Who Do You Say That I Am?

Mark 8:27-38

Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” …Then He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.” …

Peter’s confession is the first time in Mark’s Gospel that the disciples declare Jesus’ true identity.  In Mark’s Gospel, the disciples are last to make this assertion.  The demons, the religious authorities, and the general population know Jesus’ identity long before the disciples. Mark reads like a good mystery, because for eight chapters, as numerous others identify our Lord, the disciples remain in the dark.  Chapter after chapter we wonder, will they ever identify Jesus for Who He truly is? 

We, of course, know from the very beginning. That’s one advantage of living two millennium after the resurrection.  But in Mark, we must wait through half the Gospel, through the apparent dullness of the twelve, before for Peter things finally click into place, and he finds the courage to declare what he has realized.  While other people may perceive Jesus in the earlier prophetic tradition (from the first prophet Elijah to the last prophet John), Peter, speaking on behalf of all the disciples, voices what the twelve have finally come to believe, “You are the Messiah.” …

Who is Jesus?  It’s a good question, one to which we may not feel we actually know the answer ourselves.  Certainly, for each of us – as it has been for every generation of Christians – an understanding of who Jesus is, is at the center of our personal faith.  What Peter and the others experienced so long ago, is what we go through again and again as we decide whether we are willing to match what we say we believe with how we follow Jesus in the actions of our lives.

Of course, we always have an answer if someone were to ask us, “Who is Jesus?”.   We immediately respond with one of many choices, the Son of God, God incarnate, Savior of the World, Second Person of the Holy Trinity.  But while all of these are true, somehow they don’t answer the question, because it isn’t really possible to put Jesus identity into words.

God knew that humans needed a concrete, solid image of who God is, and thus came down and took human form.  When Jesus walked the earth, He came in the fullness of time – which means at just the right moment – when it was imperative that a human being bring the knowledge, love, and grace of God to human kind.

Things haven’t changed.  People today need to not just hear about Jesus and about God’s great love, they need to experience it, and that’s where we, Jesus’ modern-day followers, come in.  We now must, through the grace of God, be the human channels through which the Love of God, the Love of Jesus flows.  God’s work in this world is ours.  We cannot define Jesus simply with words – we have to live His example with our own lives.

In today’s Gospel lesson, we find Jesus with His disciples in a decisive moment of teaching and of, for Jesus, a truly gut-wrenching reality check.  Near the end of His public ministry, Jesus is looking for an evaluation of its effectiveness.  And He needs His closest allies to understand, really understand, what God is doing in and through Him, to know where, for the sake of the world, it all leads.  He asks the disciples what people are saying about Him.  Who is He in their eyes?  And they answered him, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” 

But what Jesus really wants to know is who His disciples think He is.  Peter, always quick to act, speaks boldly for them: “You are the Messiah.”  Peter has come to understand Jesus as the One who will fulfill God’s promises, the One whom God has sent to save the world.

Jesus must have thought, so far so good.  But He no doubt, knew that the disciples didn’t fully understand what He, Jesus, was about.  Jesus knew that Peter and the others still interpreted the meaning of Messiah according to the old order.  They saw Him as the One who would save the world by ushering in a day of God’s deliverance for the Jews, as a mighty warrior, as One capable of returning Israel to independence, free from Roman oppression.

The truly revolutionary nature of what Jesus was doing required Him to continue to teach them, and perhaps test them further – to tell them what it meant for Him to be the Messiah, what it would take for the world to be saved.

Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected…”

He revealed to them what would result in the events of Holy Week – His trial and death, before rising again.

Proving that he really didn’t get it, and with his usual impetuousness, Peter responded to this news by reprimanding Jesus for having said it.  He didn’t like what he heard.  It didn’t fit his view of how God would save the world.  If we had been there, it probably wouldn’t have fit our view either – and probably doesn’t fit our view today.  Who wants to follow someone who is going to suffer and then be publicly executed by the state?  But Jesus has harsh words for Peter.

But turning and looking at His disciples, Jesus rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

And that description also fits us – we also tend to think always in human/worldly terms.  It’s human nature to do so.  But Jesus has to take the strongest of measures to make sure He is not misunderstood.  He has called Peter, and us by inference, “Satan”, and insisted that Peter’s view, and ours, the desire to skip the suffering, is one of human thinking and not of God.

Then, Jesus 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.

And there’s the rub, isn’t it?  We think, “How can I pick up my cross and still have a life filled with peace and joy?”  Simply put, “Am I willing to suffer?”.

There are several things to consider before we answer that question.  Think of the suffering you’ve endured for things you really want – all the bumps and scrapes and falls of learning a favourite sport, all the burns and disasters of learning to cook a favourite recipe, all the sorrows and joys of raising a child.  “This too shall pass,” we say when it hurts – and we push on.  In the end, despite all the bumps and bruises, pain and suffering, as we see our hard work coming to fruition, we are filled with joy.

In many ways, taking up our cross and the suffering involved works the same way. That’s how we become holy people, the living examples of Jesus’ love for everyone.  We are meant not to avoid life’s pains and challenges, but to use them to grow in humility and holiness.  The more we love and give, the harder it may be, because evil always will work against us, but the reward in this world is true peace and joy, and in the world to come, the delight of heaven. 

Being holy doesn’t mean being miserable, it means rolling with the punches, learning from and growing through the pain, being willing to suffer for the goal, and enjoying every minute of living, loving and giving for Jesus.  But to be willing to do all this for Him, we must also believe and know in our hearts the answer to the question, “Who is Jesus?”. 

What is your personal answer?  Living for Him becomes easier when we know in our hearts and can say and with conviction that Jesus is, “my Lord and my God”. 

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.

Let us pray:

Thank You Lord Jesus for all the benefits you have given us. Thank you for sticking with us when we often feel reluctant to stick with You.  O most merciful friend, redeemer and brother, help us to see you more clearly, love you more dearly and follow you more nearly all the days of our life.  We ask for Your love and mercy’s sake.  Amen