Some questions are easy to answer, while others are more challenging and thought-provoking.

 

“What foods do Americans associate with Thanksgiving?” is an easy question. We would have little trouble answering. “Turkey, stuffing, gravy, potatoes, pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce, etc.”

 

“What is the most important thing you want to accomplish during your lifetime?” is a far more difficult question. That question demands thoughtful self-examination and challenges us to examine our goals, ambitions, hopes, and dreams.

 

In this Sunday’s Gospel (Matthew 16:13-20), Jesus asks his disciples two questions. The first is easy, the second is more challenging.

 

The first question, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”, Jesus asks in order to learn “the word on the street”, what is being said about him by the public.

 

The disciples have little trouble answering that question. They have heard their relatives, friends, and neighbors sharing their opinions about Jesus.

 

The disciples answer by saying that some people are claiming Jesus is John the Baptist returned from the dead, and others theorize he might be Elijah, Jeremiah, or one of the other prophets of old.

 

The second question posed by Jesus is, “But who do you say that I am?” This is a more challenging question. Jesus asks his disciples not to share the thoughts of others, but to tell him who they believe him to be. How do they see him? How do they understand this man they have been following?

 

One of the disciples is bold enough to answer, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Peter proclaims that he believes that the one he has been following since he abandoned his fishing nets is the long-awaited Messiah, the very Son of God.

 

Imagine if Jesus asked us the two questions that he asked his disciples.

 

We certainly would have little difficulty answering the first question. We could tell Jesus that people think of him as a religious leader, a teacher, philosopher, Jewish rabbi, social justice warrior, miracle worker, a great historical figure, etc.

 

However, the second question, which Jesus directed to his disciples and that he directs to us, his present-day disciples, is more difficult.

 

“But who do you say that I am?” is a question that challenges us to answer not by repeating religious terms and pious phrases we have heard from others but by answering with our own words and understanding. And more importantly by answering with our actions; by living as people who make Jesus, the Son of God, the guide of our lives.

 

“But who do you say that I am?” this is the challenging question that each one of us must address as we hear this Sunday’s Gospel and answer with our words and our actions.

 

© 2026 Rev. Thomas Iwanowski