January 27, 2006

“WHO DO YOU SAY I AM?”

Mark 8:11-33

Today, we are approaching the mid point of the Gospel of Mark, as we come to the end of the 8^th chapter (out of 16). Whether by coincidence or design, this text also contains the hinge or turning point of the book. Everything that’s gone before in the book has been leading up to this point. Everything that comes after flows from and becomes a development of this text.

As the central text of the entire book, then, it should not surprise us that the theme is the identity of the central character of the book. If you remember, Mark began his account with these words: The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Everything that Mark has recorded in his first 8 chapters has been selected and presented in support of that central message and thesis. Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God. That debate over his identity has now come to a head. The evidence has been presented. It is time to call for a decision and a commitment.

The passage in front of us begins with Jesus having a bad day at the office. Did you ever have one of those; a day when everything seems to go wrong? People oppose you, misunderstand you, get in your way and act in incredibly stupid ways?

It begins in Mark 8:11 with the Pharisees testing him by asking him for a sign from heaven. We know this was not an honest or well-intentioned request, because Mark tells us that they were testing him. They are not sincere. They are looking for an excuse or reason to reject him, not a reason to believe in him. Their request for a “sign from heaven” may mean literally that they wanted to see some cosmic event, like the moon turning to blood or the sun going dark, or maybe fire falling from heaven. They have had plenty of evidence of Jesus’ power through his healing miracles. Now they want something more dramatic and incontrovertible.

The effect on Jesus is dramatic. We are told in verse 12 that he sighed deeply. The unbelief on the part of the Pharisees and the Jewish leaders is deeply troubling and frustrating to him. The word “sighed” could actually bear the meaning “to groan”. It is as if this is the final straw. He not only refuses to give them a sign, but he gets in a boat and removes himself to the other side of the lake. In Mark’s account, this becomes the final interaction between Jesus and the Pharisees in Galilee.

In the boat, Jesus continues to ponder and be troubled by the attitude of the Pharisees. So he begins to warn his disciples about the insidious influence of these religious leaders. He uses a simple metaphor and urges his disciple to “Watch out for the leaven of the Pharisees and that of Herod.” The interpretation of this metaphor is variously explained in the other Gospels. Matthew explains the yeast as the teaching of the Pharisees. In Luke 12:1, Jesus identifies the yeast as the Pharisees’ hypocrisy. I think it is valid to broaden the metaphor to simply refer to the evil and yet subtle influence of the Pharisees and their way of thinking which leads them to reject the claims of Jesus. It was their unbelief that was on display when they asked for yet another sign.

Now, that was what was in Jesus’ mind as he spoke. But the conversation that unfolds between him and his disciples is incredibly disjointed. Did you ever have a conversation in which the two sides just totally miss each other? I remember one from many years ago. I was in my first year in college. I remember the event because it was really the first time I ever got up my courage to share my faith with someone. I was working in a yard maintenance crew, and began to share Christ with the young man I was working with. As I was explaining the gospel I made the statement that “Jesus lived a perfect life.” When I said that, he looked quizzical and said, “No he didn’t.” I was taken by surprise, and I said, profoundly, “Yes he did.” And he said positively, “No he didn’t. How could Jesus have lived a perfect life? Did he drive a sports car and have lots of girl friends?” At that point I realized we had rather different conceptions of the meaning of the phrase, “perfect life.”

Well, that’s the kind of conversation Jesus had with his disciples that day. Jesus warns them about “the leaven of the Pharisees” and they hear the word leaven, but rather than interpret it as metaphor, they take it literally. Leaven is found in bread. That takes them immediately to their next thought, “Lunch.” And at that point, they realize they have forgotten to bring bread, and they are out in the middle of the lake and all they have with them is one loaf of bread, and they begin to discuss where they are going to get food to eat!

Jesus is frustrated and disappointed in them on two levels. First of all, he is disappointed that they have completely missed his spiritual point about the Pharisees because of their preoccupation with their physical needs. But even more than that, he is disappointed that when they do focus on their physical needs, they are concerned that they are going to go hungry! So he takes them back over the two miracles they have recently witnessed when he fed multitudes with only a few loaves and fish. “Don’t you get it yet?” he asked. “Don’t you yet understand who I am, and that I am able to provide for your needs?”

Mark then records for us one of only two miracles that are unique to his Gospel, the healing of a blind man near the village of Bethsaida. It’s an intriguing little story, but I want to pass over it for now, and come back to it a little later in the message.

After the miracle on the north east shore of the lake, Jesus leads his disciples about 25 miles further north, up onto the slopes of Mount Hermon, to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. This was again a largely Gentile and in fact Roman area. Caesarea Philippi was the location of a shrine to the Roman god, Pan. It was an area that was surrounded by visual reminders of the many conflicting religious claims and worship systems of the day. And as they traveled, Jesus began to question his disciples. His first question is a general one. “Who do people say that I am?” What are the opinion polls of the day saying about me? The answers vary. “John the Baptist raised from the dead.” “Elijah come back to earth.” “One of the prophets returned.” Each of the latter two answers could be traced back to Old Testament prophecies or expectations. The answers are evidence of the confusion that existed about Jesus’ identity. But they also show how highly he was respected and the esteem in which the multitudes held him. Jesus’ identity was the burning question of the day. Everyone had an opinion.

