Introduction
Who is Jesus? That is the title of one book on my bookshelf. Next to it is, Who was Jesus? Then there are The Jesus I Never Knew, Jesus the Jewish Theologian, The Jesus Quest, A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus, The So-called Historical Jesus, I Believe in the Historical Jesus, What They Are Saying About Jesus, plus a few others. Some books are of a devotional nature. Others have the exalted goal of revealing the real Jesus behind all the religious trappings the church has placed on him. Others expose the books that expose what the church has done with Jesus!
But as our text makes clear, speculation about who Jesus is began during Jesus’ life. It is a matter that Jesus considered to be of utmost importance, and it is the subject of Mark’s gospel. We noted this in the first sermon on the gospel. Mark writes his gospel to answer the question: Who is this Jesus of Nazareth? We’ve noted through the gospel how he raises the question sometimes directly and sometimes subtly.
He raises it through his own statement introduction: The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God (1:1).
He raises it through prophecy:
3 “a voice of one calling in the desert,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him’” (1:2,3; cf. Isaiah 40:3).
He raises it through scriptural allusions: the feeding of the five thousand alludes to the one who comes as the new Moses, the new Joshua and the new David. The healing of the deaf and mute alludes to the prophecy in Isaiah that foretold of the day of the Lord when the deaf would hear and the mute speak.
He raises it through the testimony of John the Baptist: 7 …“After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit” (1:7,8).
He raises it through the testimony of God at Jesus’ baptism:
10 “As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased” (1:10,11).
He raises the question through the response of those who see and experience his power,
even demons:
23 Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, 24 “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”
25 “Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” 26 The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.
27 The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him” (1:23-27).
11 Whenever the evil spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God” (3:11).
41 They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” (4:41)
6 When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. 7 He shouted at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?” (5:6,7)
He raises it through the perplexed and even hostile reaction of people:
5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
6 Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, 7 “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (2:5,6).
21 When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”
22 And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebub! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons” (3:21,22).
3 Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him (6:3).
Mark is asking his readers, “What’s your response? Which option do you choose? What label will you place on Jesus, or will you accept him for who he is really is?”
He raises it through all the miracles. By the very authority in which Jesus performed his miracles, Mark is saying, “Don’t you see that he is more than just a miracle-worker?”
Finally, Mark raises it through the conjectures about Jesus’ identity:
14 Some were saying, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead, and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him.”
15 Others said, “He is Elijah.”
And still others claimed, “He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of long ago.”
16 But when Herod heard this, he said, “John, the man I beheaded, has been raised from the dead!” (Mark 6:14-16)
And our present passage: “Who do people say I am?”
28 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.”
The Text
Let’s consider now the passage before us. Jesus and his disciples are now in the area of Caesarea Philippi. He has traveled north of Bethsaida in territory that is, yet again, largely gentile. Herod the Great was given this territory by the Emperor Augustus, and he built a temple consecrated to the Greek god Pan, in the emperor’s honor. The remains of the temple are still present. Next to it is a large cave opening, blackened by the sacrifices offered to the Greek gods. Some think that it may have been across from that temple that Jesus asked his question of the disciples.
He starts off asking them what other people are saying about him. Their answer corresponds to what Mark has already reported in chapter 6, which is that Jesus was the resurrected form of some other prophet, be it John, Elijah or someone else.
Where was everyone coming up with these resurrection theories? As we noted in that previous passage, they grew out of the hope of the Messiah coming and ushering in God’s kingdom. They expected his coming to be preceded and accompanied with miraculous signs, and they expected his arrival to first be announced through a prophet returned from the dead. John rising from the dead would signify that he is the one who prepares the coming of the Messiah.
Some thought that Jesus was Elijah. They got this from Malachi: 5 “See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes (Malachi 4:5).
Elijah would return and prepare the way for the Messiah. Some people thought John was Elijah and Jesus even indicated so much. After the transfiguration in chapter 9, Jesus tells Peter, James and John:
12 Jesus replied, “To be sure, Elijah does come first, and restores all things... 13 But I tell you, Elijah has come, and they have done to him everything they wished, just as it is written about him” (9:12-13).
Finally, others claimed either that Jesus was another prophet along the line of the Old Testament prophets or that he was one of the OT prophets come back.
Each speculation reveals a hope in the Messiah coming, but also that everyone is still blinded. No one can go the extra step and anoint Jesus with the title of Messiah. “Anointed one,” by the way, is what the term, the Messiah, means. In Greek, the word is the Christos, or the Christ.
Jesus then asks the disciples the question. 29 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” This is the climactic moment in the gospel, because it is the moment of decision and revelation. As I’ve said before, Mark begs the question throughout his stories. He is saying to his readers, “Do you get it? Do you understand now who he is?”
The disciples sure have been having a difficult time figuring it out. They have been as deaf as the man whose ears Jesus opened and as blind as the man to whom he gave sight. Again and again they have seen and experienced Jesus’ miracles, even performing miracles themselves with the power he gave them, and still they could not quite figure Jesus out. But now it is time for them to say it, to say who Jesus really is, and for Mark’s readers to hear it plainly stated.
Peter answered, “You are the Christ.” Yes! You are right, Peter! You got it! Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ – the Messiah – for whom Israel has waited for centuries. Jesus is the one.
Note that Peter proclaims Jesus as the Christ. We are so familiar now with using the term “Christ” as part of Jesus’ name that we don’t realize it is really a title, just as president or king is. Peter was saying that Jesus is the Anointed One of God, and the only one. This was not a shared position.
