Jesus Wanted to Know the Skinny - Day 29

We all like being in on what is going on. We like the inside word. We like to know what is being said of us. It is the “skinny.” We want to know.
Jesus was no different. As Jesus and his disciples were traveling through Caesarea Philippi, he asked them, “ ‘Who do people say that I am?’ And they answered him, ‘John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.’ He asked them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter answered him, ‘You are the Messiah.’” (Mark 8:27-29)
Under the guise of wanting to know what others were saying about him, the skinny, Jesus actually wanted to know what they, the disciples, thought of him. He wanted to know what they thought, what they were saying, because he knew that faith cannot be second-hand or hearsay. Faith cannot come from someone else’s words. Faith must be your own words. We cannot live anyone else’s faith, only our own.
We must know that Jesus puts the same question to us. Jesus wants to know what we have to say. He doesn’t want to know what we hear, what we read, what we may recite, or what we may sing. We all know that we can hear and read and recite and sing a lot of words that don’t sink in, that don’t necessarily mean all that much. Jesus knows the same thing.
So, again, who do you say that Jesus is for you? He wants to know. He doesn’t want to know for his sake—Jesus knows who he is. He wants to know who you say that he is for your sake.