Who Do You Say That I Am?

by Catherine Osornio
Published July 11, 2005

In the northeastern region of Israel, below the foothills of Mount Hermon, lie the ruins of Caesarea Philippi, the ancient Roman city built by Philip, son of Herod the Great. The Banias River cascades from the mouth of a cave and flows southward to eventually join the Jordan River. It is a beautiful area, lush and green.

But this beauty was a façade, for it was from this cave and the surrounding area that grotesque and obscene rituals and sacrifices in the name of various pagan gods, especially the god, Pan, were performed. This was a hotbed of activity, and you could get any god for the asking.

It was from this area, however, that Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” (Matthew 16:13-16) That was a very vivid and dramatic question considering the locale. Temples to this god and that lay before them; shrines with handcrafted idols were set into the exterior walls of the cave. The disciples responded with what the people thought of Jesus; and then He asked them the key question, “But who do you say that I am?”

Peter responded with the correct answer, “You are the Christ, the son of the living God,” essentially saying He was God incarnate.
That is still the question of the day: Who do we really say Jesus is? Is He a god we fabricate and place up in a hole in the wall? Is He something we stick in a temple?

Is He someone we perform weird rituals to one minute and then forget Him the next? Or is He the one true God, the creator of the Universe, who deserves our love and devotion above all things? We need to constantly keep that question in mind because it is so easy to make things- money, time, work, etc. - our gods. It is easy, in the midst of our busy-ness, to forget that our purpose here on earth is to glorify the Lord.

Caesarea Philippi is nothing more now than fallen pillars and broken floors overgrown by the surrounding foliage. All the idols are long gone, stolen or disintegrated over time. It shows very plainly that any pursuit that is not centered on the Lord will end up in ruins. Keep God your focus. Keep Him your one, true God; for we will all eventually have to answer, “Who do you say that I am?”

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