Mark 8:27-30 27And Jesus and his disciples left for the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples saying to them, “Who do people say that I am?” 28And they said to him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” 29And he asked them, “But you, what do you say me to be?” In answering, Peter said to him, “You are the Christ.” 30And he warned them that they might not speak about him.
This passage is in the middle of Mark’s Gospel and brings a climax to the narrative. The first half of the book slowly reveals Jesus. The disciples have been slow to understand Jesus even though they had seen and experienced many miracles. Their confusion has been evident in many passages. They believe but still need to commit. By the end of this scene in 9:1, he will have called them to a deeper level of discipleship. The second describes what Jesus must do to fully reveal himself: die and rise again. The disciples need to experience the cross and empty tomb for understanding to finally come. A major break comes at 8:27. Jesus had come to the point in his ministry when he needed to make certain his disciples were with him because he was soon to go to the cross. They were slow to realize who he was. Did they see God’s power at work in him, confirming him to be the Messiah and Son of God? If not, his investment in them was meaningless.
Jesus essentially ends his public ministry in Galilee. Caesarea of Philippi was not in Galilee but under the control of Philip the Tetrarch. It was located about 25 miles north of Bethsaida where the group had just been. Jesus intentionally went to this location for the revelation he was about to give. The source of the Jordan River comes from this area. In ancient times it was an important place of Baal worship. In the first century AD, Philip had a white marble temple to Caesar built there. It was also the place where the Greek god of nature, Pan, was said to have been born. Mostly Gentiles lived in the area, and the area was hostile to Jews. The place was sacred to many people with many religious memories and connotations. Jesus at this moment invites his disciples to reflect upon his ministry in Galilee and look ahead to his suffering on the cross in Jerusalem. The central theme is the identity of Jesus. Before this point in Mark, the emphasis was on Jesus’ power and authority. From this point on, the emphasis is on Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection.
In verses 27-28, Jesus asks his disciples about the rumors about him. They were on the way, a phrase that occurs nine times in the next four chapters as Jesus heads towards Jerusalem and the cross. This journey reveals more about himself in numerous ways. Jesus’ question focuses on identity. Were the crowds really understanding who he was? The disciples’ response indicates the answer was “no.” The popular opinion was that Jesus was some type of prophet, like John the Baptist or Elijah. Jesus of that time were fascinated by Elijah and had the expectation he would return from heaven before the day of the Lord in fulfillment of Malachi 3:1; 4:5–6. Others had witnessed or heard about the ministry of John the Baptist and saw him as the fulfillment of the prophecy about Elijah. Herod Antipas had already confused Jesus and John, so it should be no surprise that other people were doing the same. Even to compare Jesus to Elijah or John was a significant matter, but it still missed the point. Jesus knew what people were saying about him. By asking this question, he was giving the disciples an opportunity to clarify their own thinking on the matter.
Jesus then turned to his disciples to see what they were thinking. Verse 29 gives the most important question in the Gospel of Mark: Who do you say that I am? Mark begins in 1:1 with the identity of Jesus. The thesis sentence of the whole Gospel is that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. Readers are invited to accept this thesis and put their faith in Jesus as his disciples. Jesus’ mission depended on his disciples coming to the right conclusion about him. The disciples could not be passive and watch Jesus. They had to enter into the story themselves as followers, willing to follow him to the cross. They could not watch Jesus go to the cross from afar but had to follow in his footsteps. Discipleship is more than intellectual assent to a few truth claims. Rather, it involves the full commitment of our being to the lordship and authority of Jesus Christ.
Peter acts as the spokesman for the group and proclaims Jesus to be the Christ. The Greek Christos is the translation of the Hebrew Messiah, which means “anointed one.” It was a term used in the Old Testament in reference to the anointing of prophets, priests, and kings. As the story of Israel unfolds towards the last part of the Old Testament and into the Intertestamental period, the Jews developed an expectation that God would act to restore Israel through the agency of a special messiah. They drew some of their ideas from texts such as Isaiah 9:7; 11:1; Jeremiah 22:4; 23:5; 30:9.
There were two dominant interpretations about the Messiah. One was political, that the Messiah would free the Jews from the Rome. The other was more supernatural, that God would intervene in history to bring about his purposes. These longings can be seen in the many Apocalypses of the intertestamental and first century. People expected that the Messiah would be a powerful king like David and restore the kingdom of Israel. Even the disciples hinted at this expectation in Acts 1:6.
Something was happening in Peter’s heart that he would give the right answer. The deeper question is whether he understood the meaning and implications of his answer. It would take the rest of his life–and all of eternity–to grasp the significance of Jesus Messiah. It is interesting to jump from his confession to the two epistles attributed to him in the New Testament. His faith and understanding did grow over time. After Peter’s confession, Jesus did not want the disciples to tell others because he wanted them to realize first what “Messiah” meant.
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