Who do you say that I am?

Mark 8:27-30

Context
These verses cut Mark's Gospel in half. Jesus is introduced in Mark 1:1 as "Jesus the Christ, the Son of God." In the first 8 chapters we see Jesus interacting with powerful people (the religious establishment of Jerusalem) and doing powerful things (primarily exorcisms and healings, but also walking on water, calming storms, and feeding thousands). Again and again the people who follow him closely don't understand what this means.
Starting in Mark 9, Jesus will do more teaching, and repeatedly speak of his upcoming death.

Listening to the writer
John the Baptist was the fiery prophet who baptized Jesus and was killed by King Herod. Elijah was Israel's premier miracle-working prophet, who was taken to heaven in a flying chariot and was expected to return before the Messiah.
Different translations use different words for Peter's response, but they all mean the same. "Christ" is Greek, "Messiah" is Hebrew; both words mean "Anointed." In ancient Israel, kings and prophets were anointed with oil as a sign of being chosen by God.
Mark wants his readers to think about how people describe Jesus. How would the following people describe Jesus: your parents; your neighbors; your friends; you?

Peter gets the words right for half of Mark's statement about Jesus - but he doesn't catch the second half (Son of God). And, as we'll see tomorrow, he doesn't understand the first part in the least.

Listening to God
Members of mainline churches claim that Jesus is Lord and Savior. What does it mean to you to say that Jesus is Lord?
Do you claim Jesus as Lord? If so, does your life reflect your claim?

What does it mean to you to say that Jesus is savior?
Do you claim Jesus as savior? If so, does your life reflect your claim?

Prophets spoke for God. What has Jesus been saying to you lately?

Miscellaneous Meanderings
In Jesus’ day, people were looking for “the Anointed One” to come and right all the wrongs in the world. They expected him to lead a great battle to overthrow evil and set up a triumphant new kingdom. As a child, I expected the same. We often sang a song:
"Coming again, coming again... oh what a wonderful day that will be! Jesus is coming again!"
But I began to wonder what in the world Jesus was waiting for. I agreed with the folks from Fiddler on the Roof that now seemed like a good time for the Messiah. I brought down my expectations - maybe saving people one at a time was good enough.
And salvation, as a child, meant forgiveness of sins (it still does!) and a promised eternal life (I still hang on to that one too.) It took a long time for "salvation" to include other kinds of healing: especially from sin. And I still wish Jesus would do it overnight, that he would arrive in a blaze of glory and remove all my broken desires and bad habits and turn me into an always loving, always healthy, always whole person.

Stay tuned. Turns out I'm a lot like Peter, and Jesus is about to tell me to get in the back of the line.

Dig Deeper at Textweek. (I'll be looking at verses 31-38 tomorrow.)