In a time of prayer with His disciples Jesus asked them a question, “Who do the people say that I am” (Luke 9:18). Several answers were given but then Jesus got very personal. He said to His men, “Who do you say that I am” (Luke 9:18). Peter forwards an answer but the question was for the group. Indeed, any group gathered around Jesus must be engaged with this question.

Many times in North America Scripture is so individualized we overlook the fact that Jesus has called us to be His people. It is to His people that certain questions must be asked. Persons as persons must give answers but not as Lone Ranger Christians. His Church must continually hear the question, “Who do you say that I am?”

It is His Church who must continually be challenged to save its life by losing it (Luke 9:24). It is His Church, shaped and formed by His cross, that must come after Jesus in a spirit of self-denial and take of the cross (Luke 9:23).

It is His Church that is called to see through the present order and into an order where profit is not measured by what one has but by what one has released into the hands of God for the sake of others (Luke 9:25).

It is His Church that must lived unashamedly for Jesus in the present order of things, expectantly waiting for that day when Jesus “comes in His glory, and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels” (Luke 9:26).

Let us not be preoccupied with any thing that might preoccupy us. Instead, let’s open up our hearts to the Lord of the universe, and live for Him.

If Jesus would whisper into our ears some day in worship, “Who do you say that I am?” what would our answer be?