“Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” – Matthew 16:14-16
The human brain has a remarkable capability to categorize and store
information so that we can recall it later, in the form of facts that join together to form ideas, principles and even attitudes. Every parcel of information that we consume affects the previously formed attitudes — and the attitudes affect how we perceive the information. It is an amazing process that could only have been designed by God! The effect is that we form deeply held beliefs that are often immune to the facts we encounter as we go through life.
When Jesus asked the disciples who the crowds thought he was, they gave predictable, relatively safe answers that he must be one of the great prophets that they knew from their history. Only Peter, with his mind opened by the Holy Spirit, took the leap to confess that Jesus was so much more than that. He stepped out of what he knew from experience and allowed that Jesus was more than he could process.
The beliefs and assumptions you hold about Jesus are vitally important to your Christian life. If you put Jesus into predictable categories like – cosmic Santa Claus, vengeful taskmaster, impersonal force for good, or any of hundreds of other misguided attempts to collect him into something manageable – you miss the whole point of Jesus. You must continually battle your mind’s tendency to compartmentalize that which is beyond understanding. As the Psalmist said, “Be still and know that I am God.”
I hope you will spend time reflecting on what limits you are putting on Jesus while you ask God to break those limits. What a beautiful thought – every time we break down our limits on God, he expands to fill us with awe all the way to the next boundary we draw. We can spend our whole lifetime watching him exceed everything we can imagine over and over. What a mighty God we serve!