So, the revelation is finally made. Then Jesus tells them to keep quiet: 30 Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him. This may seem surprising, and certainly anticlimactic. Mark’s version certainly doesn’t have the dramatic flair that Matthew’s has where Jesus blesses Peter for his answer. But it does set the stage for the remaining passages leading to Jesus’ death and resurrection. From now on, most of Jesus’ remarks will be addressed to his disciples. Now that Peter has made the profession on behalf of the disciples, Jesus will teach more clearly to them what being the Messiah entails. If before, Mark was asking the reader, “Do you get it,” he will now be saying, “Know then, what it means.” That is what Jesus now has to teach the disciples.
That is one reason they are not to proclaim their discovery openly. They themselves don’t have a full understanding of what they proclaim, as we shall see. And there is nothing worse than spreading news about something one doesn’t understand the implications of.
Another reason for keeping the message quiet is that the people are not ready for such a clear proclamation. Jesus is in enough hot water as it is with the religious authorities. If the crowds heard Jesus and the disciples openly proclaiming him as the Messiah, it would cause chaos. Zealots would rally around him as their king to free them from the Romans. That would be plenty enough of an excuse for the authorities to act against him. Remember, it was this very accusation against, that he was regarded as another king, that caused Pilate to have Jesus executed.
Lesson
Let’s turn to ourselves. The obvious question before us is, “What about you? Who do you say that Jesus is?”
Most of us, of course, would say with Peter that Jesus is the Christ. Certainly everyone who is a church member should say that. But understand that when Jesus was asking the question of his disciples, he was not asking them merely to get the answer right. He was soliciting from them a confession, a declaration.
For them to profess that Jesus was the Messiah was to make a profession of allegiance. Peter was not answering a trivia question from a game show. He was declaring Jesus as his king whom he would obey and follow. This is what will make the next passage filled with so much drama.
So, again, what about you? Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Anointed One of God to whom you give allegiance? Do you profess Jesus as Lord, not merely give mental assent? We need to examine ourselves on this point. Many of us grew up in churches and Christian homes. For those of us middle age and older who lived in the south, it would have taken more courage not to say we believe Jesus is the Christ. It is easy for us to vocalize the words, to give the right answer. It is easy to say that you believe, at least while you are in church. Everyone else does.
But is your recital of the right answer, your true profession of faith upon which you stand regardless of what may happen, and is it the guiding motto of your life? When the tough times come will you still profess allegiance? When the boring and the lonely times come, will you? When those people around you question and ridicule the Christian faith, will you profess the Christ? As we will see next week, Peter may not have known fully what he was professing, but he did know that he was stepping across a line that determined the rest of his life. He knew that he was committing himself not simply to a theological statement, but to the one who would be his Lord.
We need to do the same thing, and we need to keep doing it. Everyday we need to confess Jesus again in our own hearts that he is the Christ, the Lord of our lives and that we live for him. It is so easy to start the day with no thought of Jesus, or to regard Jesus merely as our Savior who is there to help us through the day. Remember, Jesus is the Christ – the Messiah – who has come to establish his kingdom. You and I are saved by him, yes; but we are also recruited by him to serve in that kingdom for his glory. To confess him as Christ means more than to accept him as our personal Savior; it is to enter the battle he wages for God’s kingdom and to do whatever he calls of us.
“Who do you say that I am?” asks Jesus. Is it only a Savior who gets you into heaven after you die? Not good enough. Is it only a Friend who helps you out in tough times? Not good enough. Our Savior and Friend is our Lord, the Anointed One. The Jews understood that the Messiah would be someone for them to follow even into battle, not simply a Shepherd to make life as pleasant as possible. Is Jesus the Messiah whom you follow? We can profess with our lips that Jesus is the Christ, but deny him by our attitude towards him.
To you, young people, who do you say that Jesus is? I am not asking who you say that your parents believe Jesus is. I am not asking what your Sunday School teacher told you. I am asking what you say. I’ve been in your place. I went through communicants’ class; I recited the catechism; I attended youth group and Sunday School. I knew the right answers to give; I’ve been there, done that, and did not know Jesus as the Christ. You have got to make your own profession and make your own commitment that you will live for Christ.
And finally, to you who know that you have not professed Jesus as the Christ – when will you make a stand? Yes, I know that you have questions and that you find it hard to believe in Jesus, and that you wonder how there can be evil in the world, and what about people who never get a chance to hear the gospel, and so on, but really now, are these questions what keep you from giving your allegiance to Christ or is it your fear to give your allegiance to anyone and anything? You know that saying Jesus is the Christ involves much more than indicating a religious preference on a survey form. Perhaps you are not quite sure what all it involves. I know for myself that I feared I would end up as a missionary or even a minister! More than a few really do fear that they would have to vote (God forbid!) Republican! Who knows? As I noted last week, the only thing you can expect from Jesus is the unexpected. He certainly will be springing the unexpected on his disciples in the next verses after they make their statement of allegiance.
But then who else is worthy of our allegiance? Who else can claim the title, the Christ? John records a scene in his gospel where a number of Jesus’ disciples did drop their allegiance. It was after Jesus teaching that his body was real meat to eat and his blood real drink. Hear what happened.
66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
67 “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.
68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God” (John 6:66-69).
That is a great answer, isn’t it? To whom shall we go, if not to Jesus? If we do not profess him to be the Christ, then whom? It is easy to follow no one, easy to be the skeptic. To believe and commit to the Christ may be hard; it certainly leads to unexpected turns; but, oh, the joy to know the Christ who fills our lives with meaning, purpose and hope.
