Who Do You Say I Am?

Dear Diary,

Just ate ¾ of a huge single-yolk soft-skin yam mooncake! Yummy! Mooncake has always been my favourite food over the years. This time, I bought 2 boxes of mooncakes for my family when I returned from Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia after a 5-day conference / exhibition trip. Each box contains 4 huge mooncakes from the renowned Tai Thong. Anyway, I am so glad that I get a break tomorrow from work. I had actually touched down at about 7pm in Singapore on Monday evening and was badly in need of a rest after that flight. I got no rest because I had something to do at work today (Tuesday). I am now wondering what I should do with my off day tomorrow, haha… ;-) I am not exactly going to describe my 5-day trip to KL in this blog except that it was the first time in my life that I checked in at the airport and the hotels alone! A memorable experience to be manning an exhibition booth, interacting with foreigners, residing in Shangri-La, chatting with an eminent US colorectal surgeon, eating amazing spreads of buffets and even chatting up with a girl in another exhibition booth! ;-)

The 5-day trip really widened my perspective and I even attended a multi-national business meeting in our branch in KL. Then again, despite the exquisite food and the huge superior hotel room of Shangri-La, I had rather have good company with poorer food and less luxurious hotel room anytime. =P You will understand that when you are so in awe of that international buffet spread but can’t share that excitement with anyone dear, haha… oh well, I think I will get more independent over time.

I was thinking about the passage from the gospel of Saint Matthew. In Mt 16:13, Jesus asked his disciples who the people thought he was. His disciples answered by reporting what they heard about the people’s thoughts, ie. He is John the Baptist, Elijah or even Jeremiah…. Jesus, however, was not too interested in public opinions or even popularity. Instead, he followed with another more personal second question, “Who do you say I am?” (Mt 16:15)

Then, Simon uttered those famous words, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” Although all the disciples gave their answers to Christ’s first question, only Simon replied the second one. Jesus Christ recognised that correct confession as a starting point of faith by renaming Simon as Peter (Kepha: Rock). Of course, I am not going to talk tonight about that debatable theological controversy of Mt 16:18 being the scriptural evidence of the seat of the papacy. However, there is no denying the significance of that confession because to really know that Christ Jesus is God is really a revelation given to that human by God himself (Mt 16:17).

While Jesus did not scorn those incorrect but honest responses about him (as implied in Mt 12:20) being a prophet and such… Yup, the middle ground view… However, we can see clearly that Jesus Christ left no room for doubt when he said that he is the way, the truth and the life (Jn 14:6). He can either be God or a lunatic as his words were clearly, in the human point of view, no half-measure. You can’t go wrong about what Jesus meant when he said, “Whoever loves father and mother more than me is not worth of me.” (Mt 10:37). He implied that he is God.

As Christians who partake in the salvation purchased by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we cannot be satisfied with just believing in the divinity of Christ. We need to bear witness of the light of Christ to the unbelievers in a world of darkness and hopelessness. A blind Jewish girl asked her Christian friend, “You who see, what use have you made of the light?” It is a question asked to all of us who claim to be Christians.

Anyway, that’s about it… Quite sleepy already. Goodnight! ;-)

God Bless,

Andrew