Who do you think Jesus is? As small children we are told that Jesus is the Son of God, and we accept it   readily. When we are children God is a kindly  father figure who lives in Heaven and listens to our night prayers. When we are small, Jesus is the baby we see in the Christmas Nativity scene. When we are a little older, Jesus is the teller of all those intriguing parables. Once we are young adults we see Jesus as a great teacher, a   healer, a worker of miracles and a revolutionary. For some of us, doubts creep in. Is Jesus really the Son of God or simply a good man and a great prophet?

In today’s gospel Jesus asks his disciples “Who do you say I am?” “You are the Christ,” replies Peter promptly, “the Son of the living God.” But this wasn’t Peter’s opinion from the start. Peter and the other disciples first met    Jesus as a fellow human being. By working with Jesus and following his ministry daily, Peter and the other disciples gradually came to the extraordinary conviction that God was working through Jesus; speaking, healing, working miracles and  offering eternal salvation.

Today we listen again to Jesus’ question. “Who do you say I am?” It seems that the question is stretching over the centuries. It seems that the question is aimed not just at the disciples but at us. Jesus doesn’t want us to give the answer we’ve been taught to give … our answer has to be from the heart. Our answer might be, “I don’t know!” Our answer might be, “I’m not very sure right now.” Or our answer might be a resounding, “You are Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus knows that faith is a journey and our answer reflects at exactly what stage of that journey we have reached.

It may be that we think of Jesus as little more than a good man and a great prophet. If this is what we believe, the Bible becomes little more than a book filled with good stories and sound philosophy. If like the disciples we are convinced that Jesus is the Son of God, all at once we are opening ourselves to great possibilities…. all at once we have found the key to life’s greatest adventure.