I am beginning this morning by reading our scripture as I want to you have the full passage on your mind as we continue our lesson. I encourage you to open your Bible to Mark, chapter 8, verses 27-38 and follow along as I read.
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."
Who do you say that I am? That is the question Jesus has proposed to His disciples. As is always the case, Jesus has a reason for asking this particular question. Just prior to this passage, Mark discusses a couple of Jesus’ miracles, including feeding another huge crowd with seven loaves of bread only and healing a blind man, yet, the disciples still had doubts and questions about the divinity of Jesus. He even gets a bit frustrated with them, saying, from verses 17-21: "Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? 18 Do you have eyes, and fail to see? Do you have ears, and fail to hear? And do you not remember? 19 When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you collect?" They said to him, "Twelve." 20 "And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you collect?" And they said to him, "Seven." 21 Then he said to them, "Do you not yet understand?"
I think it is safe to say, this is troubling to Jesus; His disciples still don’t seem to understand who He is. And now, on their way to a local village, He asks the question, “Who do you say that I am?”.
Jesus proceeds to teach the disciples about the plan for His life, and death. This is upsetting to them, in particular Peter, who attempts to tell Jesus they don’t believe him and to stop making stuff up.
Jesus lashes out at Peter, calling him Satan and rebuking Peter for having a closed mind that can only focus on human things but not divine things.
This is an important moment in the book of Mark for a couple of reasons. The first is that Peter passed this information to Mark, his close associate and writer of this book, giving the passage greater importance. Secondly, it shows how even those closest to Jesus failed to see the importance of His ministry and understand the lessons he was trying to teach.
In verse 34, Jesus calls the crowd closer to Him and begins to teach them how only those to give up their life for Jesus and His Gospel will actually save it and that those who want to follow Jesus must deny themselves first.
So what does all this mean, why is Jesus telling His disciples about His death, rebuking Peter for a closed, human focused mind, and teaching the crowd of people they must deny their own lives before they can be a follower of Jesus?
I believe it comes down to three things. One, we must ask ourselves that same question Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do you say I am?”. Two, we must look in the mirror and explore in our minds if we are closed off to the divine. And lastly, what does it mean to give up our life and can we really do that?
I want you all to take a moment and put together an answer in one sentence to the question, Who do you say Jesus Christ is? I will come back to that later, so work on your answer.
The second part of our discussion I am going to save for a bit later also, meaning we are going to look at the last part of this, what it means that to save our life, we must be willing to give it up.
Jesus said in verse 35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37 Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?
As humans, we gravitate toward accumulating things. We never seem to reach the point of having enough. Yet, Jesus taught in this passage that even if we have the world, it will do us no good if we have forfeited our soul to obtain it. Additionally, He teaches that if we are willing to give up our life for Jesus Christ and His message, our life will be saved for eternity.
So here we are, caught between being able to obtain the world, a human thing, or obtain eternal life, a divine thing; either one had for just giving up our soul.
This leads us back to part two of three, exploring our own mind in order to determine if we are open to the divine. What does that mean to you? How do we answer or define “the divine”?
What does it mean to be open to “the divine”?
I want you to answer this next question silently. Do you believe the person sitting next to you has the capacity to be open to the divine? Do they have to willingness to set aside or sacrifice human things and focus on godly undertakings? What do you see that leads you to this answer?
Now I want you to think about that person sitting next to you and ask yourself if that person thinks you are open to the divine. What do they see in you that lead them to believe as they do? Do you exhibit signs that would lead others to view you as your neighbor does or do your signs change for the different aspects of your life?
And lastly, do you think you are open to “the divine”? Are we like Peter, clinging to human things at the expense of being willing to experience the divine? Can we as individuals even answer this question objectively?
We have come full circle now, as it is time to answer that question I proposed you formulate an answer to, “Who do you say Jesus Christ is?”
Who is willing to share their one sentence answer?
This is a safe environment. We know each other here; we know that we are safe to share our thoughts and concerns without the fear they will be held against us. That is not always the case out there.
Out there, it is less clear, it is less safe and it is certainly more judgmental. As Christians, we are called to model the behavior of Jesus. We are called to share His message of love, hope, joy and peace with all we encounter.
Our passage today challenges our perceptions that we can do this on our own terms. It challenges our demands that we are the ones who will determine how, when and where we will follow Jesus. It turns on its head the notion that we are in control. We are forced to look deep within, to places we don’t normally go, and make some serious decisions by answering some serious, and at times, uncomfortable questions.
Yet, that is our challenge, not just this week, but every day.
We can’t be just Sunday Christians. We can’t even be 2 or 3 days/week Christians. This passage forces us to say, if we are Christians, we must be 24/7/365 Christians and we must be ready to share that with those we encounter.
And lastly, we must be willing and able to answer, when asked, the toughest of all questions…”Whom do you say Jesus Christ is?”
