Awake and Asleep at the Same Time.
| Jesus and His disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way He asked them, "Who do people say I am?" They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets." "But what about you?" He asked. "Who do you say I am?" Peter answered, "You are the Christ. " Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about Him. 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, and Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. 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." (Mark8:27-33) |
We are not properly sensitised to the meaning of "Christ." We tend to use it as if it is kind of like a "surname" for Jesus. Christ, or "Christos" in Greek, means "Messiah", "Anointed One",simply "The One." It is a massive title and one could be stoned for using it inappropriately. All of Israel's longing and hope was fixed on the appearance of the Messiah whom they believed was God's representative who would defeat evil and restore hope. While it seems that Peter just casually drops this in conversation, it is a breathtaking moment. Matthew gives us more detail with Jesus exclaiming that Peter did not just recognise this by himself, but that the Father Himself had revealed it. Mark, in his typical punchy journalist style, is content to let Peter do the mic drop - "You are the Christ"
I have a good colleague friend and mentor, Malan Nel, who always talks about Jesus the Christ.
This is helpful - it reminds me that He's not just a carpenter with the name Jesus (which was a very common variant of Joshua which means "God saves") but that He has a title - a very big one.
Sadly, as awake as Peter is to who Jesus is, he falls spiritually asleep in the very next paragraph. Death and sacrifice weren't concepts that fitted with the Jewish expectation of a victorious Messiah and so when Jesus talks about these realities, Peter, backed by the disciples, scolds Jesus for being so negative.
Interestingly, as Jesus rebuked Peter, He was also looking at the disciples.
It is a stinging rebuke.
By trying to make Jesus conform to their triumphalistic expectations, Peter and the disciples were actually doing the work of Satan.
We cannot separate the Messiah from the price He will pay for all of us.
Christians are often criticised for speaking of the blood of Christ and the sacrifice on the cross.
It's not comfortable, but it is vital.
So, in a nutshell, we have four key theological take-home points:
1. The importance of personally owning the identity of Jesus.
2. The true meaning and weight of calling Jesus "Christ."
3. The discomfort we have with the idea of a suffering Messiah.
4. The relevance of sacrifice and cross-centered theology in discipleship.
