"Who do you say that I am?"

It was Wednesday morning. The boys and I were sitting around (because we homeschool) and John said, “It’s hump day.” I thought to myself, lazily, that it was somewhat remarkable that he knew that term. Sometimes I don’t like to waste too much effort on unnecessary speaking, but, after a moment, I said, “You know where that term came from?”

“Uh uh.”

“It came from an old radio DJ in Chicago, Steve Dahl.”

“No, it didn’t,” Daniel piped up.

“Yes, it actually did,” I affirmed.

“How do you know that? It did not.”

“Yes, it did. I know, because I was there.”

“When was it?”

“It was in the seventies. It was never a saying before that.”  They dropped the subject after that, but I’m pretty sure they still didn’t believe me.

I get their incredulity. I mean, how often do we actually witness the origin of such a widespread term, so pervasive that it has actually become a common part of language? Perhaps Dahl did not personally invent the term, I don’t know. But before that, it was not well known, or commonly used. In any case, I remember the beginnings of that being a thing people say. My kids do not because they were not there. They can take my word for it, or not.

I don’t always believe what people say. In fact, I’m pretty skeptical. Some people are not trustworthy. Others, however, are. A person can prove their words by their actions. I have heard someone say that Jesus did not exist. That person was not there, but his disciples were. 

One of Jesus’ disciples, Peter, writes: “For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.”—2Pet.1:16.  Another disciple, John, writes: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.” –1John 1:1

It is very exciting that we have the words of people who were actually with Jesus. These men and women suffered great persecution in order to bring us this good news, this Gospel. Tradition holds that Peter, and most of the other disciples, were killed for proclaiming this news. 

What is this Gospel, this good news? Well, part of it is that Jesus, God the Son, became a man, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”—John 1:14  For me, here was a big question I grappled with: Who is Jesus? It was something I had to come to terms with for myself. Either believe the eyewitnesses, or not. 

After reading and pondering, studying, and wrestling, the decision came in this way: I was looking out the window, and thought, “Well, what if Jesus is not who he says he is?”  So, I thought for a moment about what the world would look like to me if I determined that Jesus was not the Son of God--if my perception of things would change--if, say, I would look at a tree and see it as any different. 

Well, that was a very pivotal moment for me.  The thought of even a tree, without Jesus being Who He said He was, was horrific.  Like all the color and the beauty went out of it, and the world, and there was no hope.  So, I believed. I decided that Jesus is the Son of God.

This is a good question that everyone should ask themselves. Who is Jesus? 

  “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”—Matt. 16:15