Can you imagine being there when Jesus asked his disciples the question, “Who do the crowds say I am?” If it was anything like the scenes in our classrooms there might have been a few seconds of awkward silence before one of them offered up, “Some say John the Baptist.”

“Well others say Elijah.”

“And some of them say that you are one of the prophets.”

I imagine Peter to be a bit like me. I lived for class discussion because it usually kept us from doing busy work. I was never one to offer up the first comment but I was always prepared to make my opinion known.

I can see Peter listening but staring at the ground. He hears that his friends are giving the easy answers to the easy question. He wants to answer but that question leaves him wanting. Let’s be honest, Jesus served them a softball pitch that first question and Peter was never interested playing softball. Jesus brings the heat with his next question:

“Who do you say I am?”

In essence Jesus is saying, “No hiding behind what others say. This isn’t about them it’s about you. This is where the rubber meets the road. Who do you say I am?”

Still staring at the ground I see Peter say, “You are the Messiah.” He looks up right into the face of Jesus, clears his throat, and purposefully repeats his answer.

“You… are the Messiah.”

Andrew had told him years ago that they had found the Promised One and now Peter believes that it is so. He is ready to make the leap from seeing Jesus as a good teacher to the Son of God.

In the book Jesus-Centered Youth Ministry, author Rick Lawrence recounts a time in his life where he was wrestling with this very question. He implores the reader to step back to this scene and answer this question for themselves.

I took a page from the book and I led a discussion with my teens asking them the following question:

Which word comes closest to describing the way you see Jesus- nice, fierce, or mysterious?

Not surprisingly many of them wanted to answer nice. Frankly that’s because we have made Jesus nice. We gloss over the Jesus who was so passionate about true worship that he overturned tables with one hand and wielded a home-made whip with the other. We downplay the Jesus who was so outraged at the religious leaders that he told them they we tombs filled with dead bodies. That Jesus is anything but nice.

Our discussion that night was one the best we’ve ever had. After they argued and discussed whether Jesus was nice, fierce, or mysterious I broke them into groups and challenged them to come up with a description that they felt captured Jesus better. They opened their Bibles and dove head first. They came up with Almighty, Passionate, and (my favorite) Hardcore. It seemed that for the first time in a long time we were all challenged to answer the question anew.

I’m not sure that I will ever have the “right” for this question. My answer is as messy as my own life. I just know that I want to spend the rest of my life connecting and serving and worshiping the one who asked it.

Who Do I Say You Are Jesus?

You are the Christ. The Son of the Most High God. You are a Lion and a Lamb. You desire mercy and pure heart. You take away the sins from your children. You take away my sins. You call me from a small life of fishing in the sea to a grand life of fishing for men. You are the Beginning and the End. You conquered death. You are nice, fierce, mysterious, passionate, hardcore, and almighty. You are my first love. You are who I want to serve. You are the Christ.

Who do you say Jesus is?