Who do
people say that I am?
Why was Jesus asking that?
Was he really overly concerned about what people thought
of him?
And besides, he probably already knew what people
were saying.
Maybe his question was just a way to start a
conversation.
A way to bring up the topic of who he is.
To ease-in to a difficult message he had for his
disciples.
So, he gets them to stop and think about who he is.
Then he makes it even more personal to each of them,
by asking,
Who do you
say that I am?
They’ve been busy, they’ve been running around.
They’ve heard a lot and seen a lot.
They’ve heard his wisdom and his teaching.
They’ve heard his hints and claims regarding his
true identity.
They’ve seen his miracles.
They know he’s extraordinary.
Greater than Elijah or John or the other prophets.
They’ve heard and seen, but have they stepped back
to absorb it all?
To consider, and recognize, and fully realize, who
he is?
Maybe they had.
Maybe they all knew but hadn’t yet put it into
words.
Until Jesus asked, and Peter answered.
Mark’s account today doesn’t mention how strongly Jesus praised Peter
For recognizing who he was.
But we know from Matthew’s account that he did.
Jesus says, Blessed
are you, Simon son of Jonah,
For flesh
and blood has not revealed this to you,
But my
Father who is in heaven.
And he went on to rename him Peter, and make him
head of the Church.
In Mark’s account, Jesus jumps right into the hard
message.
The difficult message they needed to hear.
Yes, he is the Messiah.
But not the kind of Messiah they were expecting.
He wasn’t going to lead a great army against Rome.
He wasn’t going to restore Israel to the great
kingdom
It had been under David and Solomon.
He was going to suffer greatly and be killed.
He did include in there that he would rise in three
days.
But that was pretty much lost in the gloom.
And besides, the apostles didn’t seem to grasp what
rising meant.
That hard message should have been easier to take
After Jesus had just focused them on the fact that
They were dealing with the Christ, the Messiah, the
Son of God.
God himself.
But even so, they didn’t want to hear it.
Peter again spoke for them, saying that surely
Jesus needn’t suffer.
Jesus had to rebuke him.
And emphasize to all of them that he would indeed
suffer and be killed.
Worse yet, to follow him, they too would have to
take up their crosses.
And fully give their lives.
Eventually, through repetition, and through continued
teaching and Demonstration of who he really was and what he was about,
The message set in and they accepted it.
Still, it wasn’t until he was killed and did rise
That the disciples fully understood.
.....
We’ve all had the story laid
out for us many times.
We know the answer to who Jesus is.
We don’t even need to think about it.
It’s an automatic answer.
But maybe we shouldn’t always answer so quickly.
We can learn from stepping back to absorb it all.
And from listening to Jesus asking us individually,
Who do you
say that I am?
Rather than blurting out the easy answer without
much thought
We can take time to consider how we came to know
that answer.
Consider in detail what that answer means to us.
Consider how were doing in following him.
As we contemplate all that, we might also remember
Jesus saying,
No one
knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father
Except the
Son—and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
We might even hear Jesus say to us as he did to Peter,
Flesh and
blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.
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