Who do you say that I am?

I often wonder what Jesus was getting at when he asked his disciple “Who do you say that I am?” Was Jesus testing the waters, trying to figure out if the people and his friends understood the nature of his divinity? Was he trying to figure out if his rabble rousing was about to get him killed? Was he concerned with how his identity was formed by the community? Or was he just wondering what people thought about him?

Whatever the motivation, Jesus was concerned with what other people were saying about him. He was taking an opinion poll. He was vanity googling.