Mark 8:27-38
When I imagine Jesus asking his disciples “Who do you say that I am?”, I imagine them looking to Peter, with subtle head nods and wide eyes, as if to say “you say it!” When Peter answers “the Messiah,” he acknowledges what they all have been thinking, hoping, and probably discussing. Jesus, of course, does not explicitly affirm what they hope to be true. He orders them not to tell and then goes on to teach about what being the Messiah will mean.
As Jesus goes on, he makes it clear that what they expect and what he is about to do are very different things. “They do not expect a messiah to die, let alone to die on a cross and then to be lifted into the heavens. The general expectation of the time is that the Messiah will bring about the messianic age, including the resurrection of the dead, the final judgement, and peace on earth.”
Jesus, however, reinterprets it to mean the one who will suffer, die, and, ultimately, be raised.
The cross did not yet have a place in their understanding of Messiah (or Christos, which is the Greek word used here). In this pericope, the first of his Markan passion predictions, Jesus makes it clear that this is what it will mean: there will be suffering, the Messiah will be killed, and that he will rise again.
It is interesting to note here that the term “Son of Man” is one that Jesus uses for himself. When his disciples heard it, they might have interpreted it through their understanding of the term in Daniel, where it implies power and glory. Jesus, however, reinterprets it to mean the one who will suffer, die, and, ultimately, be raised. The two meanings are interconnected but must always be seen through the lens of the cross.
We all can all surely come up with plenty of examples of the ways that we hear messages of power and glory. Our challenge as preachers may be finding those explicit examples that point to the cross, to Jesus Christ, crucified and risen. In this pericope, Jesus leads the way. This is what it will mean: suffering, rejection, death, and resurrection.
The disciples (and Peter in particular) were not prepared for what it meant for the Messiah to be among them. They expected power and glory for the Messiah. Perhaps the best news we can proclaim today is that of Christ crucified.
While messages of power and glory blare in just about every media outlet these days, Jesus invites us to set aside power and glory for the cross: for service and servanthood; for death and resurrection. Jesus admonishes Peter for setting his mind not on divine things, but human things. Today, and in every proclamation event, we are called to point to divine things.
Divine things such as the stuff of the earth—bread and wine and water—together with divine word: a table where there is room for all who come and a font where we are made new. Spirit-given things such as the gifts that flow through us for the sake of the world. The cross at the center of our lives together, the promise that death does not get the final word.
[1] Amy-Jill Levine & Marc Zvi Brettler, The Bible With and Without Jesus, p. 385.
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