Who do you say that I am?

Matthew 16: 13-20 tells first, about a divine revelation and second, about one of the most important appointments in the history of the world. The events take place in Caesarea Philippi, shortly after the miracle of the multiplication of bread and fish.

There, our Lord acknowledges His divinity and then, announces that a fisherman, named Simon, was destined to lead the Church here on Earth.

“Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” Jesus asked His disciples. And they merely echoed what they heard from others. I can almost imagine a bunch of 6 and 7-year-old pre-schoolers in the classroom, excitedly shouting out their answers, each one hoping to confirm that they got it right.

Christ must have felt that, even though His disciples had been with Him for quite some time, listening to His teachings and witnessing His miracles, they were still affected by the “noise of the world” when it came to His real identity. Could it be that they were still clueless about the man they were following? Jesus wanted first, to draw out what His friends had heard from sources outside their circle.

Then, the follow up question, one that was more personal: “But who do you say that I am?”

In my mind, Jesus must have put emphasis on the word YOU. Maybe at that moment, there was silence for just a few seconds. And then, Simon makes a bold declaration, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Jesus acknowledges his answer by saying, “Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My heavenly Father.”

By “flesh and blood”, Christ was referring to mere mortals, ordinary folks. Simon was just a lowly fisherman, as ordinary as ordinary gets. Furthermore, by human standards, Simon had zero leadership qualities! He would later on deny any association with the arrested Jesus, just when the latter needed a friend and ally the most, clearly the mark of a coward and a deserter.

But of course, our Lord already knew these things.

Yet, at Caesarea Philippi, Jesus declared to Simon, “And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

As I reflect on this gospel, I am reminded of the late American preacher, Brennan Manning, who said that when we die, Jesus would ask us: “When you were still on Earth, did you live in the belief that My love for you is everlasting and unconditional?”

It was only through God’s grace that Jesus’s real identity was revealed to Simon Peter. That same grace would, years later, be wholly responsible for Simon Peter’s transformation―so that he would become the foundation upon which Christ built His church.

If we allow God’s grace to transform us, to heal us, and to bless us, only then will we be able to live our lives fully and abundantly.

Image courtesy of sharefaith.com