Every so often, television station air series such as This is Your Life or, the latest, who Do You Think You Are? These programs trace the genealogy of the protagonist, researching family backgrounds, ancestral homes, surnames, coats of arms, and anything that could have had a bearing on making the person who or what he is today.
These programs have a solid fan-base, because people tend to be curious about the lives of others – however private they may want their own affairs to be.
Sometimes, it turns out that personalities had convicts, or scientists, or suffragettes, or royalty, – or even lion tamers – in the lower branches of their family trees. This is what makes episodes of the program interesting; for nobody wants to read about generation upon generation of skullduggery.
Be that as it may, we also use Who do you think you are? as a sarcastic question, when we feel that someone is getting too big for his boots.
“Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’ And they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.’ He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’”
Jesus turned the tables on this query when He asked His disciples these two important questions – what people were saying about who He was, and what they thought, themselves. This was an issue they could have been taken for granted – but now, it was time to consider it deeply. The second one a make-or-break question – it was either that they believed in Him, or that they denied Him and His teachings
Thinking deeply about these questions, we would realize that our replies have a bearing on our values, our lifestyles – and our Hereafter, too. Jesus told us that He and the Father are one. So – we know that He is God incarnate. He was not a guru, or a philosopher, or a prophet… or even a madman, as some would have us believe. Ironically even Satan and his demons believe in the true God.
We cannot cut-and-paste our own views of what He is, on Jesus. He told us, often enough, who He is. Even as He wrote in the sand, He was showing us that He is The Way, The Truth, and the Life.
Jesus told us that He is holy, when He called for us to be holy, “… for I am holy.” The Bible tells us that Jesus is the Savior, the righteous Judge, the sovereign Lord, and the Living God. John wrote in his Gospel that Jesus was God made flesh.
Peter said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus told Peter that he was blessed, and enlightened by God the Father. This, so soon after Jesus had called him a “man of little faith” when he wanted to set up three abodes for Jesus, Moses and Elijah.
Jesus said that He could forgive sin; this is something only God can do. Just in case anyone doubted that He could, He followed this up with a miracle. Again, only God can do miracles, and this showed that Jesus was God. However, religious leaders accused Him of blasphemy.
And after the humiliation, suffering, and death on the cross, Jesus rose from the dead, and proved, once and for all, that He is God.
