Who Do You Say He Is?

According to the Gospel of Matthew (16:15), Jesus asks the disciples “Who do you say that I am?”

That question to the disciples is one that all who profess to follow Jesus, whether ancient or modern, whether heretical or orthodox, must answer. In the canonical gospels, we receive 4 different, if similar, answers to that question. The other writings of the early church offer a variety of answers to that same question. We can receive a general perspective, and sometimes a quiet detailed perspective, of how a given community understands Jesus by examining the texts that the given community used to convey their answer to the question Jesus asked of the disciples. This opportunity exists as we read those texts in the New Testament as well as those texts not considered a part of scripture. The latter category includes other texts omitted from the New Testament and the writings of early church mothers and fathers.

Perhaps the description above is a bit confusing. That’s not my goal. So let me state it a different way. Any of these texts that we’re considering reflect a community’s efforts to understand Jesus, his message, his meaning for their life together, their history, and the world. We are still doing that same thing. In that way the story of Jesus is not finished and never can be. We are still wrestling, like Jacob at the Jabbok, with who God is, how God deals with the world, and how God deals with us.

Now, who do you say that he is?