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Jesus, God's Servant A Survey of the Gospel of Mark CHAPTER SIX: THE SERVANT'S REVELATION by Massimo Lorenzini V. The Servant's Revelation (8:27-10:52) A. Jesus as the Messiah 8:27-33 Several themes of this unit:
Jesus as the Messiah (8:27-33)
v. 27 Caesarea Philippi - A pagan Roman city associated with the nature god Pan. Herod the Great built a huge marble temple here to revere the Roman emperor. His son Herod Philip enlarged the city and renamed it in honor of Caesar. On the map, it lies north of the Sea of Galilee and east of Tyre. Who do men say that I am? - The answer is given in verse 28. Whoever the people believed Jesus to be, they at least agreed that God sent Him. However, these answers are all insufficient. Even worse are the answers that modern critics in search of the "historical Jesus" give to His identity. They present Him as a revolutionary who gathered a band of rebels to bring about a social liberation of the oppressed peasants. Others present Him as a traveling, nonviolent teacher. Still others present Him as a charismatic healer trying to reform Judaism. These also are grossly insufficient descriptions of Jesus and not the one presented in the eyewitness accounts of the four Gospels. v. 29 But who do you say the I am? - Jesus now focuses his question where it really matters. It's one thing to hear what others say about Him, but who do you say He is? Do you believe Jesus to be simply a good teacher as many today do? The late professor at Oxford, C. S. Lewis, said, "You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to." The only picture given to us about Jesus from the historical eyewitness accounts is that Jesus is the Son of God. Fully divine and fully human. The Gospels are accurate eyewitness accounts of the life and work of Jesus Christ. To say that they are the concoctions of deluded Christians living in times and places far removed from the life of Christ, is to enter the abyss of modern historical criticism from which no one arises with any verifiable account of Jesus Christ. We are then left with nothing but different and contradictory opinions about what Jesus said and did. The resurrection of Christ from the dead is the greatest evidence that all He said about Himself is true. The evidence for the resurrection would stand in any court of law and has actually been so strong that many intelligent skeptics have become Christians by examining the evidence for the resurrection of Christ. Application. So, it has been established beyond a reasonable doubt that Jesus is the Son of God. Now our responsibility is to acknowledge that He is who He said He is. Not only that, but to trust Him as our Savior and obey Him as our Lord (ruler of all that is). We must move from curiosity to commitment. Back to Peter in verse 29, You are the Christ - Christ is the Greek equivalent of Messiah "the anointed one." Peter's confession represents a significant leap of faith. So far, Jesus has not fulfilled the expected role of the Messiah (i.e., conquering king). The Jews had been expecting the Messiah. Evidence of this is found in many ancient Jewish writings. One such source is the pseudepigraphal Psalms of Solomon:
Actually, conquering king is only one aspect of Jesus' role as Messiah. First, He comes as the suffering servant which Jesus will explain in a moment. One writer said: "Jesus is the expected Messiah in the most unexpected manner." v. 30 tell no one about Him - Either Jesus wants Peter to keep quiet so that he can remain incognito (unknown), or he wants Peter to remain silent because his understanding of what "Christ" means is wrong and needs correction. The second interpretation is likely because of Peter's response to Jesus in the following passage. v. 31 the Son of Man must suffer . . . (see also 9:30-32 and 10:32-34). v. 32 Peter . . . began to rebuke Him - Because Peter misunderstood the program of the Messiah, he tried to prevent Jesus from going to the cross. Satan tempted Jesus to do the same thing (Matt 4). Application. Because the Jews expected the Messiah to be a conquering King, they failed to recognize Jesus as their Messiah and ended up actually murdering Him. Those Jewish people who rejected Jesus as the Messiah misunderstood God's plan and program for the world and missed their opportunity to be a part of it. Today we can also misunderstand what God is doing and miss out. We find out what God's plan for us is in the next passage. The Demands of Discipleship (8:34-9:1)
Here Jesus presents His disciples with three demands (8:34), a rationale for accepting these demands (8:35-37), a solemn warning (8:38), and a confident promise (9:1). What is discipleship? It's being a disciple. What is a disciple? A learner and a follower. A disciple asks, "What do you want me to know?" and "What do you want me to do?" Three demands, v. 34. (1) Deny yourself. Denying yourself is not self-deprivation or self-discipline. Denying yourself means to forget yourself in following Jesus. It has to do with denying your independence from God. The heart of Satanism is exalting self: "Life is the great indulgence, death is the great abstinence. Therefore, make the most of life" (Anton LaVey, founder of the Church of Satan). "Do what you will, shall be the whole of the law" (Alister Crowley). Sound familiar? The goal of Satanism is to reach your full potential in life apart from the God of the Bible. The Exact opposite of Jesus' teaching here. (2) Take up your cross. What does this mean? What were the disciples thinking when they heard this? Some years earlier 800 men were crucified in that area following a revolt after the death of Herod the Great. The Roman proconsul Varus crucified 2000 Jews in that area. Criminals and rebels were regularly crucified in public. The disciples saw people crucified. "Take up your cross" means be willing to die to your own will in favor of God's. (3) Follow Me - Means you are not to be in the driver's seat anymore. We must follow Jesus' example and obey his teaching. Jesus can only make these demands if He is in fact Lord. The Rationale, vv. 35-37. Since Jesus is Lord of the universe, and not you, it only makes sense to deny yourself and follow Him. By the way, this is not optional for the believer (see Luke 14:25-33). If you reject discipleship, you really believe that you know better than God. That getting your way is where life is really to be found. Jesus entertains the idea for a moment in verse 36, "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" In David Lodge's novel Therapy, the main character's therapist asks him to make a list of all the good things about his life in one column and all the bad things in another. Under the good column he wrote: "professionally successful, well off, good health, stable marriage, kids successfully launched into adult life, nice house, great car, as many holidays as I want." Under the bad column he wrote just one thing: "feel unhappy most of the time." Billionaire Donald Trump said of success, "The pursuit is exciting, but the gain is disappointing." The Apostle John wrote:
A Solemn Warning, v. 38 There will be a payday someday. We must join Jesus now in his suffering and humiliation if we want to be with Him in the glory that is to come. A Confident Promise, 9:1. This probably refers to the Transfiguration. See 1 Peter 1:16-18 and John 1:14 for references to this incident.
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