If believing that Jesus is God is that important, why doesn't Jesus say it more often?

Question

Why did many of his disciples not even know it?

Jesus asked "Who am I?" to a bunch of his disciples. Out of so many, only Peter got it close. That he is the Messiah, son of the living God.

Even that is still vague. Cyrus is also a messiah. Judaism tends to think that God considers humans his children. http://www.cgg.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Library.sr/CT/PW/k/187/Cyrus-Gods-Anointed.htm

I mean if believing that Jesus is God is that important, wouldn't Jesus like say that a million time? Wouldn't that be the first thing his disciples know?

Update: I need to add that I wrote a million time figuratively. I mean if it's that important, he would have stressed that more so that his disciples would at least got it right when he ask, "Who am I?". In fact, even after his death and resurrection, his disciples are still divided. We have gnostic, judaizer, arians, and trinitarian. Yea I know that "the rest" are heretic. I also know that most christians think that the trinitarian are the "true" follower of Jesus. But put your self in historian shoes here. Early jesus followers differ from jews only in whether they believe Jesus is a messiah or not.

13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter,[a] and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades[b] will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be[c] bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be[d] loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

He doesn't condemn those who think he's a prophet or Elia? He doesn't say, "Good job Peter. For the rest of you, you'd better answer that thing right because my dad would fry you in hell if you messed up." http://www.ancestralfindings.com/who/ . Even Peter doesn't say, "You're God, Homo Ousion, without the i". I mean if something is kind of important, shouldn't that be more explicit?

Answer 1

Actually he said it a lot. Enough at least. Enough to get himself killed for saying it. That statement was blasphemy to the Jews and it was his insistence on that message that they tried and executed him for.

It did take the disciples a while to catch on, but it wasn't for lack of being told it was their dull slow hearts that took a lot of time to convince. Also Jesus had a lot to teach before he stirred up the pot enough to end his ministry.

It is important to note however that the disciples did become unanimously convinced of that fact: that their teacher Jesus was THE Christ. So convinced that they devoted their lives to proclaiming that message and most of them were also willing to die for the veracity of it. If anyone was in a position to know that Jesus was something less than what he claimed to be it was his disciples, yet other than Judas to a man they went their separate ways and proclaimed Jesus identity as God and Lord all over the world. I'd say the message must have been given plain enough and they were left with no doubts. Who dies for something they know is a lie?

Answer 2

If Jesus had merely claimed to be God and done nothing else, people would protest His claim by asserting that He never did anything to prove His Deity.

What Jesus chose to do was to prove His Deity by what He did and said, and the result is that many people protest because He didn't specifically claim to be God often enough or clearly enough for them.

In reality, we really do not know how often Jesus claimed to be God, nor in how many ways. The gospel accounts do not record every word that Jesus ever spoke. Rather, the gospel writers chose to record certain things that were pertinent to the audience they targeted. So, perhaps Jesus claimed to be God very clearly and very often, but that just wasn't recorded in the gospel accounts. Again, we don't have an audio recording of everything Jesus ever said.

However, Jesus did certainly did demonstrate very clearly that He most certainly claimed to be the eternal Son of God.

He forgave sins, healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, walked on water, fed 5,000, raised the dead, demonstrated omniscience... the list goes on.

The gospel writers record that Peter was convinced that Jesus was the Son of God, and Jesus does not correct His conclusion. On the contrary, Jesus affirms it:

Simon Peter replied, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. Matthew 16:16-17 ESV

The disciples were convinced that He was the Christ, the Son of the living God. In fact, John's whole point in writing his gospel was to convince others to believe that very thing. The approach he chose to use in order to convince people was to show what Jesus did and let the strength of that evidence convince the reader. In any court of law, a mere claim of something must be backed up by hard evidence. A person's claim of innocence is irrelevant if all the evidence leads to the contrary. Jesus' claim to Deity is attested to by a preponderance of evidence. In fact, even if Jesus never took the stand an made the claim to His Deity, He could still be found "guilty as charged" based on the abundant evidence.