Along the road on His way with His disciples to the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, after they had arrived there, Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?”

The disciples answered. They said, “Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.”

And then Jesus asked His disciples themselves, ”But whom say ye that I am?” And one of His disciples, Simon Peter answered and said, ”Thou art the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Hearing Simon Peter’s answer, Jesus said unto him, “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.”

The same question might be in the mind of many people, especially those who didn’t know anything about Jesus.

This was the question that had been a rumour among many people who were living in Israel in the days where Jesus was living, about 2000 years ago. Jesus came up suddenly and directly amazed many people because of all the miracles and wonders that He had done.

Since Jesus was born and grew up becoming a mature man until He was more or less 30 years old, Jesus never showed Himself and never did even one miracle, that’s why no one knew about Him before. All of His neighbors just knew Him as a son of a carpenter, whose father was Joseph and his mother was Maria.

But after He was 30 years old, Jesus showed up Himself and did many spectacular miracles that never happened since the days of Moses. Jesus did various miracles. From the one which changed water into wine in a wedding party at Cana, calming the storm in the middle of the sea that nearly made the ship of the disciples almost sank, fed more than 5000 people with only 2 fishes and 5 loaves of bread, order the wicked spirits to come out of those who were possessed by the devil, and healing all kinds of sicknesses and diseases. From a dumb man who could not speak, became able to speak, a deaf man who could not hear, became able to hear, the blind man who could not see, became able to see, the lame man became able to walk again, until raised up a man who had been dead for 4 days.

No wonder Jesus then became famous, well known, and the main topic that was talked or discussed in those days. All wondering, who Jesus was. So there were some who said that Jesus was John the Baptist; some said that Jesus was Elias, and there were others who said that Jesus was Jeremias or one of the prophets. But the right answer is Jesus is not only one of the big prophets that were already mentioned.  The right answer is what Simon Peter had said that Jesus is the promised Messiah.

The word Messiah came from the Hebrew word, Mashiah, meaning “the Anointed One.” In Greek, the word Messiah was translated as “Kristos”, from whence the word Christ was known. Christ became one of the titles of Jesus.

Jesus Christ means Jesus the Anointed One, which is the same as the promised Messiah as was written in Mathew 1: 21-23.

“And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.”[Apr 22,2020 -RB/EM]