Superman.