Jesus: "Who do you say I am?"

"A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher...You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher."

C.S. Lewis, from his book, “Mere Christianity”

Matthew 16:13-17

Jesus is with His disciples in a place called Caesarea Philippi, about 120 miles (195 km) north of Jerusalem. He turns to His disciples and asks them (v.13), “Who do people say that I am?” “John the Baptist”, “Elijah”, “Jeremiah”, “one of the prophets.” The answers pop forth like kernels of popcorn heating over a stove. Then Jesus makes the question personal (v.15): “Who do you say that I am?” It is no longer about what other people think; now it is personal. Every man must decide for himself.

Every man, not only present then with Jesus, but everyman who has ever lived on earth must also decide for himself. In fact, THIS IS the most important question anyone will ever face: “who do you think Jesus is?”

Jesus picked an interesting place to ask this penetrating, all-encompassing, question. Caesarea Philippi was a city known for its worship of pagan gods, particularly a god named Baal. It would be today’s equivalent to Jesus standing outside the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake or an extravagant Buddhist temple in Southeast Asia and asking, “Who do you say that I am?”

Peter’s response to Jesus’ personal inquiry was quick and unhesitating (v.16): “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God!” “Christ” as used in those days was the Greek form of the Hebrew word, “Messiah.” “Son of the living God” implies a nature superior to that of human; it implies deity, God. Peter throws in an interesting adjective when he says, living God. Jesus is not a dead god like those worshiped in Caesarea Philippi; rather Peter states that Jesus is the living God, the real God, the God Who Is.

How does Jesus respond? Note that Jesus does not rebuke Peter and say, “I am not God; I am merely a prophet.” Rather, Jesus receives Peter’s statement of worship and even blesses Peter for his proclamation.

At the trial of Jesus (Matthew 26:63), the Jewish high priest asks Jesus point blank, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Living God?” Curiously, this is the same title given by Peter in Matthew 16. Again, Jesus does not flinch; Jesus does not deny it. Jesus affirms His own status as Messiah, His own title as Son of God, His own deity, even though it will result in His crucifixion.

We cannot merely say Jesus was just a good teacher or a religious prophet. Jesus never gave us that option. Jesus claimed to be God in a human body, the 2nd person of the Godhead. As C.S. Lewis frames it, Jesus is either Lord, a liar or a lunatic. Personally, I believe He proved Himself as Lord by rising from the dead. We must either accept Jesus on His terms as God or we must reject Jesus completely. One option leads to the forgiveness of sins, friendship with God and eternal life; the other option leads to eternal separation from God.

Who do YOU say Jesus is?