But then Jesus makes it much more specific and personal. He turns to his disciples and asks them point blank: “And you. Who do you say I am?” Now at this point, we have to plug in all of the first 8 chapters of Mark. Both the miracles and the opposition. Both the huge, enthusiastic crowds and the Pharisees’ rejection. The disciples had evidenced early faith. They had followed Jesus because they believed in him. “And now, after all this, after all you’ve seen, after all you’ve heard, after all you’ve experienced, what do you say now? Who do you say that I am? What do you believe about me?”

It is Peter who speaks up and answers, on his own behalf and I belief on behalf of the other disciples: You are the Christ. Mark’s Gospel records Peter’s answer in its simplest form. We know from Matthew’s Gospel that more transpired here, and the dialogue was longer. But for Mark’s purpose, this is the key issue. This is the first time in Mark’s Gospel that these words are placed on human lips. In fact, it is the first occurrence of the word “Christ,” the Greek word for “Anointed One” or “Messiah” since the opening verse of the Gospel. It is the central thesis of the book. Here, at the very heart and hinge of the book is the ringing statement of faith from the mouth of Peter. You are the Christ. The significance of this statement cannot be overemphasized. The Apostle John says it about as clearly as it can be said in I John 5:1: Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.

For Peter and the disciples it was a stunning statement, made under very ambiguous and even adverse circumstances. You are the Christ. That statement of faith is the rock upon which our salvation and the very church of Jesus Christ is founded. Yet, at this critical point in Jesus’ ministry, this claim is so controversial and so open to misunderstanding and wrong assumptions that Jesus commands them not to spread this around.

This, as I said, is the conclusion of the first half of Mark, the point toward which the first 8 chapters have been leading; this ringing statement of faith from his followers in his Messianic identity. Yet it also sets in motion the second half of the Gospel. Now that they have staked their claim on the fact that he is the Messiah, Jesus moves immediately to instruct them on the nature of his Messianic ministry. What kind of Messiah was he? What lay ahead for God’s Anointed One and for his followers?

Read Mark 8:31-32a

He 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. He spoke plainly about this.

As the subheading in my Bible states, this is the first prediction Jesus makes of his coming death. Peter reacts immediately in the latter part of the verse: and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

I must admit to having a rather divided reaction to Peter’s actions here. Part of me is startled, appalled almost, at his arrogance: In one moment he makes this statement of great faith: You are the Christ.  Yet in almost the next breath, he takes Jesus aside and rebukes him. Yet another part of me is sympathetic to his reaction and words. It is difficult for us to imagine the disconnect, the impossible contradiction in Peter’s mind between the expectations he had for the Messiah and Jesus’ words. He had been raised on the glorious prophecies of the Old Testament of the conquering Son of David who would rule on David’s throne and restore the glory to Israel. Yet now Jesus speaks of suffering, rejection, and even death. This could not be! This can only be a human depression, discouragement, fatigue affecting Jesus. He, Peter, must take a hand, stiffen the spine and restore the courage of the faltering Messiah.

But while Peter may have been well-intentioned on a human level, there is something deeper and more sinister in operation here. We see it in Jesus’ response to Peter. 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 things of God, but the things of men.”

Let’s take this apart. Why did Jesus call Peter Satan? I believe it was because Jesus was always sensitive and tuned into the spiritual world and the spiritual forces that were arrayed against him. Because of that, he recognized Satan’s words and thoughts and influence in Peter’s words. This doesn’t mean that Peter was deliberately in collusion with Satan or possessed by the Devil as he spoke. Rather Satan, opportunistically, subtly and insidiously used Peter’s well-intentioned words to dissuade Jesus from his path of submission to the will of God as he set his face toward the cross. It was Satan’s influence, expressed in Peter’s words, that Jesus was rejecting. I think it is revealing to note that this was not a new temptation. When Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness at the beginning of his ministry, one of the temptations was to take Jesus up to a very high mountain. There he showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you, if you only bow down and worship me.” The details of the temptation are different, but the essence remains the same. You can have the crown without the cross. After all, that was what Peter was implying, was it not? You are the Messiah. But you don’t need to suffer and die. Go straight for the throne! Jesus recognizes the temptation and Satan’s voice behind it and rejects it.

