"Who Do You Say Jesus Is?" (Mark 8:27-30)

Jesus had been gradually revealing to his disciples about himself along the interesting journey they were on … revealing his character, his priorities, his power, his concern for humanity. Jesus would now put the question to his disciples to see how much they had really perceived.

First though, what is it that others are saying? The disciples reflected common beliefs (already recorded in Mark 6) in Jesus being the return of another miracle worker or prophet. In a way this showed how Jesus epitomised such Godly ones that had come before doing God’s work in remarkable ways. But soon we would learn that Jesus was far more than one of these.

What might we say today to this question … “Who do people say that I am”? How do the people we know relate to Jesus – how might they, if they take a moment to do so, describe Jesus?
· A good bloke,
· a significant teacher,
· a peace-maker,
· a martyr for a cause,
· a misguided fool,
· a loser??
How do people see Jesus today? We need to know, so that we might share what we think with them.

But Jesus wanted to know what his disciples thought … those that been travelling with him for quite a while now. Now this was a personal question that could not easily be escaped. Jesus was not looking for a pat or prescribed answer; rather he was looking for what the disciples really thought – their honest position!

Peter acting as their spokesperson responded with the words: “You are the Messiah” (or ‘you are the Christ’ or ‘you are God’s Anointed One’)! How correctly Peter understood what he was saying we shall consider next week, but this was where the disciples were at, and this was a great statement of faith. They were prepared to make a stand, and to state that Jesus was sent from God to change their lives and change the world. They were prepared to connect themselves with where Mark’s gospel story began in verse one of chapter one … “the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ the Son of God; they were prepared to concede to the voice of God at Jesus’ own baptism … “You are my Son the Beloved” (1:11); and they were prepared to respond to the call of John the Baptist (1:16) … “the time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God has come near, repent and believe in the good news”.

Today Ivy and Jessica are identifying for themselves, and for us, and for everyone else around, who Jesus is for them … their friend, Saviour and Lord … the Messiah. They are willing to stake their life on this, and centre their lives around following Jesus. They are willing to prove this in front of all humankind in the cold beach waters of Werribee South. Ivy and Jessica will show in going below the waters that they have died to any notion of going it alone (in their own way and in their own strength); and by coming up out of the water that they have risen to new life in Jesus. They are no longer lost in sin, but proactively reliant on Jesus’ gift of forgiveness on a daily basis.

I’m sure you’ve found it interesting why Jesus swore Peter and his disciples to silence at this point. After all they were right. Two brief possibilities.

(1) Jesus still had much work to do before the day of his death should come, and further publicity of his claims to divinity could have caused an even more premature crucifixion.

(2) As we shall see in later texts, Peter and the others didn’t yet have a full enough understanding of what they were saying; so inadvertently they may have misled rather than aided the community. When we confess to knowing Jesus we want to be having a fair knowledge of what we’ve signed on to … of what Jesus really represents (as well as having our lives consistently shaped by our words).

So today, this direction toward silence is completely turned around toward proclamation, because we have the New Testament (the insights of the earliest witnesses, the gospel writers, Paul and others), with two thousand years of Christian teaching and experience … to give us the foundations we need from which to speak.

And, Jesus has already paid the price of God’s graceful intervention in the world. We have been saved by Jesus’ death and resurrection, and prepared by God’s Spirit with a growing knowledge of the truth – now is the time to speak!

Who do you say Jesus is?