Who do you think Jesus is?

This is the key question we have to wrestle with throughout our life.
Luke does not mention the location. Mark tells us that it took place in Caesarea Philippi (Mark 8:27). Matthew takes this opportunity to establish the primacy of Simon Peter whom Jesus made the rock on which to build his Church (Matthew 16:18).
On the other hand, Luke puts this story immediately after the miracle of the 5 loaves and 2 fish, where in the other two synoptic gospels, it was another miracle in which Jesus walked on the water. In Luke, Jesus was praying alone and his disciples were with him (Luke 9:18).Usually, such an introduction to a story in Luke signifies some very important events such as selection of 12 apostles (6:12), Transfiguration (9:28), teaching of the Lord's Prayer (11:1) and the Agony (22:40) etc.

Jesus' ministry reached its zenith at the miracle of the 5 loaves and 2 fish. A crowd of nearly 10,000 people gathered around him. Jesus was more than capable to mobile them to march to Jerusalem and started a political/military venture against the Roman dominion. He did not choose this path of political Messiah. His mission is to execute God's will to die obediently for our sake. But first of all, in order to effect this redemption project, Jesus needs to win our hearts over. But he respects our freedom. He simply asks us what we think of him.
From his fearless criticism of the corrupt authority, people saw a John the Baptist or an Elijah of old. From the miracles he worked, people could see an Elijah or some other prophets of the Old Testament. After eating to their full in the feeding miracle, the people would naturally say that Jesus was a miracle worker, a man of God, a prophet of old. Such an understanding was not wrong. It was incomplete.
When Jesus asked his disciples, he first began with an easier question. What the general public, the others said about him. Then came the incisive question, "But who do you say that I am?" (9:20). Peter's answer, viz. the Christ of God, was political. This was the Messianic expectation of the contemporary people. Peter was not completely right. It takes time, a life time for Peter and everybody to come to a correct understanding of Jesus.

However, this question is crucial for us as a Christian because this is what we preach to non-believers. Of course, we may follow the book. We tell people what we know from the gospels. We share our interpretation of the gospel with people who want to know more about this Jesus. That is why the question is crucial.
The Psalmist gave us many images of God. For example, the Lord is my shield (Psalm 3:3),  my rock (Psalm 18:2), and my shepherd (Psalm 23:1) etc. These images are vivid and are not theological jargon. They don't have to be theologically precis and correct. They are authentic and can offer us a reference. In the last analysis, they can mean nothing to us if we cannot find personal experiences that echo similar sentiment.

Fr. Milanese is a good pastor. In his homily this morning, he pointed out another dimension of the question. In trying to answer Jesus' question, we also answer who we are.

Dear Lord, You are my boss. Let me be Your handy instrument to reconcile the world. Amen.