Mat 16:13 Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? '
Mat 16:15 But whom do you say that I am?

This is one of the few verses in which the original Greek read so closely to the English that further examination is unnecessary. Just as rarely, Christ uses no symbolism here. The simplicity of these question makes it stand out as something special.

These two questions illustrate the conflict that Christ sees between society and the individual. When he talks about the opinions of "men" or people in general (anthropos), he never expects the crowd to be correct. On the contrary, Christ teaches that the judgments of society are always wrong. It is almost as if the opinions that we express in public and which the public finds interesting as gossip or, today, as news, have to be wrong. The truth that we can known in this world is always a personal, private matter.

Those that try to paint Christ as a social reformed have it exactly wrong. Christ taught that the only real transformation is personal and private.