John 5:12 "They asked him, 'Who is the man who said to you, 'Take up your pallet, and walk'?'" 

The Jews who are intent on trapping Jesus are questioning the formerly lame man who was cured on the Sabbath by Jesus at the pool of Bethzatha. Initially, we are told that the man did not know who had healed him and did not see Jesus in the crowd, but Jesus later found the man in the temple and told him to sin no more and nothing worse would befall him. From there, the man went to tell the Jews that it was Jesus who cured him. (John 5:13-15).

This is the "Jesus Question" - "Who is this man?" It is a question we all have to answer at some point. We can, and often do, go through a large part of our lives without thinking much about who Jesus really is. There are even some people who have never heard of Him, and is our job to tell them of Him. Of the ones who have heard of Him, many dismiss Him, others think He was just a prophet or a good man, and others just don't think about Him much at all. The healed man did not know anything about Jesus, even His name, when cured, but Jesus later made sure to have another encounter with him so he could begin to ponder the question. Jesus is a reality in the world, the most important reality, and He wants to have an encounter with each of us so that we begin pondering the question, as well.

At some point (maybe not even until our death), we will confront this question. Maybe someone will ask us, or maybe we will ask ourselves, who Jesus is. Or He might step into our lives and in a big way, as He did for the lame man, and then we are almost forced to wonder who this man is. But as Christians, we really should consider the question without some great miracle. We should expect people to ask us who Jesus is, and we should have already thought through our answer. It will be for our own good, but we also might be the encounter with Christ that He intends for others, and should be prepared to be that.

Jesus pointed us to this contemplation when He posed the question to His disciples (Matthew 16:13-16). Peter rightly answered that He is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Jesus Himself gives us plenty with which to answer this question, claiming things like being the Son of God, being one with the Father, being able to forgive people's sins, claiming to be coming back on the Last Day, etc. (See, for example, John 10:30, and John 14:9). As C. S. Lewis says, this means He was either a most dangerous crazy person, or He was who He said He was. There is no middle ground, no "good prophet" space for Jesus. To answer the Jesus Question is to ask ourselves if we believe Him.