Who Do You Say That I Am?

At one point in the Gospel, Jesus asked the Apostles, “Who do you say that I am?” In response to this question, St. Peter gave his great testimony of faith, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” The Lord of course, asks this question to every person. We have to make a decision in regard to Him. We have to decide whether we are going to allow Him to be the Lord of our lives, our choices, and our decisions or not. There have always been some people who identify Jesus as only a good man, or a great teacher, or a prophet, but who cannot accept Him as divine, as the second person of the Trinity and, as a result, do not make Him Lord of their lives. In this regard, C.S. Lewis made an interesting and telling analysis. He said that when you carefully consider what Christ said

about himself, there are only three possibilities. First, he is an evil person who is lying and trying to mislead us. He knows he is not divine and is trying to lead us astray. He is thus to be denounced and dismissed. Secondly, he is seriously deranged and delusional. He is in modern parlance a “nut” and at best is to be pitied and then ignored. Or, thirdly, He is exactly who He claims to be, that is, the Christ, the Messiah, the divine son of the Father who is, as a result, to be followed, worshipped and adored. Most of us have arrived at this third conclusion and try to live accordingly. There are at least two elemental aspects of our lives as believers. First, that we are a thankful people, that our

basic stance toward life is one of gratefulness for all that God gives to us in and through Christ. We are created and redeemed in Him as a pure gift of God for which we must constantly say “Thank you”. Secondly, that we strive to be good to others because God has first been good to us. As Jesus teaches us “What you have received as a gift, give as a gift.” Our lives would certainly be quite different if we answered Christ’s question differently.