I have never like tests.
Do you like tests?
In our Gospel lesson this morning,
Jesus gives the disciples a test,
He asks them, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?"
When Jesus uses that phrase, the Son of Man, he is talking about himself. In other words, Jesus is asking "Who do people say that I am?"
Jesus uses the title, "Son of Man," rather than Messiah,
because when people ever heard the word “Messiah”,
they would think of a great military leader like King David.
Jesus is the Messiah, but he has no plans to raise an army.
"Who do people say that the Son of Man is?"
"Who do people say that I am?"
Jesus wasn't asking his disciples for their opinions –– not yet, at least.
He was asking about other people's opinions of him.
The disciples had been mixing with the crowds.
They had been hearing what people had to say.
Jesus was asking the disciples to report on what they were hearing.
And so, they gave some quick answers:
• "Some say JOHN THE BAPTIST."
John, of course, was the cousin with whom Jesus had grown up.
John was now dead.
Herod had killed John.
Jesus had only recently learned of John's death.
He would have been still grieving over the death of his friend.
How could people think that Jesus was John the Baptist?
Maybe they thought that John had come back to life in the form of Jesus. That's what Herod thought.
When Herod heard about Jesus, he told his servants,
Jesus "is John the Baptist; he has been raised from the dead" (14:2).
But when John was alive, John said of Jesus,
"I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals" (Mark 1:7).
Untying someone's sandals was such a menial task that Jewish law would not allow a Jew to require of another Jew ––
even a Jewish slave –– to untie his sandals.
If a Jew needed someone to untie his sandals,
he had to find a Gentile to do it.
But John the Baptist said that he wasn't worthy even to untie the thong of Jesus' sandals.
John said that he wasn't worthy even to shine Jesus' shoes.
That's how much greater Jesus was than John ––
and John was the greatest prophet Israel had seen for centuries.
So some people thought that Jesus was John the Baptist come back to life –– "No! Not even close!"
• The disciples offered other possibilities as well.
They told Jesus that some people thought he was ELIJAH.
Elijah was a great prophet from an earlier century.
People expected Elijah to appear again "before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord" (Malachi 4:5).
Now people were saying that the time had come ––
and that Jesus was Elijah come back to life.
It was a high honor to be thought of as Elijah.
Elijah was one of the greatest prophets in Israel's history.
• The disciples had one more answer for Jesus.
They said, "Still others say JEREMIAH OR ONE OF THE PROPHETS." Jeremiah was another of the great prophets.
It was an honor to be compared to Jeremiah.
John the Baptist –– Elijah –– Jeremiah –– one of the prophets.
The disciples were telling Jesus that people thought he was not only a prophet ––
but that he was a great prophet.
Jesus was, in fact, a prophet –– a great prophet –– but more than a great prophet.
Jesus was THE great prophet.
He was the Messiah –– the Son of God.
So when people thought of Jesus as John the Baptist –– or Elijah –– or Jeremiah –– they were complimenting Jesus.
The thing is though, that Jesus was even greater than one of the great prophets.
Jesus then asked the second question, "But who do YOU say that I am?" I can just see the disciples standing around looking at their shoes.
We all know how that feels, don't we!
The teacher asks a question and you shrink down into your seat,
trying to look invisible.
The last thing you want to do is to look at the teacher –– to establish eye contact.
You know that, if the teacher sees your eyes, he/she is going to ask you to answer the question,
Put you on the spot!
The disciples long to be invisible.
But they dont have to stay invisible for long.
It was fortunate that they had a disciple with them who couldn’t stand the silence.
Simon Peter.
Peter was one of those guys who regularly rushed in with both feet.
If Peter had been a carpenter, he would have cut first and measured second.
He always spoke up.
So when Jesus asked, "Who do YOU say that I am?"
Peter couldn’t resist.
What Peter actually said was this.
He told Jesus, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."
The disciples must have held their breath to see how Jesus would respond.
Was the answer going to be right or wrong?
If the answer was good,
the disciples were off the hook.
But if Jesus didn't like Peter's answer,
they weren't sure what Jesus would do next.
The answer was good – Phew!
Jesus said, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven" (v. 17).
And all the disciples must have breathed a collective sigh of relief.
Let's look at Peter's answer one more time.
When Jesus asked, "But who do YOU say that I am?"
Peter responded, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." When Peter said that, this is what he meant.
He meant that Jesus was the one for whom Israel had been waiting for centuries ––
the one, from God, who was going to save Israel.
That's what Messiah meant to Peter.
Now let me ask you a question.
If Jesus were to ask, "Who do YOU say that I am?" how would you answer?
It would be easy to repeat Peter's answer.
We could say, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God"
that would be a good answer.
It was a good answer in Peter's day,
and it is still a good answer today.
But what would that mean to us?
Let's go back and think about what it meant for Peter.
Peter thought the Messiah would recruit an army and re-establish Israel as a superpower.
That's what he meant by Messiah.
After Peter said that Jesus was the Messiah,
Jesus began explaining to his disciples what it really meant,
To be the Messiah of God,
He told his disciples that he was going to Jerusalem,
where the religious leaders were going to kill him (16:21).
What did Peter think about that?
Peter said, "God forbid it Lord" (16:22).
They will not do that to you.
But Jesus rebuked Peter, saying, "You are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things" (16:23).
Then Jesus called the disciples to take up their cross and follow him (16:24).
If we really believe that Jesus is the Messiah,
that's where we end up
taking up our cross and following him
living sacrificially for the sake of the kingdom of God.
Those first disciples all came to believe that Jesus was the Messiah. Some of them, like Peter, would die for their faith.
Some of them, like Thomas, would become missionaries to other lands (We believe that Thomas established the church in India).
Still others, like Philip and Bartholomew, would serve quietly in the background.
I like that.
I like knowing that some of Jesus' original disciples just served quietly in the background.
Every church has a number of people who serve faithfully but quietly.
We have them here,
I don't know what we would do without them.
Do you believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God?
Do you believe that he came to save and rescue the world?
Do you believe that Jesus came to save and rescue you?
That He died on that cross so that you might have a new life,
a new start,
forgiven and remade
If so, he will call you to serve –– maybe dangerously –– maybe uncomfortably –– maybe quietly.
If you will obey the call of God on your life,
you can be sure that your life will be a blessing to you,
and to others,
and that you will contribute to building of the kingdom of God.
The most important test of our lives is Jesus question to us
“Who do you say that I am?”
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