In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus does us the kindness of separating the voices of others from the Spirit’s voice inside ourselves.

“Who do people say the Son of Man is?” he asks his disciples.

Of course, people are speculating. Jesus has been causing quite a stir, and he knows as well as anyone how people are. The rumor mill is churning. There are whispers of proposed possibilities; there are loud declarations orated with unearned confidence. There are gossips and there are desperate seekers and there are pious religious leaders with all the answers. But, I imagine, there are few who are neutral or disinterested.

Perhaps the disciples are relieved he asked the question. Perhaps they’ve been dying to tell him what they’ve been hearing. I can only imagine, if it were me in their shoes, how much I’d want a little debrief after every rumor that crossed my desk. “Jesus, oh my gosh, did you hear the latest one?” But the weight of the mystery had, until now, kept them respectfully quiet. So when he finally asked, they had their answers locked and loaded.

“Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

“Some say John the Baptist,” offers one.
“Others say Elijah,” contributes another.
“I’ve heard Jeremiah, or another of the prophets,” a third chimes in.

I imagine Jesus considering these, tilting his head and letting some awkward seconds tick by.

“But,” he pauses, and maybe I’m crazy, but I hear an edge of hopefulness in his voice: “Who do you say that I am?”

“You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God,” Peter whispers.

Jesus smiles at him, calls him blessed.

Why did Jesus first ask what everyone else was saying? Why didn’t he simply just ask who his disciples thought he was? What did it matter what the others were saying, when what he really wanted to find out was whether his friends knew him. Whether they believed him.

I think Jesus asked the first question so the disciples would be forced to differentiate their own conclusions from the conclusions of others; so they would have to weigh their own experience against the explanations delivered by others.

We have to remember that it wasn’t just peers that they were disagreeing with; it was also religious authority, politicians, and others in positions of power. In these cases, as many of us know firsthand, coming to a different conclusion takes courage – even and perhaps especially if one has devoted a lot of prayer and discernment to the process.

By asking these two questions, Jesus was giving his disciples permission to trust their own experience of who they know him to be – of who they know God to be. He was teaching them how to trust themselves. He knew their futures would require it.

“Upon this rock I will build my church,” he says, and we would be remiss not to admit that there can be multiple interpretations of this statement. Perhaps that was the point. Jesus was notoriously fond of such things.

Peter was the rock upon which the church was built, yes. But is the trustworthy presence of the Holy Spirit in each one of us not also such a rock? The church, after all, was originally built by ones who were willing to trust their own Spirit-led conclusions, even when doing so put them at risk.

“Who do people say that I am?” is only the initial question.

“But who do you say that I am?” is the question we must find the faith to answer for ourselves, even if it creates disagreement or conflict.

The keys to the kingdom are not just for Peter, but for everyone willing to trust the guidance of the Holy Spirit within them, come what may.