Today's Gospel

The Biggest Question in the Gospel

Welcome back to Radical & Relevant, where each day we read the gospel together, reflect on the gospel together. Radical? Yes, as radical today as it was 2,000 years ago. Relevant? Absolutely. Hasn't lost its relevance in 2,000 years. And that's what we look to explore each day by listening for a word, a phrase, or an idea that the Holy Spirit uses to capture our attention. Today's reading is really two parts. See if you can pick up on that as we read it. It's from the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 8, verses 27 through 33. Jesus went on with His disciples to the village of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way, He asked the disciples, "Who do people say that I am?" And they told Him, "John the Baptist," another say, "Elijah," another say, "One of the great prophets." And He asked them, "But who do you say that I am?" And Peter answered Him, "You are the Christ." And He charged them to tell no one about Him. And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days, rise again. And He said this plainly. And Peter took Him and began to rebuke Him. But turning and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan, for you are not on the side of God but of men." What is it that jumps out at you? So you sort of got these two readings. I remember being in Caesarea Philippi on our Holy Land pilgrimages. I remember the first time I went there, and I remember this reading.

We had this fantastic guide, and he's talking about the history of the place, and the Scripture, and Jesus' involvement in that area. And he read this reading, just the first part of it, and it had a powerful impact on me. And then after that is when I started writing about the Jesus question, because I call that the Jesus question. And Jesus says, "Who do you say that I am?" And Peter says, "You're the Christ, the Son of the living God." That's the Jesus question. And we've all got to answer the Jesus question sooner or later, even atheists, even non-Christians, agnostics, or everyone. Sooner or later, we got to answer the Jesus question. I can't answer it for you, you can't answer it for me, and my parents can't answer it for me, and yours can't either. And each person, ultimately, we have to answer the Jesus question for ourselves. And we live in a culture that says, "Oh, yeah, He's a great prophet, one amongst many." But that's not what we believe. We believe He is one, the one, singular, Son of God. And answering the Jesus question is important because otherwise, there's a lot of ways that our minds mentally and intellectually can erode the faith until we're clear about who Jesus is. And so maybe that's today. How well do you know Jesus? In Rediscover Jesus, I talk about the Jesus question, but I also talk about the idea of how well do we know Jesus. And one of the things I challenge the readers to do in Rediscover Jesus is to sit down and write down everything you know about Jesus. Set some time aside, sit down, write down everything you know about Jesus. I did it before I started writing that book, Rediscover Jesus.

And I talk about it in the book. I talk about how I was stunned and saddened and really ashamed, I think, at how quickly I ran out of things to write down. I sat down. I set the whole afternoon aside. I sat down. "I'm going to write down everything I know about Jesus." And it was alarming how quickly I ran out of things to write down. And so the reality is that we maybe don't know Him as well as we think we do. And we don't know Him as well as, I think, we yearn to. And so maybe today is an invitation to get to know Jesus more, deeper, on another level. Have a great day, and remember, don't just be yourself. Be the-very-best-version-of-yourself, all that God created you to be.

I hope you're enjoying the Daily Gospel Reflections. So one of the things I love doing, spending this time with you each day. Recently, I released a book called 33 Days to Divine Mercy. If you haven't had a chance to check that out yet, I encourage you to do that today.