Jesus Wants To Know Who Is Who

𝐀𝐔𝐆. 𝟕, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓: 𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐇 𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐊 𝐈𝐍 𝐎𝐑𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐑𝐘 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄

𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐍𝐮𝐦 𝟐𝟎:𝟏-𝟏𝟑

𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐏𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐦: 𝐏𝐬𝐚 𝟗𝟓:𝟏-𝟐, 𝟔-𝟗 “𝐈𝐟 𝐭𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐯𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞, 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐧 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐬.”

𝐆𝐎𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐋: 𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐓 𝟏𝟔:𝟏𝟑-𝟐𝟑

𝐊𝐞𝐲 𝐕𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞: "𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮? 𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐝𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐚𝐲 𝐈 𝐚𝐦? (𝐯.𝟏𝟓) 

          When you are with a group of friends it is customary that each of you in the group wants to know one another well. This is basic because trust which is supposed to hold the group together is dependent on how well you know one another.

         If you are a military general and you’re preparing for a confrontation with an adversary, one of the things you’d do is to take stock of your assets and logistics. Today Jesus is conducting a headcount of his disciples particularly in their knowledge of him and the mission ahead of them.

         This is a very interesting Gospel passage in that here we see Jesus beginning to get worried that his teachings have not taken root among his disciples amidst the very little time left in his earthly ministry and so he decides to make a headcount who among his disciples know him.

         That Jesus chose to go to Caesarea Philippi is also packed with reason. To be able to determine what his disciples know of him, their subconscious must be at peace and this region is outside the jurisdiction of Herod Antipas.

         Caesarea Philippi is also a non-Jewish region where there are numerous temples or places of worship that do not exactly conform to the religious standards that Jesus is trying to establish among the Jews, but which are of historical value.

         It is against this backdrop that Jesus wanted to know from his disciples if they really know him and the setting he chose should provide his disciples with a comparative view of the world and its religions and the divinity of Jesus himself.

         But when Jesus first posed the question: “𝑾𝒉𝒐 𝒅𝒐 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒐𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝑴𝒂𝒏 𝒊𝒔?” (𝒗.13) Jesus received divergent points of views as some said he was John the Baptist; others say Elijah and others Jeremiah. Again, there is a reason for these differences of opinion.

         This was borne out of the refusal of the Jews to acknowledge him as coming from God. While many Jews admired and believed in him, Jesus was not received as the Messiah the Jewish nation has been waiting for but equated him with some the prophets who merely heralds the coming of the Messiah.

        After listening to the different interpretations as to how he was perceived by the people, Jesus now turns to his disciples. At this point, he knows that his earthly ministry was coming to an end, Jesus must know if his disciples have absorbed everything that he has said and seen what he has done because if they have not at least understood, then it will reduce to waste everything that has done.

         As in the feeding of the 5,000 which Jesus could not have done by himself, he needs his disciples to continue his mission of spreading the Good News to the world. He also needs us who have now taken over the tasks originally given to the Apostles. Which is why Jesus has to ask this question: “𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖? 𝑾𝒉𝒐 𝒅𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒔𝒂𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑰 𝒂𝒎?” (𝒗.15)        

         From wanting to know what others know about him, Jesus now turns to his own flock to make sure they “𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘” him. In both the Hebrew and Greek language, to “𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘” a person is not just to know about his persona, his family lineage, his ethnicity or his profession. To “𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘” is to get into the person himself, to empathize with him, to get to know his feelings. In other words, to “𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘” is to be one with the person.

         This is the rationale behind the question that Jesus asked of his disciples. And this is the same question that Jesus is asking all of us. Do we really “𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘” him? Do we “𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘” what is in his heart? Do we “𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘” his thoughts, his emotions, his goals and mission, the Words he spoke, and which were handed down from generations past.

          This is important because it would be pointless for us and anyone to join in this crusade of spreading the Good News if we do not know the person we are trying to introduce to the world. Like Peter who, blessed by the Father in heaven, made the great discovery that Jesus “𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑪𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒕, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒐𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑳𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑮𝒐𝒅” (𝒗.16) we, too, must on our own accord discover what Peter discovered.

          This should now become the foundation of our faith because Christianity is not just knowing about Jesus, but it is rooted in knowing Jesus because this is the only way that we can let others get into the heart of Jesus. Many of us have been assigned as shepherds in our LSS or in our encounter seminars. Did we succeed to lead others to know Jesus more? Who he is and what his will is for us. Or did we draw others to ourselves rather than Our Lord Jesus Christ.

          With the assurance that there is at least one among his disciples who know him, Jesus described Peter as the rock upon whom the Church shall be founded and the debate on this particular verses rages on and we would not venture into dipping our minds into this seemingly endless debate.

          But one of the many interpretations that I subscribe to is that of Peter to be one of the first stones for the whole Church that Christ had established but the rock referred to is no other than God himself. In other words, since Peter has been designated by Christ himself to be the first member of the Church being the first man to have discovered who Jesus was, the whole Church is built around Peter, but the rock is Jesus himself.

          Equally perplexing is what some scholars describe as a rebuke of Peter and again, we will not get into the debate of whether Peter was possessed by the devil at the time he cautioned Jesus on his impending salvific death.

          But when Jesus said: “𝑮𝒆𝒕 𝒃𝒆𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒆 𝑺𝒂𝒕𝒂𝒏,” (𝒗.23) what he merely meant was for Peter to take his usual and natural place which was behind him, not in front of Jesus nor to his side but behind him. The description of Peter as Satan was figurative because Satan means adversary and Jesus simply took it as Peter becoming adversarial when he tried to stop Jesus from going through his Passion, Death and Resurrection.

          What is rather important in this passage about binding and loosing is that these phrases are parabolic in a sense because it describes the custom of the Jews in deciding which need to be bound or prohibited and which can be loosed or allowed. And when Jesus directed this verse to Peter, he was giving Peter the responsibility to make decisions for the Church that is yet to be established.

         This same responsibility is what has also been passed on to us. In our life in the church or community for that matter, the leaders and the members are always being asked to make such responsible decisions that impact the church or the community to which we belong. One of these is to live in peace with one another, not insisting on the righteousness of one’s actions against the other but communal living in which we all recognize the strengths and weaknesses of one another.

          Community living is not about imposing our ideas, thoughts, perceptions, feelings and our will on the other be it in an apostolate or ministry, but in living as one,  thoroughly accepting the fact that while one is different from the other we have all been predestined to be God’s adopted sons through Jesus Christ

         Thus, we all share in the same glory of God in union with the Rock who is the foundation of our faith – Jesus Christ Our Lord. (𝘌𝘥 𝘔𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘺 – 𝘈𝘶𝘨. 7, 2025)