Who is Jesus?

01The question

“But whom do you say that I am?”

“Jesus saith to them: But whom do you say that I am? Simon Peter answered and said: Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Peter does not say “a great teacher”. He does not say “a good man”. He says something nobody says about a teacher.

Jesus does not correct him; instead he tells Peter that “flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in heaven.”⁷

Two thousand years later, the question has not gone away. It has simply been passed down the line. Now it is addressed to you.

So what answer does the Church give? Something stranger, and better, than most people expect.

02The claim

God became one of us

The Church teaches that Jesus is truly the Son of God who, without ceasing to be God and Lord, became a man and our brother.¹³ Not part God and part man, and not a blend of the two. In the Catechism’s own short words: “Jesus Christ is true God and true man.”¹

“And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (and we saw his glory, the glory as it were of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth.”

And “flesh” means flesh.¹⁴ The Gospels, the four accounts of his life in the Bible, show him worn out from a journey, sitting down by a well.¹⁵ After forty days of fasting, he was hungry.¹⁶

The God who made everything, sitting by a well because his feet hurt. Sit with that for a second.

Which leaves the obvious question. Why would God do that?

03The reason

Why he came

The Catechism gives four reasons.¹⁷

To bring us back to God.² So that we would know God’s love.¹⁸ To show us what a holy life looks like.¹⁹ And, most startling of all, to make us “partakers of the divine nature.”²⁰

“For God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son: that whosoever believeth in him may not perish, but may have life everlasting.”

Read the list again. Every reason on it is about you.

But a story like this stands or falls on one claim. Did he actually rise from the dead?

04The evidence

A letter from about AD 56

The Catechism points to a letter. “In about A.D. 56 St. Paul could already write to the Corinthians” what he had been taught about Jesus.²²

“For I delivered unto you first of all, which I also received: how that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures: And that he was buried: and that he rose again the third day, according to the scriptures: And that he was seen by Cephas, and after that by the eleven. Then was he seen by more than five hundred brethren at once: of whom many remain until this present, and some are fallen asleep.”

Look at the last line. More than five hundred people saw him at once, and most of them were still alive when Paul wrote. In other words, they could still be asked.

The Church teaches that the Resurrection is “a real event, with manifestations that were historically verified.”²² It calls it “the crowning truth of our faith in Christ.”³

It is also honest about what we do not know: “no one was an eyewitness to Christ’s Resurrection,” and no Gospel describes the moment itself. It remains at the heart of the mystery of faith.²⁴

So where does that leave you, if you are not sure yet?

05Your answer

You do not need every answer today

Thomas, one of the Twelve, the inner circle Jesus chose, missed the first appearance.^25,26 When the others told him, he said: “Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the place of the nails and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”²⁷

Eight days later, with Thomas in the room, Jesus stood among them.²⁸ Thomas said five words: “My Lord and my God.”²⁹

The Church calls faith “the free response of the human person to the initiative of God who reveals himself.”³⁰ It is a gift from God, and it is also a truly human act.^31,32

Asking questions is part of faith: “faith seeks understanding.”³³ The Catechism quotes St John Henry Newman: “Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt.”³⁴

Peter answered on a road. You can take as long as you need. The question will wait.