1.22.12--Sermon on Mark 8:27-30

During my senior year of high school, I took my mom’s Sociology class. It was a dual credit course, and I was trying to wrack up as many college hours as possible before I graduated. Now, other than the little bit of awkwardness of being the son of the teacher, I had a lot fun in the class and learned a lot.

One of the lessons is one I will never forget. We were talking about the actual quantitative effect that peer pressure can have on the individual and how this can easily lead to mob mentality. To illustrate her point, my mom asked ten students to step outside of the classroom for a moment. When they were gone, she drew four lines on the chalkboard. They were all relatively the same size, but third line down was obviously longer than the others. She turned to us and informed us that she had given instructions to all but one of the students outside to pick the top line no matter what she asked of them.

When the ten people came back into the room, she asked each one to point out the longest line of chalk on the board. One after another, nine of the students came up, studied the board, and picked the top line as the longest. Now, Justin, the last student to come up, had not been given any instruction from Mom. He was supposed to come up and pick the longest line based on his observation of the four marks. But when it came his turn, he was so afraid to pick anything contrary to the other students’ choices that he went against his better judgment and chose the top line as well.

His need to fit in with the world around him had overruled his basic logic.

In our Gospel story today, while walking between villages with his disciples, Jesus asks a very loaded question: “Who do people say I am?” What is the world’s perception of me? You’ve been following me around for a while now. I know you’ve listened to people’s reactions. We all know they’ve been talking. What have you heard people saying about who I am?

Now, this seems like a pretty straightforward question. I mean, who doesn’t want to know how others in the world perceive them? And especially someone like Jesus, who has been teaching, healing, and making waves in the world, must know that people are talking. Think about it. Scripture tells us that there were times that he was so set upon by crowds of people that he could barely move! Words of his deeds spread throughout Galilee and the Judean countryside, and people from all around came to see him. People knew him, and people talked about him.

And yet, it must have seemed to Jesus at times like everyone was absolutely clueless about him! Just a few verses prior to this story from Mark’s account of the Gospel, Jesus tries to teach his disciples a lesson about the Pharisees, and his disciples completely miss the point and start worrying about the fact that they don’t have any bread! Jesus reminds them that he is the guy who fed five thousand plus off of five loaves and two fish and then four thousand plus off of seven loaves and a handful of fish. These people—who have witnessed all of these miracles, who have been given the power to heal and cast out demons, who have heard Christ teach with an authority unlike that of the scribes and Pharisees—they completely miss the point! Do they know who it is they are following?

So Jesus asks them. You’ve seen and heard and even participated in events to which no other person on earth has been privileged. Now, who do people say I am?

I love the disciples’ answers, because they are all good things. “You’re John the Baptist!” “You’re Elijah!” “You’re one of the prophets of old!” I wonder if they were a little too scared to share with Jesus what some of the scribes and Pharisees and others had said of their master, because what they don’t say are the negative names that have been associated with him. “You’re Beelzebub.” “You’re an agent of Satan.” “You’re a blasphemer and a heretic.”

But it’s all well and good. Jesus already knew what people said about who he was and what he did. I mean, he’s Jesus. And besides, he’s looking for something much deeper than whether or not his followers were in tune with the popular opinion of the area. Thus, he asks his next question.

“But what about you? Who do you say I am?”

I wonder what happened next. I imagine that silence stretched out after this inquiry as the disciples looked at each other, played with their hands, stared at the ground, anything to look straight at Jesus. Because what kind of question is this? Could they admit that many of them had been struggling with this very question the entire time they had been following him? Could they give into the hope that had run rampant in their hearts since meeting this extraordinary man?

Could they answer? Really, truly, honestly answer?

I imagine that after that silence stretched out for another moment or two, Peter makes the decision. He looks straight at Jesus, with determination in his eyes, and says the four words that everyone else longed and feared to utter: “You are the Christ.”

The Christ. The Messiah. The One sent by God to deliver the people of God. The One who will save us from ourselves and from the world and bring us again into right covenantal relationship with God. You are the one we have been waiting for, the one we have been hoping beyond hope for.

And now you have come.

Peter knew what everyone else had been saying. He knew the good names and the bad names that had been yelled, mentioned, and muttered about the man he to whom he had yoked himself. He could have easily laid claim to belief in one of these names, joined one of these bandwagons and been perfectly content.

Instead, he chose to hope, chose to believe.

Friends, while walking between villages with us, Jesus asks us a very loaded question: “Who do people say I am?” What is the world’s perception of me? You are my church and you’ve been following me around for a while now. I know you speak to others about me. I know you’ve listened to people’s reactions. I know you live in a world where everyone has their own opinion and they freely share it with the world. We all know they’ve been talking. What have you heard people saying about who I am?

Is Jesus some guy that lived two millennia ago, taught some radical interpretations of the Jewish religion, sparked a rebellion and was killed for it? Is Jesus a fictional character, easily equated to Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster? Was he a great historical figure, like Ghandi, that his followers have blown way out of proportion?

Is he a superhero? A lunatic? A megalomaniac?

“Who do people say I am? But what about you? Who do you say I am?”

Are you willing to look Jesus in the eyes and speak with determination as you declare him to be the Christ? Are you willing to step up and stand out for what you believe and for who you believe even though it might not be the easiest choice to make?

“Who do you say I am?”

I pray that we might all be able to have the courage and determination to look at Jesus and answer firmly and emphatically, “You are the Christ.”

Amen.