People spend enormous amounts of time and money trying to answer existential questions such as: “Who am I? What is my purpose in life?” As important as these questions are, they pale in comparison to the most important question in life: “Who is Jesus?”
When Jesus confronted His disciples with this question, they were standing in Caesarea Philippi, a place filled with idol worship and competing loyalties. By this point, people had many opinions about Jesus: a prophet, Elijah, John the Baptist. But Jesus, who was not fazed by public opinion, asked those who had followed and ministered alongside Him:
“But who do you say I am?” (Mar 8:29)
Jesus wanted His disciples to understand that there’s no such thing as a second-hand faith. They must personally and wholeheartedly trust that He is the Christ, God’s chosen King. He didn’t accept to be grouped alongside any great figures of the past or the future. Peter’s confession, “You are the Christ” places Jesus in an entirely different category.
Yet Jesus immediately explained that He is the Christ who ‘must suffer many things and be rejected … and be killed, and after three days rise again’ (Mar 8:31).
What we believe about Jesus’s identity shapes everything: our worship, our obedience, and our future hope. Take Jesus out of the equation, and not only do we no longer have Christianity, we also can’t make sense of our life and the world altogether.
If we confess with Peter that Jesus is the Christ, that means we must go beyond admiring Him to surrendering our whole lives to Him.
Reflection:
- Are you relating to Jesus mainly as your helper or teacher, or truly as your Lord and Saviour?
- If He is your Lord and Saviour, how does that show in your daily life?
This devotion is sent weekly to staff during school terms. It has been lightly edited for a general audience.
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