Then Jesus and his disciples went away to the villages near Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, “Tell me, who do people say I am?” “Some say that you are John the Baptist,” they answered; “others say that you are Elijah, while others say that you are one of the prophets.”
“What about you?” he asked them. “Who do you say I am?”
Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.” Jesus ordered them, “Do not tell anyone about me.”
Then Jesus began to teach his disciples: “The Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the Law. He will be put to death, but three days later he will rise to life.” He made this very clear to them. So Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But Jesus turned around, looked at his disciples, and rebuked Peter. “Get away from me, Satan,” he said. “Your thoughts don't come from God but from human nature!”
Then Jesus called the crowd and his disciples to him. “If any of you want to come with me,” he told them, “you must forget yourself, carry your cross, and follow me. For if you want to save your own life, you will lose it; but if you lose your life for me and for the gospel, you will save it. Do you gain anything if you win the whole world but lose your life? Of course not! There is nothing you can give to regain your life. If you are ashamed of me and of my teaching in this godless and wicked day, then the Son of Man will be ashamed when he comes in the glory of God with the holy angels.”
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So here’s a little band of twelve marching along the dusty, hot and dry road to Jerusalem. Jesus is well out in front - followers always walked behind the rabbi as a sign of respect. Suddenly Jesus turns around, and, walking backward says, "So who do you think I really am?”
Huh???
They look at each other, and give a kind of French shoulder shrug, as if to say “Beats me, who are you really?” We do know that some people had their suspicions about who Jesus was, including a few of the disciples - but Mark always wrote as if the disciples were not terribly with it...
"Well," says one, "there’s a theory going around that you must be John the Baptist! Can you believe it! They saw his head on a platter, a little over two months ago, but miraculously you’re somehow him.”
"I’ve been hearing rumours that you’re really Elijah”, says another, "zoomed in from heaven, to preach the way you do and perform the miracles you have." And pretty soon every one of the twelve jumps in with some kind of rumour about who Jesus might be.
Still walking backwards, and with a rather wicked smile tucked in one side of his mouth, Jesus asks “and who do *you* say I am?"
Large silence. Very large and long silence.
Jesus turned around facing them, the disciples standing dead still looking totally dumbfounded. Peter finally blurts it out. "You’re the Messiah."
Good old Peter. No hemming and hawing, no shuffling of feet or oblique references. Peter gets right to it; and seriously, that’s the answer everyone wants, isn’t it? That was really the answer all the disciples wanted. Today, that answer could land him a place on our national committees, get us to encourage him to go into ordained ministry. Jesus has asked, "Who do you say that I am?", and Peter, speaking as Everyone, says, "You are the Messiah." You’d expect Jesus to be pleased as punch.
But no - Jesus pitches a fit. From being a little mischievous with the guys, he is now downright angry and harsh. In this passage we get to eavesdrop on a knockdown, drag-out argument - the worst argument in Jesus’ ministry. His response is neither gentle, nor affirming, nor comforting. He rips Peter, and to the twelve says “Don’t you dare say that to anyone, hear me????? Don’t anyone call me that!!!!" Jesus uses the Greek word, *epitimao* - a command he used to silence demons and drive them away.
Wait a minute! Isn’t that the answer we would have given????
Well, on with the story. Jesus, now walking together with the twelve, starts to explain what is coming next. When they get to Jerusalem, he says, he will be hauled in, profiled, knocked around and beaten up, and eventually killed - but that he will be resurrected on the third day.
This time Peter pitches a fit. Swelled up, red faced and indignant, Peter lets fly with “Stop yapping New Age nonsense, and think about the rest of us.” Jesus, now even more riled up, comes nose to nose, toe to toe, and eyeball to eyeball with Peter, and yells “Get outta here, you Satan!!!!” - and then he whirls around again, and yells at the rest of the group “Anyone who comes with me has to carry your own cross just like me, and go wherever I go. Whoever just wants to save their own skin will lose it, but whoever gives their life for me and for the teaching will *have* life.”
Placement of stories in the Gospels is always critical, and not at all accidental. Thomas Hall notes that Mark places this story right at the middle of the book; “the equivalent of placing ambulance and police sirens around it. Or grenades and mines. For the earliest Christians, this story was not just another episode in an otherwise routine day of travel.” There’s wisdom here to be heard. This is one another story where we can’t really understand the text unless we understand the context in which Peter says to Jesus “You are the Messiah.”
The Hebrew statement of faith says "I believe with perfect faith in the coming of Meshiach (the messiah), and though he may tarry, nevertheless I await his coming every day." Those are the words that Orthodox Jews said and sang throughout the Jewish history of exile and persecution. It was this passage, written by Maimonides and based on ancient Jewish belief, which gave the Jews courage to survive. Forever hoping that at any given second Meshiach will come and redeem the Jewish people to take them to their homeland - Israel.
