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I always marvel at this moment in Scripture when Jesus asks, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
— Matthew 16:13
And I’ve always thought: Jesus, why do You care?
Because we are constantly taught not to care what people think about us.
Don’t worry about your reputation.
Don’t worry about what people are saying.
Don’t worry about being misunderstood.
Just be who God called you to be.
And yet here is Jesus doing a temperature check and asking His disciples:
“Who do people say that I am?”
Interesting.
Because Jesus already knew who He was.
He didn't need the crowd to tell Him His identity.
I mean at Jesus’ baptism, we experience God descending from heaven saying:
“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
— Matthew 3:17
But perhaps still Jesus wanted to know what image He was presenting to the world.
And the disciples answered:
“Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
— Matthew 16:14
Now, that answer fascinates me.
Because John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, and the prophets were all completely different people.
So why were people comparing Jesus to them?
And I started thinking:
Maybe they weren't only talking about the person. Maybe they were recognizing the characteristics.
“Maybe you're John the Baptist?”
John the Baptist was bold.
He preached repentance.
He challenged religious leaders.
He wasn't afraid to tell people the truth.
He confronted Herod.
He prepared the way for Jesus.
And Jesus was also bold.
Jesus challenged religious leaders. He confronted hypocrisy. He called people to repentance. He spoke uncomfortable truths.
So when people looked at Jesus, they recognized something familiar.
They recognized the characteristics of John's prophetic voice.
There was even confusion around Jesus and John because Herod himself wondered whether Jesus was John the Baptist raised from the dead (Matthew 14:1–2).
They knew something was happening.
They just didn't fully understand who was happening.
“Maybe you're Elijah?”
Then there was Elijah.
Elijah was a miracle-working prophet.
He confronted idolatry.
He called Israel back to God.
He stood before powerful people without backing down.
And Jesus performed miracles.
He healed the sick.
He cast out demons.
He raised the dead.
He confronted unbelief.
He challenged religious corruption.
He called people back to God.
So again, I can see why people made the connection.
And there was another reason Elijah would have been on people's minds.
Malachi had prophesied that Elijah would appear before the great and awesome day of the Lord (Malachi 4:5–6).
So people were living with an expectation:
Something is coming.
God is about to do something.
And Elijah is somehow connected to it.
Interestingly, Jesus later makes a connection between John the Baptist and Elijah:
“If you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come.”
— Matthew 11:14
So the people were looking for Elijah, and Jesus was essentially saying:
You missed what God was doing because you were looking for the wrong kind of appearance.
That's a whole conversation by itself.
“Maybe you're Jeremiah?”
Then there was Jeremiah.
Jeremiah is often called the weeping prophet.
He was deeply concerned about his people.
He warned them about judgment.
He challenged false religion.
He suffered rejection because of his message.
And then we look at Jesus.
Jesus wept over Jerusalem.
He warned people about coming judgment.
He confronted religious hypocrisy.
And despite His love and concern for the people, He was rejected.
Matthew 23:37 records Jesus grieving over Jerusalem:
“How often I have longed to gather your children together…”
And Luke 19:41–44 shows Jesus weeping over the city.
Again, the connection is striking.
People were recognizing something about Jesus before they fully understood Jesus.
And they said...
“Or maybe you're one of the prophets?”
And then they gave the broadest answer:
“One of the prophets.”
Because prophets spoke God's word.
They revealed God's will.
They confronted sin.
They called people to repentance.
They challenged systems.
They often experienced rejection.
They performed signs.
They disrupted the status quo.
And Jesus was doing many of those same things.
So perhaps the crowd wasn't completely wrong about what they were seeing.
They were wrong about who they were seeing.
And I think that's important.
Because sometimes people can accurately recognize something about you without fully understanding you.
They may see your boldness.
Your compassion.
Your leadership.
Your intelligence.
Your creativity.
Your ability to speak.
Your courage.
Your gift.
They may even see something in you that you haven't fully recognized yet.
But seeing a characteristic isn't the same thing as understanding the identity behind it.
And then Jesus asks the real question.
After hearing what everyone else was saying, Jesus turned to His disciples and asked:
“But what about you? Who do you say that I am?”
And Simon Peter answered:
“You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
— Matthew 16:16
And Jesus responds:
“Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.”
Now that's where the conversation changes.
Because Jesus moves from:
“What are people saying about Me?”
to:
“What have you discerned about Me?”
Because public perception can tell you something.
But it can't tell you everything.
So Should We Care What People Think About Us?
Now here's where I want to get uncomfortable.
Because I actually think the church sometimes oversimplifies this.
We say:
“Don't care what people think about you.”
And there is truth in that.
You cannot live your life being controlled by everybody's opinion.
But what if we're missing something?
What if sometimes what people say about us is information?
Not identity.
Not destiny.
Not the final word.
But information.
Jesus already knew who He was.
Yet He still asked:
“Who do people say that I am?”
Maybe there is wisdom in occasionally asking:
What do people experience when they encounter me?
What characteristics am I consistently presenting?
What do people believe I value?
What do people trust me for?
What do people come to me for?
What do people say about me when I'm not in the room?
And honestly…
That last question will humble you real quick.
Because reputation matters.
Proverbs 22:1 says:
“A good name is more desirable than great riches.”
And that makes sense practically.
There are places you can walk into because of your reputation....
There are opportunities people will give you because someone trusts your name.
There are rooms you can gain access to because someone says:
“I know them. I know their character. I trust them.”
Your reputation can precede you.
But here's the part I really love:
Sometimes other people can see something in you that you don't see in yourself.
I remember seeing a clip on social media where a blogger was frustrated with an old friend. He kept saying something along the lines of:
“You don't realize who you are.”
And he kept calling the person's name.
“You don't know that you're this person.”
That stayed with me.
Because I've experienced something similar.
I've had encounters with people I admired tremendously.
And I would tell them how amazing I thought they were.
And their response would essentially be:
“I'm just me.”
And I would think:
No! You don't understand. You're not “just you.” You're YOU.
But isn't it interesting how we can see greatness in other people while completely overlooking it in ourselves?
Sometimes someone else recognizes your value before you do.
And Then I Started Thinking About Rahab.
This is where the story gets even more interesting to me.
Remember the Israelites?
They were supposed to enter the Promised Land.
Moses had sent spies into Canaan before, and the spies came back with reports.
But the people they were up against were already afraid.
Meanwhile....They saw the giants.
They saw the fortified cities.
They saw the obstacles.
And their fear became bigger than their understanding of what God had promised.
That generation ultimately did not enter the land because of their unbelief.
But years later, Joshua sends spies into the land again.
And they end up in the house of a woman named Rahab.
And Rahab tells them something fascinating.
She essentially says:
We already know about you.
She tells them that the people have heard what God did for Israel.
They heard about the Red Sea.
They heard what happened to the kings.
They heard what God had done.
And she says:
“When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear…”
— Joshua 2:11
Think about this.
Israel was afraid of the Canaanites.
But the Canaanites had already heard about Israel.
And they were already afraid of Israel.
The Israelites were walking around looking at the giants thinking:
“We're going to lose.”
Meanwhile, Rahab was basically saying:
“We already know when you're coming you're showing up with your God, and we're terrified.”
That will preach.
Because sometimes your perception of yourself is completely different from the reputation you already have.
You can be walking around thinking:
“I don't have what it takes.”
While somebody else is looking at you thinking:
“Do they have any idea who they are?”
You can be afraid of the room you're walking into while the room has already heard about you.
You can be questioning whether you're qualified while somebody else is saying:
“We already know what they can do.”
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