At the center of Mark's gospel Jesus asks a question of his disciples: Who do you say that I am? This, I fear, can often become one question of many that Jesus may ask, or one statement among many that we read quickly and then read on. Because of our familiarity with it, we may treat it as one of many parts of the Jesus story, instead of giving it the focus it deserves.

This question is THE question. I noted in part 1 of my blogs about questions, that our life is an answer to a question, whether we know the question or not. Building upon that idea, our life is an answer to a question, a very real question, that is an answer to the question that Jesus asked: Who do you say that I am?

We cannot merely unleash the barrage of catechismal-rhetoric that we have filled our minds with over the years, and we can't take time to think what our pastors and theologians might say in response to Jesus' inquiry. We are already speaking. Our life is constantly forming a question, every day it creates anew the question our lives are answering, which turns into a month and a year and a decade, until we have an overarching question that we give our lives to answer - and it is that question, and only that question that can truly answer for us.

Peter answered Jesus' question with insight beyond himself - which became clear when immediately afterwards he rejected any possible understanding of it by rebuking Jesus. I wonder how often we are the ones who are proclaiming who Jesus is, and by everything we give ourselves to proclaim the opposite?