Orthodox Jews will bless each other "You shall live to see Meshiach". Almost every speech by a Jewish scholar will end with the words "we should be blessed to live to Meshiachs' days". It is a core central belief of Judaism without any disagreement or dispute. As Maimonides writes (Kings 11): "whoever does not believe in him, or does not await his coming, denies not only the other prophets, but also the Torah and of Moshe, our teacher, for the Torah attests to his coming".
As opposed to Christianity, the Jewish Messiah is not a savior. The Jewish Messiah is not a divine being. The Jewish Messiah will not come to save us from our sins. All these ideas are dismissed and considered heresy in Judaism. The word "Meshiach" translates to "the anointed one," as in ancient times when new kings were literally anointed. Meshiach will be the anointed king at the end of days. In Judaism Meshiach will be a king who will be a descendent of King David (2 Samuel 7:12-13; Jeremiah 23:5), observant of Jewish law (Isaiah 11:2-5), a righteous judge (Jeremiah 33:15), and a great military leader.
Mosheh ben Maimon, also known as Maimonides, was a preeminent medieval Jewish philosopher. He was born in Córdoba, Spain in 1135 and died in Egypt in 1204. He was a rabbi, physician, and philosopher in Morocco and Egypt. He rose to be the revered head of the Jewish community in Egypt, and has been acknowledged as one of the foremost rabbinical arbiters and philosophers in Jewish history. His fourteen-volume Mishneh Torah still carries canonical authority as a codification of Talmudic law.
He wrote "When Meshiach comes all Jews will return from exile to Israel (Isaiah 11:11-12; Jeremiah 23:8; 30:3; Hosea 3:4-5); there will be universal acceptance of the Jewish God and the Jewish religion (Isaiah 2:3; 11:10; 66:23; Micah 4:2-3; Zechariah 14:9); There will be no sin or evil; all Jews will obey the commandments (Zephaniah 3:13; Ezekiel 37:24); the Third and final Temple will be rebuilt (Ezekiel 37:26-27) and the Sanhedrin (Jewish high court of law) will be re-instituted (Maimonides Kings 11:1)."
Perhaps Peter really did have the wrong answer. Perhaps he was thinking this was the Messiah who would be the great military leader. Maybe he meant "the one who has come to meet our needs and to fix whatever needs fixing,"
So who do people say Jesus is? And who do YOU say Jesus is. Who is Jesus for YOU, today, right now - here in this congregation, in this church, in this world.
Is he only a kind of guru, a fully realized spiritual human being with lots of good teachings, but no interest in sickness, injustice, war, poverty, the environment, education or children; sitting way out of reach, offering wisdom to those who are enlightened enough to hear. Would we be able to understand, if we could get close enough, or would WE still need everything explained to us, as the disciples seemed to need.
Is Jesus your friend, a divine big brother, up in the sky somewhere? Is he your judge, counting out your sins and keeping a record? Is he sitting on the bench until things get tough and you call him to take over for you - a semi-divine coach in a game? Is he your vending machine – Zoltar the Fortune Teller from the Tom Hanks movie “Big”, where the little boy puts his quarter in the fortune-teller machine, makes a wish to be big, and it comes true. Pay for a prayer from Jesus???
Who do you say Jesus is? For those who claim discipleship, it is the one question we are called to keep on answering throughout our lives. Non-Christians, watching us, cannot even tell that we are Christians. We don’t look like the people on TV, we’re unable to articulate our faith. We don’t shout and condemn and we don’t have powerful lobby groups. So non-Christians conclude that "all Christians" claim to believe one way, but don't even follow their own teaching.
I suspect that Jesus lost it with Peter, because there was a major miscommunication all along the way. We know that the Israelites were oppressed by the Romans, we know that the people were subject to unfair practices and discrimination by their own religious leaders. Peter, in saying “You are the Messiah” is really saying you’re the one who is going to make everything right for us, unite the Israelites to drive out the Romans, get rid of the oppressive religious leaders, fix the church so it’s just the way we think it should be.
“Who do you SAY I am?” Jesus asks. Jesus is clear about who he is. He calls us to take up a cross, to risk our very life for those who need, right here in this neighbourhood. He is the bread of life, the living water, the one who will talk with those we like to ignore, who cares for those we consider the dregs of society. He is the one who asks everything from us, at the same time asking us to look deep into ourselves to see who we are, and make changes within as well as without. Do you take that commitment seriously? If you do, how do you live it out? Who is Jesus, for you, today, now - and how do you carry that message into the creation around you, every day?
Sources:
1. Rev. Christina Berry, First Presbyterian Church, Sterling, Illinois, from the sermon “What I Say”.
2. Rev. Thomas Hall, from the sermon “On the Way”.
3. http://www.orthodox-jews.com/moshiach.html
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