But What About You?

Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, “Who do people say I am?” 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 Christ.” (Mark 8:27–29, NIV 1984).

My Musings – “Who do people say I am?” What kind of response would He get today from the “ordinary man [or woman] from the street?” A myth? A man of history whose legend is greater than the facts? A con artist who is still making the con 2000 years later? Delusional?

“What about you? Who do you say [He is]?” One way or another, that is one question we all must answer in this life. The answer is contained in the question — “I AM.”

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. 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 patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” (C.S. Lewis).

My Advice – This is the one question you want to get right before it’s too late. Bow now (when it counts) or bow later (when it’s too late). “For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. It is written: ‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.’ So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.” (Romans 14:10–12. NIV 1984). An account of how we answered the question when it counted.

What is your answer?