Biblical Text

You can read Mark 8.27-33 here.

Sermon Video

You can watch the sermon video here.

Sermon Transcript

[Note: The actual sermon will differ somewhat from what I had typed.]

Today marks the beginning of the period of Lent for 2016. It is a period traditionally characterized by introspection and abstinence – incidentally two practices I had mentioned this past Sunday.

On Sunday, we looked at Jesus’ warning about the yeast of the Pharisees. We saw that Jesus was warning his disciples and us against the formulaic approaches that are endemic to all religions. He was telling his disciples and us to relate to him in ways that are unique to ourselves rather than slavishly imitate the formulas that we may hear from religious leaders.

So I am not going to give you any formulaic approach for Lent this year. If you feel God leading you in a certain way, go ahead!

But as we continue our journey through Mark’s Gospel, we reach this passage in which Jesus does ask his disciples and us what is arguably the most important question we ever have the honor and joy of answering.

He asks, “Who do you say I am?” Coming from the mouth of Jesus, there can be no more important question for his identity is at the center of the present created order and is the crown of the next.

But first he asks his disciples, “Who do people say I am?” Was this some sort of opinion poll? Was Jesus insecure, wanting to know what others thought of him?

It is quite likely that, being human, he was somewhat insecure. He had done remarkable things till then. He had authored all sorts of miracles. But he had also rubbed the religious leaders and political leaders the wrong way with his various pronouncements. How did people take it?

But he was also wanting to read the signs of the times. I have said it before and will never tire of saying it, “Jesus is the wisest person who ever lived and who will ever live.” Were this not the case, I could not follow him.

So he was reading the signs of the times. He knew that what he was going to say and do during his ministry would antagonize people – especially those in positions of power and authority. And there would come a time when the whole world around him would turn against him. And he wanted to prepare his disciples for that dark period.

And the only way they could adequately be prepared was if he showed them by tangible means that he had anticipated the dark times.

And so he asks them, “Who do people say I am?” He knew that he had done enough miracles that the tide of popular opinion would still be in his favor. Even though he had antagonized the leaders, he had not done so to such an extent that would precipitate deathly action against him.

The answers from the disciples are well known: John the Baptist, Elijah or one of the prophets. There were some Jews who held to an idea of reincarnation and some of them may have thought that Jesus was John the Baptist reincarnated. Or they may have believed that Jesus was possessed by the spirit of John the Baptist.

There was also a Jewish belief that Elijah, who, if you read the Old Testament accounts, did not face death, would return before the Messiah was revealed. Some of them may have believed that Jesus was Elijah come back.

Others simply labeled him as a prophet. For almost four centuries there had been no genuine prophets. And then from out of the blue came John the Baptist. In him the Jewish people realized that prophecy was not dead, but alive again. And some of them may have simply thought that Jesus was John’s protégé continuing John’s work following his death.

Jesus listens to these answers and then makes the question personal. No longer can the disciples simply report in third person. He asks them, “Who do you say I am?”

Peter, ever the spokesperson, answers, “You are the Messiah.” What did Peter mean?

There were three prominent views of the Messiah in those days. They parallel with the three roles we often ascribe to Jesus – prophet, priest, king. The kingly messiah was by far the most popular. This was supposed to be a descendent of David, who would vanquish the invading oppressors – then the Romans – and restore David’s kingdom.

A belief held by the Samaritans was that the Messiah would be the prophet foretold by Moses in Deuteronomy 18.

Another belief held by the Jews was that the Messiah would restore the priesthood and would serve as the High priest, just as Aaron first did, as foretold by the prophet Malachi.

“What about the suffering servant of Isaiah,” you may ask. Well, the fact of the matter is that we have no record of any Jewish person before Jesus ever relating those passages to the work of the Messiah. The most common Jewish interpretation of those passages was that the suffering servant was Israel itself. The persecution, deportation and exile of Israel were seen as the sufferings of God’s servant.

So when Peter responded, “You are the Messiah” he probably thought of the kingly Messiah, though possibly the prophet Messiah or less likely the priest Messiah. But certainly not the servant Messiah.

