Gospel Notes by Michael Whelan SM
Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” And they answered him, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.” And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.
Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. (Mark 8:27–35 – NRSV)
Introductory notes
General
The profession of faith by Peter – “you are the Messiah/Christ” – is found in Matthew 16:13-20 and Luke 9:18-21. Both Matthew and Luke also follow Mark with the prophecy of the passion and the condition for following Jesus Christ.
This moment of recognition – together with the Transfiguration that follows immediately – is a crucial turning point in Mark’s Gospel. It prepares the disciples for what is to follow. To this point there has been a lot of “success”, though mostly from “outsiders” – including “demons”. From this moment however, Jerusalem and the cross emerge strongly and define the journey. The truth starts to become much clearer: “With Peter’s declaration at Caesarea Philippi Mark’s story of Jesus reaches a denouement. Heretofore the disciples, like the crowds and especially the religious leaders of the Pharisees and scribes, have been ranged against Jesus on a scale from misunderstanding to opposition. They have been slow of understanding and hard of heart. Responses of faithfulness to Jesus have been few and sporadic, and when faithfulness has been found, it has surprisingly come from “outsiders”—from an unclean woman (5:25–34), a Syrophoenician woman (7:24–30), and a Gentile deaf-mute (7:31–37). Declarations of Jesus’ true identity as God’s Son have been given by Mark as narrator (1:1), by God (1:9–11), and by demons (1:25; 3:11; 5:7), but not yet by humans. Caesarea Philippi is the first breakthrough in the human plot of the Gospel. Peter’s declaration is the first attempt on the part of the disciples to identify and define the exousia, the divine authority, with which Jesus has taught and acted.” (J R Edwards, The Gospel according to Mark, Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: Eerdmans; Apollos, 2002, 245.)
Specific
Caesarea Philippi is about 9 kms north of Bethsaida. Bethsaida is at the north-eastern end of the Lake of Galilee and should not be confused with Caesarea on the Mediterranean coast. See http://www.bible.ca/maps/maps-palestine-33AD.htm Its population would have been mostly Gentiles – a strange place for the declaration of the Messiah.
on the way: “Beginning with this verse, ‘on the way’ occurs nine times in chaps. 8–12 as a designation that the ‘way of the Lord’ proclaimed by John the Baptist at the outset of the Gospel (1:2–3) is fulfilled in Jesus’ going to Jerusalem. Significantly, Jesus raises the question of faith, according to Mark, ‘on the way’ of humiliation, rejection, suffering, and death. Faith and discipleship cannot be rendered from the sidelines, removed from risk. Jesus asks for a judgment about him in the midst of the journey, not at the end of it when all questions are answered and proof is finally in hand. Faith is a judgment about Jesus, and a willingness to act on the judgment in the face of other possible judgments. Indeed, for the disciples at this point in the Gospel faith will necessitate a choice contrary to the prevailing consensus of crowds and religious leaders. Faith means actively following Jesus on the way, not demanding signs (8:11–13) or turning to go one’s own way (10:22)” (J R Edwards, op cit, 245-246.)
“Who do people say that I am?”: Normally it would be the disciples who ask the rabbi the questions. This reversal suggests a very important moment.
“John the Baptist etc”: When Mark tells us of the death of John the Baptist, we find a similar list of people – see Mark 6:14-15. However, Mark makes it clear that there is much more to Jesus’ identity than is found in any of these other people.
“But who do you say that I am?”: Jesus comes to the point! His identity and the relationship the disciples have with him is a very particular, enfleshed reality.
Peter answered: Peter is the spokesman – see Mark 8:32, 9:5, 10:28, 11:21. His name appears first in the list of the twelve – see 3:16.
“You are the Messiah”: “Both māšîaḥ in Hebrew and christos in Greek mean ‘the anointed one’. In the ot priests, prophets, and kings were anointed in rites that seem also to convey the idea of their divine election. In Jesus’ time Messiah/Christ/Anointed was by no means a univocal term, and so one can correctly speak about Judaisms and their messiahs. However, one prominent form of messianism in the Second Temple period is represented by the hope for a future Davidic king who would restore justice and the good fortunes of God’s people (see Psalms of Solomon 17). Such a messiah would naturally be a threat to the Roman rulers and their Jewish collaborators in the land of Israel. In light of what Jesus did (especially his acts of ‘power’) and said (his claims about sonship, his pivotal role in God’s plan, and his sayings about the Temple), it is likely that some people did identify Jesus as such a messiah—at least this is what Mark suggests (see 1:1). (J R Donahue, & D J Harrington, The Gospel of Mark, Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2002, 261.)
And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him: The full truth of the kind of Messiah Jesus is, has yet to be revealed. It would be dangerous to start proclaiming Jesus as Messiah without the truth of his identity being clear. An essential part of that identity is about to be revealed however: He is a suffering Messiah. “When Jesus finally speaks of his messianic status it is not to claim the common understanding but to redefine it practically beyond recognition” (J R Edwards, op cit, 252). Mark has two other passion predictions – 9:31 and 10:33–34.
“If any want to become my followers etc: The revelation of Jesus’ identity is the basis for revealing the identity of the disciple. If the disciple identifies fully with the Master, he/she must expect to share his experience. We cannot understand what it is to be a disciple of Jesus unless we understand – at least partially – who Jesus is. It is not just his teachings we identify with it is him, his very being, his identity actually becomes our identity. “I live now not I but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:19).
Being on the way
In today’s Gospel – Mark 8:27–35 – we hear a phrase that is as significant as it is simple: “Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that I am?’”. On the way! We have heard it before in reference to John the Baptist: “As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, ‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way’” (1:2). Similar references will occur another nine times in Chapters 8-12 of Mark’s Gospel.
In the Acts of the Apostles, we are told that “(Saul) went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem” (9:1-2). In the New Testament, Christianity is often referred to as “the way” – eg Acts 9:2, 18:25 and 24:22.
The people of Jesus’ day were deeply embedded in a nomadic culture. In the Book of Deuteronomy we read: “When the priest takes the basket from your hand and sets it down before the altar of the Lord your God, you shall make this response before the Lord your God: ‘A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien . . .’” (26:4-5).
The way out of Egypt – the way to freedom – is via the wilderness: “I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and led you forty years in the wilderness” (Amos 2:10). This is strange. The wilderness is a “howling waste” (Deuteronomy 32:10), a land of “trouble and anguish” (Isaiah 30:6), of “deep darkness … that none passes through, where no man dwells” (Jeremiah 2:6). Yet, the wilderness is a mighty symbol of life in the Old Testament: “The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness” (Jeremiah 31:2).
“The way” is to be found in the Covenant, not geography or culture or social rules, rituals and regulations. The people had to experience no “way” in order to discover the “way”. Their response is to be one of trust and commitment to the Lord of the Covenant. John’s Gospel lays this out concisely, clearly: “Thomas said to (Jesus), ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life’” 14:5-6).
A natural symbol of all human beings is that of life as “journey”. The question then arises: Is the journey meaningless, without any direction or goal, except perhaps what we create? It would be helpful to our faith life if we re-discovered the import of discipleship as being on the way. Jesus is not the end of our journey, he is the journey! We live through him, with him and in him. He is the Father’s favourite word: “Come!”