Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 212 · July 31
Whom Say Ye
“He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?”
The question is six words long and it is the second one he asked. The first was easy. Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? They answered that quickly, and they had plenty: John the Baptist, Elias, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. Every answer is complimentary, every answer is wrong, and every answer is a report on what other people think. Then the pronoun moves. But whom say ye that I am?
Peter gets it right, in the strongest words available to him. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus tells him where the answer came from: flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. It is the high point of Matthew so far, and it is followed immediately by Jesus explaining that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.
Six verses after the best answer anybody gives him in this Gospel, the same mouth says Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee, and hears Get thee behind me, Satan. The warning is not aimed at doubters. A person can hold the correct answer to this question, hold it sincerely, have had it revealed to them by God himself, and still refuse what the answer commits them to. Getting the question right is where the trouble starts.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 212 is God Cannot Lie (Numbers 23:19).