Luke 9:18–27

Be Still: Lord, please give me something now that I can carry into the coming day. Amen

Read: Luke 9:18–27

But what about you?’ he asked. ‘Who do you say I am? (v.20)

Encounter: 'Well of course I wouldn’t say that to her face!'

One Sunday, the poet Robert Burns was sitting in church. Perhaps he wasn’t paying much attention to the sermon because he noticed people casting admiring looks at the fine bonnet of a local beauty. Or perhaps not just at her bonnet – because Burns saw, crawling across the bonnet, a headlouse. The stark contrast between the finery and the parasite inspired him to write a poem, with the most famous line ‘O would some Power the gift to give us - To see ourselves as others see us!’ (translated from Burns’ original Scots dialect)

Do you ever wonder what people say about you behind your back? Perhaps you’d prefer not to know. But in this passage from Luke, Jesus uses that very question to lead to a key moment in the gospel. After hearing what the crowds are saying about him, Jesus turns to the disciples and asks ‘But what about you? Who do you say I am?’ And it’s Peter who comes out with the ringing response – ‘You are God’s Messiah!’. (Matthew 16:16 quotes a fuller response: ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’)

A pivotal moment in Peter’s life – but it’s also the most important question that each of us will ever face. Jesus says to you, to me, today: ‘Who do you say I am?’ If our answer echoes Peter’s, that makes an eternal difference – no, much more – that makes the eternal difference!

Apply: I may worry about what people say about me behind my back. But far more importantly - what does Jesus say about me? If, like Peter, I believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, then what Jesus says about me is ‘You are a child of God’ (see John 1:12) ‘and I love you!’ As you go into your day, hold that thought!

Devote: I am a child of God. Lord, please help me to live out that reality today.