The Most Important Question Ever Asked (Luke 9:18–22) from South Woods Baptist Church on Vimeo.

Somehow, and I have no idea how I got there, I ended up skimming an article this week from the British Telegraph on how many questions British kids ask their mothers. Or to use the article’s terminology, how many questions British kids ask their mum. The first line of this article read: “Research shows that mothers are the most quizzed in the UK.”[1] The study––and I am in no way asserting the veracity of this research––found that from breakfast time at 7:19 a.m. to tea time at 7:59 p.m., the average British mum faces over 300 questions, or one question every 2 minutes and 36 seconds. One of my favorite line from the article was this: “Interestingly, a huge 82 percent of infants apparently go to their mum first rather than their dad if they have a query.” The fact that that sentence used “interestingly” and “apparently” made clear to me that the author of this article has never actually met a kid.

Kids ask a lot of questions; and they’re usually great. This week, during the Sligers’ normal Monday evening eschatological forum, one of my children asked: “Will we hiccup in heaven?” Adults ask a good number of questions too. Your vocation probably consists of answering dozens a day. Your inbox is full of them. Your head might swim with the ones you ponder.

Jesus asked quite a few questions as well. One book, though I didn’t count, asserts that Jesus asked 307 questions in the Gospels.[2] I did read through about 100 of the key ones. Next week’s text includes one of the more important: For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? (Lk 9:25) Another of the most important comes at the end of the Gospel of John, when Jesus asks Peter: Do you love me? (Jn 21:16) But after looking through that list of questions, I’m not sure there’s a question more pointed in the Gospels than the one in our text today: Who do you say that I am? (Lk 9:20)

After thousands of years of ten thousand questions being asked every day, I’d contend that the most pointed question Jesus asked is the most important question ever asked. Fittingly, we’ll study the text with three questions:

1. Who do the crowds say that He is?

After the miraculous feeding of the 5000, Luke continues the narrative in verse 18: Now it happened that as he was praying alone, the disciples were with him. If you recall, immediately after Jesus sent out the twelve disciples on mission, He attempted to withdraw to give the twelve a few moments of respite after their difficult journey (Lk 9:10). The crowds, however, foil that attempt and track them down. Then Jesus feeds the thousands, as Chris so carefully taught us about last week. It seems that after that miracle, Jesus finally manages to withdraw with his disciples for a moment of instruction. The setting is described a bit oddly, but it says that as Jesus prayed alone, the disciples were with him. Mark’s Gospel tells us this event happened in Caesarea Philippi.

He and the disciples appear to withdraw from the crowds; and then Jesus takes a few moments to withdraw even from the disciples so He might pray. At significant points in His ministry, this was His normal practice. You might think of Him praying before choosing the disciples, etc. Based on what He does after the “amen” in this text, we might assume He was praying for those disciples.[3]

Jesus ceases praying; and the text continues, v. 18, and He asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?”

It was clear earlier in chapter nine that the people of Israel were talking about Jesus. In fact, they were talking about Him so much that news of Him reached Herod in the palace. If you look back at Luke 9:7–9, Herod was perplexed about the identity of this man because, quoting Luke, it was said by some that John had been raised from the dead, by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the prophets of old had risen. Those were the thr[...]