“BUT WHAT ABOUT YOU?” HE ASKED. “WHO DO YOU SAY I AM?”

MATTHEW 16:15

There is a beautiful story from the Gospels where Jesus poses the questions to His disciples. “Who do People say I am?” They go on to say many things such as John the Baptist, Elijah and so on. But Jesus persists and he says, “but you, who do you say I am?” And it’s Peter who says back to him, “You’re the Christ, the Son of God.” In normal, ordinary human terms. This is a recipe for a deeper knowledge of God. In telling Jesus who Jesus is, Peter is telling Jesus and owning up to who he is as one of his disciples. That can happen for us. The more we tell Jesus about who he is, the more we discover who we are in his image.

There is a famous Christian image called Christ at Hearts Door. The image depicts Jesus standing at a large wooden door knocking. The door, however, has no door handle and is unable to be opened by Him. The door can only be opened by us and it’s our responsibility to keep that door open.

The image accompanies the following from Revelations 3:20, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” This image is meant to be made into reality daily by us. People will come knocking at our door. We may expect this, or we may not, however, we choose whether to open the door or to keep it closed.

Maybe when Peter was asked by Jesus “who do you say I am?”, before he spoke he was thinking about Jesus’ impact on his life. Maybe he thought, ‘You’re the best thing that ever happened to me. I know you pick me up when I am down. I know since you came into my life, I haven’t been the same. I’ve now got somewhere to go. I know I am changed because you’re here.’ If we are open to Him working through us in our lives, maybe we will be open to others that need us most and maybe they will open the door to something greater in their lives. How about answering the question yourself? Who do you say I am? Who is knocking at my door?

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

• If you could describe yourself in 5 words what would they be?
• Who do other people say that you are?

From: Firewood for the soul, vol. 1, A Reflexion Book for the Whole Vincentian Family
St. Vincent de Paul Society, Queensland, Australia.
Text by: Samantha Hill.