When Jesus hears Peter’s response, he tells his disciples to keep this a secret. Why? For the simple reason that the disciples had it wrong! He was not the Messiah – or at least not the kind of Messiah they might have had in mind. If he had allowed them to speak about this, they would have started a rumor. And we all know how difficult it is to reverse the effects of a rumor once it has started. If the only idea the disciples had in mind was the wrong idea, it was best they kept that idea to themselves.

And so Jesus begins to correct their view of who he is and what his mission was. This was perhaps the first time the disciples had heard the passages in Isaiah applied to an individual. This was perhaps the first time they heard about a Messiah who would suffer. And it went against everything that they had learnt and believed.

Once again, Peter speaks and objects to what Jesus was trying to tell them. The revelation that was coming through Jesus was too outlandish, too unbelievable, too macabre to accept and Peter attempted to correct Jesus.

Mark paints the scene wonderfully. Peter takes Jesus aside to correct him. The other disciples are behind them. Jesus listens to Peter and turns to look at the other disciples. What does he see? He sees people who hold the same beliefs as Peter did. Though they had not spoken, the looks on their faces said, “What he said” referring to Peter.

And Jesus realizes how difficult it was for them to accept what he was saying. Having grown up on the hopes of glorious conquest by the Messiah, what Jesus was saying was just too difficult to digest.

But Jesus also realizes how damaging the common view of the Messiah was to his mission. He realized how seductive it was. After all, which of us would be unwilling to have the authority to change this world into a better place?

The great British statesman and author, Sir John Dalberg-Acton, commonly referred to simply as Lord Acton, said, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

The wizard, Gandalf, too knew about the corrupting nature of power. When Frodo offers him the Ring of Power, he says, “Don’t tempt me Frodo! I dare not take it. Not even to keep it safe. Understand Frodo, I would use this Ring from a desire to do good. But through me, it would wield a power too great and terrible to imagine.”

Jesus too knew this. He knew that absolute power, such as was believed to be invested in the Messiah, was a gravely corrupting influence. But he knew more than both Lord Acton and Gandalf. He knew that there was a path to power that would safeguard the person from the corrupting influences of power itself. And that path was the path he finally took. We will look more deeply at that this coming Sunday.

For now, however, we need to focus on Jesus’ response to Peter. The NIV reads, “Get behind me, Satan. You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” The NCV reads, “You don’t care about the things of God, but only about things people think are important.” The NASB has, “You are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.” The NLT has, “You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.” In fact, almost every translation has slight variations here simply because the phrasing is somewhat ambiguous.

But in keeping with the immediate context in which Jesus warned his disciples about the yeast of the Pharisees, namely, the formulaic approach to faith and the ingrained belief that you reap what you sow and the passage about the cross that follows, we should translate the latter part of v. 33 as, “You do not have in mind what God wants, but what humans want.”

What humans want is a formulaic approach to life and to faith. “Tell me what to do to attain eternal life.” So many of our Christian books are just such how-to books. So many of our sermons are how-to sermons.

And a formulaic approach to faith cannot understand what Jesus is saying here. How could the Messiah rule the world if he suffered and died? That just does not fit with the common understandings of how a person gains power. That’s just not the formula for ascending to a position of power.

But what Jesus understands is that the grabbing of power that is ingrained in humans – which is what humans want – stems from the fear of death, the fear of losing one’s life. And a person who is fearful of death cannot but become corrupted if he or she were to wield power.

What humans want is to have control over their lives and to have a clear path to follow. And this is what Peter tells Jesus. A dying Messiah is no Messiah, for to die at the hands of others is, according to human wisdom, the ultimate sign of defeat. To die at the hands of others can never be victory. That is conventional wisdom. That is what humans believe. And that is what Peter espouses.

But Jesus chastises Peter for this. Peter was espousing a belief that stems from the human desire to preserve one’s life. And what God wants are people who are not afraid of death, people who, because they do not fear death, are incorruptible.

This is the contemplation we enter into during Lent. We contemplate Jesus’ death. But it should not just be because we benefit from his death. Rather, we should contemplate his death as the culmination of a life lived without the fear of death. We should contemplate his death as an invitation to live fearless lives and see his life as an example of what such a life looks like. For that is what God wants.