To know yourself you must know Jesus!

Matthew 16:13-19

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi he put this question to his disciples, ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’ And they said, ‘Some say he is John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ ‘But you,’ he said ‘who do you say I am?’ Then Simon Peter spoke up, ‘You are the Christ,’ he said ‘the Son of the living God.’ Jesus replied, ‘Simon son of Jonah, you are a happy man! Because it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. So I now say to you: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church. And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven.’

Food for thought

He did not ask the question directly; he led up to it. He began by asking what people were saying about him, and who they took him to be. Some said that he was John the Baptist. Others said that he was Elijah. In doing so, they were saying two things about Jesus. They were saying that he was as great as the greatest of the prophets, for Elijah had always been looked on as the summit and the prince of the prophetic line.

When the people identified Jesus with Elijah and with Jeremiah and with John the Baptist they were paying him a great compliment and setting him in a high place, for Jeremiah and Elijah and John the Baptist were none other than the expected forerunners of the Anointed One of God. In other words, Jesus was good but not good enough, was great but not great enough.

When Jesus had heard the verdicts of the crowd, he asked the all-important question: "But you, who do you say I am?" At that question there may well have been a moment of silence, during which into the minds of Peter came thought from heaven about both Jesus and himself.

Like Jesus, we all want to know who we are. We want to know what others think of us. One thing is certain, NO ONE KNOWS WHO WE ARE, EXCEPT JESUS. All the others call us many things, many names; I am many things for many people, you're many things to many people. If you asked your friends who you're, like Jesus did, you would here all kinds of answers, good and not so good; it is all guesswork because no one can tell you who you are except the Lord.

But to know who you are, you have to know who Jesus is. This is what happened. When Peter came to know who Jesus is, when Peter told Jesus, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God," Jesus told Peter who he is: "I now say to you: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church."

This means that the road to ourselves goes through Jesus; he is the key that opens us. Peter never knew himself nor his career until Jesus told him in all details. And Jesus never told Peter who he is until Peter knew who Jesus is. So, you too, to know yourself, you will have to know who Jesus is. The more you know Jesus the better you know yourself, the less you know Jesus the less you know yourself.

If you don't know yourself well, it is because you don't know quite well who Jesus is. Ignorance of Jesus is ignorance of ourselves.