All the disciples answered when Jesus asked, “Who do people say that I am?”
“Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” The
reason they could answer Jesus’ first question was because of the commonly held belief among
the Jewish people in the region of the Roman Empire known as Jewish Palestine that the God of
Israel would send a messenger to prepare the way for the Messiah of Israel.
In Jewish Palestine, there was a fervent belief that the time was at hand when God’s
Messiah would libertate them from the Roman Empire. Key to this hope were the closing verses
of Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament. Malachi is a collection of prophecies delivered
to the Jewish community, most likely in the early fifth century (BCE), following the 70-year
exile when the leaders of Israel were exiled into captivity to the land of Babylon. A book about
the importance of having the Jewish people maintain their identity as the children of Abraham,
Malachi concludes with these words about the prophet Elijah and the Day of the Lord when God
will liberate God’s chosen people:
before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes. 6 He will turn the hearts of parents to
their children and the hearts of children to their parents, so that I will not come and strike
the land with a curse.
Malachi 4:5-6
For 500 years, these concluding words from the Book of Malachi had shaped the
expectations of the Jewish people as they looked for signs of the prophet Elijah who would
prepare the way for the Day of the Lord. For 500 years, they had been looking for the prophet
Elijah who would prepare the way for God’s Messiah. This is part of the reason the disciples
answered Jesus’ question about who people said he was with the response, “Some say John the
Baptist, others say Elijah, and still others, one of the prophets.”
Jesus’ second question was not as easy to answer. “But, who do you say that I am?”
While Mark reports that all the disciples answered Jesus’ first question, there was only
one disciple who was able to answer Jesus’ second question. That disciple was Peter who said,
“You are the Messiah.”
To appreciate Peter’s answer, we need to understand the three pivotal moments in the 8th
chapter of Mark’s Gospel that say who Jesus is. The first pivotal moment occurs in 8:22-25 as
the last healing story is recorded in Mark about a blind man receiving his sight. This is an
unusual story in that Jesus’ healing of the blind man is a two-fold healing as the blind man can
only see partially when he is first touched by Jesus.
They came to Bethsaida. Some peopled brought a blind man to him and begged him to
touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village; and when he
had put saliva on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, “Can you see
anything?” And the man looked up and said, “I can see people, but they look like trees,
walking.” Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he looked intently and his
sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.
It is important to note that the focus of Jesus’ ministry changes in the 8th chapter of Mark
after Jesus heals the blind man. This change in focus is seen as Jesus asks his disciples the two-
fold question of who people say he is and who they say he is.
Like the blind man who could see partially when he was first touched by Jesus and then
fully after Jesus laid his hands on the man’s eyes, the disciples could only partially understand
who Jesus was when they told Jesus what the people were saying about who he was. It was
when Jesus asked his disciples the second question about who they said he was that Peter could
answer clearly that Jesus was the Messiah.
Peter’s answer to Jesus’ question about who he was leads to the third pivotal moment in
the 8th chapter of Mark as Jesus begins to teach that he must undergo suffering and rejection as
the Messiah. Like the blind man who went from partially seeing to fully seeing as Jesus touched
his eyes, the vision of Jesus’ followers will go from partially seeing who Jesus is to fully seeing
as they accept Jesus’ call to follow him by denying themselves and taking up their cross and
following him. Jesus’ new call to follow him was too much for Peter to take in as he attempted
to stop Jesus in his tracks by rebuking him in front of the other disciples. Responding to Peter
with the eye-opening statement, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on
divine things but on human things.” Jesus then asks the pivotal question all his followers must
answer if they wish to see Jesus as the Messiah, “For what will it profit them to gain the whole
world and forfeit their life?”
Christina Stanton and her husband, Brian, lived near the World Trade Center Towers.
when, on the morning of September 11, 2001, she saw the smoke billowing from the World
Trade Center after the first plane hit. As she watched the black soot, the second plane flew within
500 feet of her 24th-floor balcony. The sound of the roaring engines knocked her down and out,
rendering her temporarily deaf. She and her husband, a finance executive, grabbed what they
could, his wallet, the dog and the dog’s leash. Christina was still in her nightgown and no shoes.
They joined the throngs on the streeonly ts running for their lives. As the towers fell and the
yellow debris covered everything. Christina and Brian, exhausted, stopped. She asked her
husband: “Are we going to die?” He responded by saying the Lord’s Prayer, “Our Father, who art
in heaven…”
In a few short minutes, Christina went from upscale New Yorker to refugee, not knowing
if she and her husband would survive the day. A person of faith in Jesus, she says, “I really had
to start over from the very beginning. Who am I? Who am I in Christ?… I would call myself
somebody who went to church on Sundays,” but, “I really hadn’t internalized the Bible,
internalized who Jesus said he was, who I am in him.”
September 9, 2019 Fox News
Who do you say Jesus is, or more importantly who do you say you are as you follow him?
The Messiah is waiting for your answer.
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Saying Who Jesus Is
by Pastor Marc Brown
September 22, 2024
Accompanying Scriptures: Mark 8:22-38
Fort Hill United Methodist Church
Order of Worship for September 22, 2024
Scripture Lesson Mark 8:22-38
The Good News “Saying Who Jesus Is”
Prayer
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