How had Peter fallen so far so quickly? How did he go from being a spokesman for the entire church of Jesus Christ by voicing a ringing statement of faith in Jesus as Messiah to being a voice piece of Satan in such a short period of time? The answer is found in Jesus’ following words: You do not have in mind the things of God but the things of men. This lies at the heart of it, does it not? Where is your mind? What is your basic mind-set, your value system? What is your world view? I like the King James Version translation here: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men. When you savor something you’re eating, you let it lie on your tongue, you focus on it, give it your full attention in order to get the maximum pleasure from it. What is it that occupies our minds and attention? What are we savoring? The things of God or the things of men? What is in our hearts and minds will find its way out through our words. If we think like the world thinks, we will speak like the world speaks. And Satan will find no difficulty in using our voice as his voice and our words as his words. That is the first danger.

The second danger is that we may be misled by Satan’s words on the lips of people we love and trust. We must be alert to Satan’s lies and confused thinking, no matter where they come from or who voices them. The only way to avoid being Satan’s lies, or even worse, being Satan’s spokesman, is to “savor the things of God.” Think his thoughts and remain aligned with his will and his purposes in the world. In the next paragraph, Jesus goes on to expound on the realities of life in God’s kingdom and of thinking and savoring the things of God – but that will have to wait until next time.

Well, let’s wrap up this sermon. The central issue before us in this message as well as in the Gospel of Mark is the answer to the question: Who is Jesus? This is a question that can be posed in two ways, as Jesus himself posed it. It can be posed generally. “Who do men say that I am?” What are the opinion polls saying? That is an interesting question, and one that is worth studying and knowing and assessing. The answers were varied in Jesus’ day. They are varied today; he’s a prophet, he’s a great teacher, he is a great moral example, he’s an imposter and a fraud; or he is the Christ. But there is another way to pose the question, and that is very personally. “Who do you say I am?” How would you answer that question this morning? And I would urge you to consider carefully as you answer, because I am not exaggerating when I say that your eternal destiny hinges upon your answer.

Before I close, I want to do something I promised to do earlier and come back to the story of Jesus healing the blind man in Bethsaida. It in an interesting story, unique to Mark’s Gospel, and also unique in that it is the only miracle account in which Jesus healed a man progressively or in stages. After the first applications of Jesus’ saliva and the touch of his hands, Jesus asks, “Do you see anything?” He responds, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.” In other words, he can see shapes and distinguish light and darkness, but his vision still is not clear. Then Jesus puts his hands on his eyes again and “he saw everything clearly.”

We are not given any reason or explanation for this two stage miracle. It may be just a coincidence that this unique miracle takes place right here, or at least is recorded by Mark at just this point in the text. So I cannot say for sure that it is divinely intended as such, but it struck me as I studied this week, that this miracle account provides a very useful metaphor for what is happening spiritually in this chapter.

The man is blind. Spiritual blindness is represented by the Pharisees. Jesus uses the metaphor of blindness to describe them in other texts, where he refers to them as “blind leaders of the blind.” What makes their blindness even worse is that it is a deliberate blindness. “There are none so blind as those who will not see.” Maybe that’s where you are. You are spiritually blind. None of this makes any sense. Maybe it’s a willful blindness like the Pharisees. Maybe it’s a blindness of ignorance. In either case, I would urge you to pray, and ask God to touch your spiritual eyes and open them to his truth.

Then Jesus touches the man, and he sees, but not clearly. This, to me, is the stage that the disciples were in during these early days of Jesus’ ministry. They see his miracles. They know he’s someone special. But they are not quite sure who. Remember when he calmed the storm? They asked each other, “Who is this man?” They see, but it’s like the blind man; it’s like trees walking around. Even in the boat that day, when they are debating their lack of bread, Jesus says to them, “Do you still not understand?” Maybe this is where you are. You’ve heard about Jesus. You’ve come to him. You’re reading, you’re listening. It’s starting to make sense. But it’s still all very fuzzy, very blurry. You have more questions than answers. I want to encourage you. We’ve all passed through that stage. It’s a good stage, a necessary stage. It means God is working. You’re in the midst of a miracle! But don’t settle for this stage. Press on. Ask God to touch your eyes again and help you to see clearly.

Jesus touched the man’s eyes again and his eyes were opened. This is seen in Peter’s response. In all the ambiguity of the hour, Peter sees one thing clearly, and that is who Jesus is. “You are the Christ.” In Matthew’s account, Jesus responds by saying, Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. By a divine touch of God, Peter saw clearly and declared his faith in Jesus as the Messiah.

That is my prayer for each one of you this morning. That you will arrive at that clarity of spiritual vision that will allow you to make that declaration. But there is a final warning. Even when we have arrived at that insight of faith in Jesus as the Messiah, there is still a challenge and a risk. The challenge is that we continue to focus our eyes on him and his kingdom and his values. The risk is that if we fail to do that, if we find ourselves “savoring the things of men rather than of God” we will lose our clarity of vision, and we may become susceptible to the voice of Satan, or even worse, speak his thoughts into the lives of others.

May God give us spiritual vision, clear vision. And may we use this to focus on Jesus, and to “savor the things of God and not of man.”