Who do you say I am?
Image: Martineric @ Flickr
Mark 8:27-9:1 Expand passage
27Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, "Who do people say I am?"
28They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets."
29 "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Peter answered, "You are the Christ."
30Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.
31He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
33But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. "Get behind me, Satan!" he said. "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."
34Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? 38If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels."
1And he said to them, "I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power."
Perhaps the most important question we could ever ask is, “Who is Jesus?” We could consider a similar question of “Who do other people say Jesus is?” But what really matters is what we think.
Some people doubt that Jesus, as described in the Bible, ever really existed in the flesh. Yet, there is more historical evidence to prove His existence than there is to prove the existence of Julius Caesar. Most would not question that Julius Caesar lived and breathed, and yet they may do Jesus.
Others claim that Jesus is simply a “good teacher”. That He certainly is; His Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) being one of the greatest examples of teaching that humanity has ever known. However, if that is all He is, then that is not something to base your whole life on. Good advice it may be, but surely we need something more.
Some claim Jesus is a prophet, like Elijah, and a messenger of God. It would certainly be an important claim, and one worth looking into further, but does it go far enough?
Jesus asks His disciples directly, “Who do you think I am?” Peter, perhaps the most well known of the disciples answers simply, “You are the Christ.” What an insight! While others question Jesus’ teaching and morals, Peter has seen something greater in his Lord. Jesus is the One that Israel has been waiting for. This is the King whom has come to free them. After so long a wait, finally Israel is seeing the fulfilment of the many prophecies. Jesus has come.
Peter, seemingly full of spiritual insight, has identified Jesus for who He really is. And yet, a few lines later in our passage, we see Peter undoing all his good work by totally missing the point! While he has identified who Jesus is (the Christ), he has no real idea what that means.
Jesus begins to explain to His followers that He must suffer and die in a horrific manner, in order to pay for the sins of the world. Rather than falling to his knees in awe, Peter instead tries to stop Jesus! Peter tries to stop Him from doing what He came to do! ”This must not happen!” he cries, and Jesus responds in no half measures. “Get behind me Satan!” In another translation, Jesus calls Peter (Satan) a stumbling block and says he is in His way. Tough words, but anything that stands between God and His will faces such a strong response.
Jesus begins to explain what it really means to follow Him. It may be easy for us to sing songs on a Sunday morning, to drop a few coins in the offering plate as it passes by, or to give up a rare evening for the church. However, Jesus says that following Him has a much greater cost. We must “deny ourselves”, “pick up our cross,” and “follow Him.”
What does it mean to deny yourself? Put simply, it means giving up what you want now, for the good of the Gospel. It means putting Jesus and His Gospel message in first place in our lives. This is no small thing to do.
Picking up our cross and following Jesus means facing whatever we need to, in order to follow the will of God. This may mean giving up things you do not want to give up; things such as time or money, or even our whole life. I do not say that lightly, as I cannot imagine what it must mean to give up one’s life for God. It could literally mean dying for our faith, as many saints across the world currently are, each and every day. But for many of us, it may not mean that.
Giving up your life for God could mean taking a job in an area you never wanted to work in. It could mean moving to a place that you do not know, and have never even heard of. Or it could mean sacrificing the life you want, for a life that you never wanted, but one that promotes the Kingdom of God.
I am not making light of this, as I know that this is a terrifying prospect for most of us. “What if God asks me to become a nun?” A friend once asked me, “I don’t want to be a nun!” God may not ask you to be a nun, or to become a minister or anything similar. He could, however, ask you to do many things for Him and His Kingdom.
One thing I would like to say about this is that God is unlikely to ask you to do anything you really do not want to do… ultimately. When He first asks us to do something, we may feel fear and dread about it, and we may even believe that it is impossible for us to achieve it. Yet God will always equip us for anything He asks us to do.
I believe that I have a calling to teach. While I love to do it now, when I first started it was not fun! The thought of standing up in front of a crowd of people and talking for twenty plus minutes, alone, was frightening! You should have heard my first sermon; it was a disaster! God was (and is still) is very faithful, and now I love to do it, even though I still get nervous (and hopefully my messages are no longer a disaster!).
Picking up our cross is never easy, neither is following Jesus. But it is worth it. If we confess, like Peter did, that Jesus is Lord of our lives, then we have to be prepared to back that up with action. We have to be willing to follow Him wherever He goes, and do whatever He asks us to do. If that means sacrificing a few things in this life, then surely we can do that for Him. I believe that whatever we give up in this life for God, we will get a million times return for it when we reach heaven.
Our passage finishes with a word from Jesus that says that some who were with Him, would see the Kingdom of Heaven before they died. I believe that this is a consequence of following Jesus with all our hearts. We will not only see God’s Kingdom come, but see it come in power. That really excites me, because there is nothing like the power of God.
We all want to see the power of God moving in our lives, in our churches and in our families, but that kind of power comes with responsibility. Almost every promise of blessing in the Bible is accompanied by a responsibility that we must fulfil. Those responsibilities, like picking up our cross daily, are not easy, and should not be taken on half-heartedly. If we are serious about our faith, or rather, serious about our God, then there should be nothing that we cannot give up, or do, for Him.
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Andy has been a Christian since his teens when he began to develop his relationship with God. He is an Elder in his local church and leads a home group. Andy has a passion for teaching and writing. He lives near Southend, Essex, with his wife. Andy is responsible for writing much of the content on Crossring.
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I really enjoy this.I just was baptised for 3 weeks. I’m just beginning the journey, so I’ll explore more and more. This article is a good way for me to know “who do you say I am”.