"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings."

In the Gospel reading on Sunday, Jesus poses an important question to the disciples: "Who do you say that I am."

Let's paint the scene: Luke tells us that Jesus and the disciples are in a fishing town. If we do some cross-synoptic research, Matthew 16 lets us know that they're in Caesarea Philippi at the foot of Mt. Hermon and the headwaters of the Jordan river. It's modern day Syria.

It's likely that the multi-deism religions of the ancient native civilizations had made their mark on the art of the region; the ruined visages of gods and demi-gods and mighty kings of yore decorating the sandy landscape.

The ruins of Nemrut Dag in modern-day Turkey, of the Kommagene Dynasty, circa 80 BC to 72 AD.

Such a scene calls to mind Percy Bysshe Shelley's 1817 poem, Ozymandias.

Ozymandias is actually another name for Ramses the Great, or Ramses II, of the Egyptian empire.

Statue of Ramses II at the Luxor Palace in Upper Egypt, circa mid-12th Century BC.

In the poem, Shelley depicts the tragedy of human civilization- that the great will inevitably fall, that men who fancy themselves as gods cannot withstand the buffeting of time, that the mighty among mortals will inevitably fall, and crumble to the dust from which they came.

And so it was with the Sumerians,

Sumerian Votive Statue from Ur, circa 2500 BC. Notice the enlarged eyes, an ancient forebear of the importance of the Eyes in the Byzantine art tradition.

And the glorious temple of Persepolis,

Apadana Palace of Perseopolis, in Modern Day Iran. Built by Darius the Great and Xerxes the Great. The palace was used to receive tribute from all the nations of the Achaemenid Empire, circa 500 BC.

And the Akkadian empire.

Victory Stele of Namun-Sim, Akkadian Empire, circa 2230 BC.

All these mighty civilizations left behind monuments of beauty and power and pride, which now offer only a distant echo of what once was great.

Akhenaten, or Amenhotep IV, Egyptian Pharoah circa 1360-1343 BC. Akhenaten was the first Egyptian Pharoah to eschew traditional polytheism and promulgate monotheistic beliefs.

They are beautiful monuments, to be sure. Though the hubris may have been overwhelming, the talent and skill that went into crafting the marble and the granite and the limestone bely the power of art. In this case, these ancient beauties remind us that man's power is sure to fade.

Akhenaten (left) and his wife, Nefertiti (right) with their children. Notice the monotheistic symbolism of the Sun reaching down hands in blessing upon the royal family.

And in this setting in the dry and distant lands of the Middle East, Jesus reminds us, "Do you realize? Though civilizations rise and fall, though great men create themselves and return to ash, who I am and what I offer will not change, and will not fade, and will not ever crumble."