WHY TELL PEOPLE to keep quiet about the most stupendous, incredible, world-shaking thing that had happened in their lifetime–that God had come down into human flesh and lived among them like a typical man…?

Because it wasn’t yet Jesus’ time to die: His ministry was not yet complete.  And He knew how the jealous religious leaders would react–precisely the way they did: they sought to kill Him.

You see, Jesus’ identity was the stick that broke the camel’s back for the people who most wanted Him gone (cf. Matthew 26:59-68).  His statements that He was the Son of God were what the Jews decided was the final proof of Jesus’ guilt before the Law: they claimed He blasphemed (“cursed, derided, slandered, and libeled”) God by claiming to be the Messiah, the Son of the living God.  They could not deal with.  He was everything they believed the Messiah wasn’t.  And he was nothing they thought the Messiah should be.

Nothing inspired more derision, hatred, and revulsion toward Jesus than His claim to be God incarnate.  And nothing brings greater disdain than that claim today.  You can call Jesus a good man, a great prophet, a fine leader, perhaps the greatest man who ever lived.  But utter the words “He wasn’t just a man, He was God,” and you may be in for a fight.

When Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do you say I am?” they answered the expected ways: “a great prophet, Elijah, etc.”  But Peter said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (cf. Matthew 16:13-16).  Jesus then told Peter this was the “rock” on which He would build His church.  The “rock” wasn’t Peter himself, but rather the confession of Jesus being the Son of God.

THOUGHT: Ultimately, that’s the line of demarcation for everyone.  “Whom do you say He is?” is the question each of us must answer.  How we answer determines where we will spend eternity.  (Mark Litteton)

He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15).