Day 23 : Mark 8:22-30
Who do you say that I am?
Perhaps we have all had the experience of a moment when revelation comes to us and the truth dawns. How many times in a story, whether a book or film has the penny dropped? You come to realise who the arch villain is or the true identity of the story’s hero. These nine verses today are pivotal, the tipping point for Mark as he tries to show how people might see who Jesus is.
The two stage healing of the blind man, seeing partially at first and then fully, is deeply significant. Mark weaves this together with Jesus’s questions to the disciples as they journey towards Caesarea Philippi. First, Jesus asks, ’Who do people say that I am?’ (NIVUK) Jesus doesn’t ask immediately what they think but what have they heard from ‘people’. This is the one time I think I am happy to consider the phrase ‘people are saying’ as usually it is not a good thing by being unattributable. Jesus wants to know what they have heard, what have they paid attention to?
Sometimes the straight question might be too much and better to have a more open question to lead in with before the direct question… ’But who do you say that I am?’ (NRSVA) Well, that’s a lot more personal. Never mind the rest, ‘What about you?’(NRSVA) The disciple Peter, ever immedi- ate, impetuous, straight-up honest, dives in with both feet and one big mouth! ‘You are the Messiah’ (NRSVA) The anointed, chosen, special one. The one long awaited for by the Jewish people. The promised of God, born to set the people free from oppression and enslavement. The one the prophets of the last 600 years have spoken of…Jesus you are the real deal.
Perhaps our culture doesn’t get how important Peter’s revelation is. Our words cannot do this justice.
