Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, “Who do people say I am?”
They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.”
“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.”
Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.
He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”
And he said to them, “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.”
Today, we reach a high point in Mark's Gospel.
And Mark, in his typical way, just hits us with the facts. There is no big build-up. No long description. No analysis. Just, Jesus. "This is who I am. This is what I am about. This is what will happen."
We are familiar with Peter's confession that Jesus is the Messiah.
As I said, this is a high point.
But Peter really doesn’t know what that means.
Peter, like most Jews of his day, expected the Messiah, the Savior, to rise up and become an earthly king. He would kick the Romans out and re-establish the great nation-state of Israel.
So, when he professes Jesus as the Messiah, and then Jesus describes what is going to happen to him, he does a double take. He even tries to correct Jesus.
If you look at the text, after Peter’s profession it says, “that he began to teach them”. Up until this point, they weren’t ready to hear what discipleship looks like.
You see, back in Mark 1:15, the first words that Mark records Jesus as saying are: “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
What Jesus came to do was not just to offer personal salvation. But to announce that God's kingdom had come. And this is what discipleship is all about - learning to live in God's kingdom in a world which is still being transformed. Their minds and their thinking need to be transformed. We will see this in the coming chapters.
Following Jesus requires intentionality.
Saying he is the Savior, is just the beginning.
The key, for us all, is not so much the past, but today—who do you say Jesus is today—and if you say He is your Savior, then today what is your image of discipleship?
Comments