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 Messiah.” 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, the chief priests and the 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 concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.” And he said to them, “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power."
-Mark 8:27-9:1

Who is Jesus?

The main question asked by the Gospel of Mark: Who is Jesus?

Jesus himself asks, "Who do the people say I am?" (vs 27) and then he asks his disciples "Who do you say I am?"

Who Is Jesus, Really?

"He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the 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." (vs 31-32)

This did not align with the image of a Messiah that the people would have held at this time in history: not a victor or a king coming to destroy the adversaries of the Jewish people, but a suffering Messiah.

"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 concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” (vs 33)

Jesus suffered:

  • to overcome our sins ("But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed." Isaiah 53:5)
  • to overcome death ("But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him." Acts 2:24)
  • to show God's love ("But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8)

How to Truly Live

If Jesus is a suffering Messiah, what does this mean about how we can truly live?

  • Know your source; true life doesn't come from the world, but from God. "For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?" (vs 35-36)
  • Know your worth.
  • Know your way. "Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: 'Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.'" (vs 34)
  • Know your purpose; to know Christ and make him known. "Whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it." (vs 35)

In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis writes: "The more we get what we now call 'ourselves' out of the way and let Him take us over, the more truly ourselves we become. [...] our real selves are all waiting for us in Him. [...] The more I resist Him and try to live on my own, the more I become dominated by my own heredity and upbringing and surroundings and natural desires. In fact what I so proudly call “Myself” becomes merely the meeting place for trains of events which I never started and which I cannot stop. [...] I am not, in my natural state, merely so much of a person as I like to believe. Most of what I call me can be very easily explained. But it is when I turn to Christ, when I give myself up to His personality that I first begin to have a real personality of my own. [...] Give up your self, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favourite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fiber of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep nothing back. Nothing that you have not given away will ever be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in."

Questions for Small Groups
  1. Just like today, people in Jesus’ day had different understandings of who he was (e.g., Mark 8:28, John the Baptist, Elijah). How do you think Peter came to see Jesus as not just one among many healers in the ancient world, but as the Messiah?
  2. Why did Peter rebuke Jesus for saying that the Messiah had to suffer and die (Mark 8:31-32)?
  3. In Mark 8:34, Jesus says to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (NIV). What do you think are some of the benefits and burdens of taking up the cross?

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