Mark
8:27-38
27
Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on
the way he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that I am?" 28 And
they answered him, "John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still
others, one of the prophets." 29 He asked them, "But who do you say
that I am?" Peter answered him, "You are the Messiah." 30 And he
sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him. 31 Then he began to teach
them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the
elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days
rise again. 32 He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and
began to rebuke him. 33 But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked
Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not
on divine things but on human things." 34 He called the crowd with his
disciples, and said to them, "If any want to become my followers, let them
deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For those who want to
save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and
for the sake of the gospel, will save it. 36 For what will it profit them to
gain the whole world and forfeit their life? 37 Indeed, what can they give in
return for their life? 38 Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this
adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed
when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."
He asked them, "But who do you say that I
am?" Peter answered him, "You are the Messiah."
·
Jesus doesn’t appear to be impressed with the
guesses that people are making about him and who he is. John the Baptist…
Elijah… one of the other prophets… All of these people are very important in
the history of the people of Israel.
·
John the Baptist was a contemporary of Jesus
and caused quite a stir through his preaching and ministry. Many people thought
he might be the Messiah, and John went to great lengths to set them straight.
He said he was “the voice of one crying in the wilderness”, someone unworthy to
untie the sandal of the one who would follow.
·
Elijah was the greatest of the prophets of the
early history of Israel. He faced a lot of opposition for his dedication to the
one God of Israel. He was said to have never died, but was taken up into heaven
in a chariot of fire, leaving his follower Elisha to carry on the prophetic
ministry with “a double portion of his spirit.” It was believed that Elijah
would return to herald the Messiah.
·
The other prophets all held a special place in
the mind and spirit of the people. Prophets were quite important to the people
of Israel. At one time, they were the leaders of the nation, chosen by God. As
always, they told the people of the will of God then and there, rather than
focusing on coming events in the way many of us understand prophecy today.
·
All in all, Jesus seems more interested in who
his disciple say he is. Peter steps up and calls him the Messiah. Jesus then
tells them not to speak of this to anyone. He goes on to tell them of his
specific way of being the Messiah which Peter does not agree with at all.
·
Remember, for the Jewish people of the time,
the Messiah was a kingly figure who would raise the nation up to a leading
place in the world. He was understood to be a political-military leader who
would lead the people of Israel – the Righteous among sinners – to a role of
example and world leadership. There would be peace and the Messiah would be in
control.
·
It appears that Jesus did not want to follow
this script. He speaks of a suffering Messiah - rejected, troubled, murdered,
and resurrected. This is not what was expected and Peter steps up again and
says so.
·
So Jesus teaches the unexpected: He called the crowd with his disciples,
and said to them, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves
and take up their cross and follow me.”
·
This lesson is ours today. In our own day and
time, Jesus continues to be “not who you expect.”
·
We have Son of God who lays it all aside and
comes into the world as a helpless baby.
·
We have a teacher of wisdom who expects to be
misunderstood and misinterpreted.
·
We have a king who proclaims a kingdom “not of
this world.”
·
We have a teacher of righteousness who turned
conventional morality on its head and spent his time with cheats, prostitutes,
scoff-laws, paupers, and the folks that “good” people deemed worthless and
sinful.
·
We have an innocent saviour who suffers a most
humiliating death, the death of a criminal and a traitor.
·
We have a person who to this very day asks the
question of each of us: “But who do
you say that I am?”
·
In our own day, he is called a teacher of
morality, a naive pacifist, an advocate of Socialism, a strict and unforgiving
judge, and even a myth or a fairy tale, a person who never existed. That is who
some people say Jesus is.
·
But who do we as disciples say he is?
·
Disciples of course take a different view as
compared to the average person. A disciple is a follower of a mentor or a
teacher, one who has taken on the discipline of that teacher. As disciples of
Jesus Christ, we accept what the Bible tells us about him, namely that he is,
as the opening of the Gospel of Mark says, the Son of God. With that in mind
then, it is our place to act as a disciple of the Son of God might act, to put
the teachings of our teacher into action.
·
He came among us as a helpless child, so we
are called to help the helpless and act justly on their behalf.
·
His teachings were misunderstood and
misinterpreted, as they are to this day. We are called to teach constantly, in
word and work, about the love of God that motivated all that Jesus did.
·
He remains particularly concerned for the
poor, the outcast, the unworthy, the sinful, even though many who claim to be
his disciples are powerful and in high places.
·
He died on the cross for the sin of the world
and in opposition to oppression. We are called to take up our own cross and to
lose our own life for his sake and for the sake of the Gospel. This goes beyond
accepting the suffering that any person might undergo. As good as that might
be, this refers to taking up our cross for Jesus’s sake and for the sake of the
Good News, because we are disciples of Jesus Christ. As Paul wrote in his
letter to the Galatians: I have
been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is
Christ who lives in me. (Galatians
2:19b-20)
·
Ultimately, we need to answer that question – Who do you say that I am? –
one way or another. The most difficult way to answer the question and possible
the most real answer we can give is to answer the question with our lives and
how we attempt to live them.
·
I say attempt because we will all fall short
of what we’d like to be and do. But even in that, we lose our lives and take up
our cross by returning over and over again to the power of Jesus’ cross and the
forgiveness found there, remembering that is on grace and God’s free gift of
salvation that we depend. If we lose our life, it is found in Christ, and if we
take up our cross, it joins us to Christ all the more.
"If any want to become my followers, let
them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want
to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and
for the sake of the gospel, will save it.”
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