Luke 9:18-21

Talk about controversial!  There is probably no question that has been asked as much or debated as enthusiastically as the one that Jesus asks his disciples in our devotion today....who is Jesus?  Scholars and theologians have argued about it for centuries, "Who was this person we call Jesus?"  

Jesus had just fed 5000 people, and many people were following him because they saw in him someone special, someone who could give them free food.  So Jesus asks his disciples, "Who do the crowds say I am?"  Some thought he was a famous prophet like Elijah or John the Baptist who had come back from the dead.  They all saw him as being a special person of some sort.  Then Jesus asks an even bigger question, "But what about you? Who do you say I am?"

There are groups of theologians who meet from time to time to debate and determine who they think Jesus really was.  Newspapers and magazines run articles, usually around Christmas or Easter, telling us who they think Jesus was.  Churches argue about it.  But in the end the significant question is, "What about you?"  If he is, as many say, a good teacher who taught some good things; if he is a prophet like Elijah or John the Baptist, then all he can do for you is what a good teacher or a good prophet can do for you.  But if your answer is like Peter's –"You are the Christ of God" – then you really have someone special.

The Christ is the one God promised to send to pay for our sins, to die in our place and win for us life everlasting.   Jesus is the Christ, and he explained to the people what he would have to go through to fulfill all that God promised through him.  He declared, "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life."

Today, just as in Jesus’ day, there are plenty in the crowd who think of Jesus as a good man and a good teacher.  The truth is we need more than a good man, a good teacher.  We need a Savior from sin.  That’s who I believe Jesus is. What about you?