Jesus frequently asked questions. I count 30 questions in the first eight chapters of Mark alone. Occasionally, the question is only to gain information, like when Jesus asks a blind man if he can see anything while he heals the man. Often Jesus poses questions to thwart the scribes or Pharisees when they are challenging him like the time they say that he casts out demons by Beelzebul and Jesus asks, “How can Satan cast out Satan?” Sometimes Jesus puts a question to his disciples as a rebuke as when he asks them, “Do you not yet understand?”

But then there are the curious questions that I think are posed to us as well as the persons in the narrative. Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:16). What does it matter what a person calls Jesus? Everything!

In the Gospel of Matthew the only person who calls Jesus Rabbi, is Judas. The only persons who call Jesus Teacher are his opponents or someone who doesn’t do what Jesus tells him. In other words those people who see Jesus only as a teacher have got him wrong. On the other hand, Peter calls him the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus in turn says Peter is blessed because he calls him this.

So the question is put to us. “Who do you say that I am?” What do we answer and what does that answer mean to us? What would it mean for us to call him Lord for example.

Think about Jesus’ questions.

Read Matthew 16:13-19 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne