Who do YOU say that I am?

In the follow-on from last week’s thought ‘Who do Men say that I am? Jesus, having established the general idea as to what the public at large thought of Him or assumed His status, now made the question personal. Jesus moved from the public persona to the private persona. In the public, the views and ideas, perceptions and understanding of Jesus’ ministry, came short of His true identity. Ironically, this was the opposite of how public perception is arrived at pertaining to a person. The norm would be for the public to have a higher status of identity of Jesus as they had been on the receiving end of the public healings, restoration, forgiveness and miraculous works and words. Yet contrary to this, the question poised to the disciples did not bring an answer wherein the identity of Jesus was anything great, but short of divine; but instead the answer that Peter gave as a lead spokesperson reflected something quite profound about his ministry and relationship with his disciples.

First point, the disciples knew the private Jesus. Secondly, they lived with Jesus and were aware of his divine strength and human vulnerability. Thirdly, the answer given was interesting, as it rendered us with a theological imagery of Jesus that would have been strange to interpret at that time.

Peter said, ‘Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God’ Matthew 16:16. What’s profound about this text, was that God was not seen, or defined as being a father in the physical sense, to a human being, and so, their description of Jesus, was that He was the long awaited Redeemer of mankind, who also had, divine attributes.

Jesus hanged himself out, opened to scrutiny, and possible ridicule, and in so doing, left himself exposed to be belittled, underestimated or undervalued by His disciples. Oftentimes, we fail to see our true value, as a result, live by others opinions of us, rather than God’s.

If you fuel your journey on the opinions of others, you are going to run out of gas

~ Dr Steve Maraboli

This week, whilst vulnerable amongst those closes to you, why not ask them their opinions of you, and see if they honestly align themselves with God’s opinion of you.