“But who do you say that I am?”
“There are many questions in this life which we can safely ignore without consequence. There are other questions which have more important relation to ourselves and to our society.” [1]
Before asking His big question, Jesus raises the small question of who do people say He is. While we do not know if He is talking about everyone as a whole or just His enemies, the disciples mention three distinct people: John the Baptist, Elijah, and a prophet.
Why would people think Jesus was John the Baptist? At this time in the Gospel, John the Baptist has already been killed. [2] Many people were questioning if Jesus was John the Baptist resurrected. [3] The only reason people would have questioned this is if they had never seen Jesus and John the Baptist together while they were both alive, because if they had, namely at the baptism in the Jordan, they would have known that they were two different individuals. Obviously this theory and statement is wrong.
Why would people think Jesus was Elijah? The Jewish people believe Jesus was Elijah because the scriptures prophesied that Elijah would be the one to come ahead of the Messiah. [4] Since they had not seen Elijah, they assumed Jesus must be Elijah. However, earlier in Matthew’s Gospel, He had already told His disciples that Elijah had already come in the person of John the Baptist. Later, at the Transfiguration when Moses and Elijah are next to Jesus conversing with Him, we can conclusively confirm that Jesus is not Elijah.
Why would people think Jesus was just a prophet? The people saw Jesus as a prophet because he was teaching and proclaiming the truth about God. Additionally, it was considered normal for prophets to suffer, but it was unthinkable that the Messiah would suffer. Since Jesus suffered and died, some thought that he must have been a prophet. On the road to Emmaus, Jesus works to remove this misconception when the two disciples referred to Jesus not as the Messiah but as “Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people…” [5] Jesus then says to them, “Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” [6] There is a similarity between the thought process of the disciples on the road to Emmaus and that of Saint Peter in today’s Gospel. When Jesus revealed to the disciples “the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected,” it did not fit with what the disciples believe the job description of the Messiah to be.
Furthermore, if Jesus was just a prophet, this was the time to affirm that claim. Instead, He digs deeper and asks a second question, “But who do you say that I am?”
Why does Jesus ask the apostles directly? He was testing their faith. Jesus knows who He is, and He knows what other people think of Him, but now He wants the line drawn in the sand. Either they are with the other people, or they are with Him. Jesus makes it clear to the disciples that He is not John the Baptist, or Elijah, or a mere prophet.
Peter is the first person who proclaims that Jesus is none of those things but is in fact the Messiah, the Son of God. Interestingly enough, in the first chapter of Mark’s Gospel, a fallen angel (demon) is the first to openly profess, “I know who you are – the Holy One of God.” [7] What the demons knew immediately, it took the disciples until chapter eight. However, knowledge is not enough. We must react to this knowledge in faith. While the disciples do not clearly understand like they demon did, they do have a little faith. Jesus gives them the opportunity to respond in faith to his proclamation that ‘Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.’”
Jesus knew what could be done with the small faith of the disciples. Jesus says, “If you have the faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to [this] mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.” At this point in the Life of Christ, the disciples have faith the size of a mustard seed, but their faith grows and flourishes to continue the Church that Jesus started!
How does Saint Peter’s response affect us today? When Peter gave his answer, he had been with Jesus for two years, watching and listening to him day in and day out. “In our case also, in order to make a more conscious profession of faith in Jesus Christ, we must, like Peter, listen attentively and carefully. We must follow in the school of the first disciples, who had become his witnesses and our teachers. At the same time we must accept the experience and testimony of no less than twenty centuries of history marked by the Master’s question and enriched by the immense chorus of responses of the faithful of all times and places.” [8]
When Jesus asks us “Who do you say that I am?” “There is only one valid answer…the Messiah…the person who is of the greatest importance to my destiny, my happiness, my successes and failures in this life and hereafter. Our happiness is not in our health, our worldly successes or our ability to get what we want. Our life will have been worth something if and when we fall in love with Christ. All our problems can be resolved if we are close to him.” [9]
Why will our life only be worth something if and when we fall in love with Christ? What is the worth of a man? We usually answer this question in terms of temporal or earthly goods, but that only tells us the worth or value when a person is on earth. A man is more than just his temporal life and good. In weighing the worth of man, we must consider the temporal and the spiritual—earthly and heavenly goods. Jesus Christ is both true God and true man. He became man so that man can share in this divine nature. If the goal of man is to become divine, then the goal of the temporal is to prepare and gain the eternal. The eternal is of greater worth and we can only appreciate its worth when we fall in love with Christ, the one who shares it with us.
An excerpt from CATHOLICISM
In this episode from the Catholicism Series, Fr. Barron points out what Jesus is getting at when He asks this question “Who do you say I am” and the ramifications of our answer to His question.
Why does Jesus tell the apostles to not tell anyone He is the Messiah? This is the first time Jesus does not allow them to speak openly about who He is. He forbids them to say anything because He still must fulfill his Messianic duties of His Passion and death, as He points out in Mark 8:31.
[1] In Conversation with God, Fernandez pg. 7 vol. 4
[2] Mark 6:17-29
[3] Mk. 6:14
[4] Mal. 3: 23-24
[5] Luke 24:19
[6] Luke 24:26
[7] Mark 1:24
[8] John Paul II, Address, 7 January 1987
[9] Fernandez, In Conversation with God 5, 2.1 pg. 8