Peter was absolutely right, but at the same time, Peter was very wrong.
In Mark 8 Peter and the other disciples had been following Jesus for some time. They had seen his miracles. Recently he fed a crowd of 4,000, similar to the previous feeding of 5,000. He restored a blind man’s sight and a deaf man’s hearing. These and many other great miracles they had witnessed. And they head heard Jesus’ teaching. He taught with authority, not like the teachers the people were used to listening to. He expertly dodged the traps of the Pharisees and rebuked them for their hypocrisy. He dealt gently and caringly with everyone who was in need.
They had been seeing these things. Many people had been seeing these things, and the question that was on everyone’s minds was, “Who is this?”
When you think about it, that question is still one that people are asking all the time today. Or at least they have their opinions. Try asking someone, “Who is Jesus?” and I doubt you’ll find many people who don’t have an answer. Many will say that he was a moral teacher. Some will say that he was a man who got caught up in circumstances beyond his control. Some will say that he was nothing more than a legend, or perhaps a fairly normal person about whom stories got embellished more and more as time went on.
There were plenty of ideas about who Jesus was during Jesus’ ministry as well. So when Jesus was traveling away to a remote place with his disciples and asked them that question, “Who do people say that I am?”, they immediately had a bunch of answers. They said, “John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others say one of the prophets.”
This is kind of a puzzling answer to us. John the Baptist was dead. Elijah died centuries ago. What were they talking about? It may be that there was an idea around that a prophet’s spirit remained after the prophet’s death and was passed on to someone else. After all, Elisha asked Elijah for a double-portion of his spirit. There were different ideas about what that meant. Or perhaps the people were floating these ideas just to say what kind of a prophet Jesus was—a prophet like John the Baptist, a prophet like Elijah.
But whatever it was that they meant by these answers to the question, “Who is Jesus?”, it’s abundantly clear that they believed he was someone great, but not the someone great that they were waiting for. A prophet, sure. But the Messiah? The Christ? Most people didn’t want to go that far.
And that’s part of why it’s so wonderful when Jesus asked his disciples, “What about you? Who do you say I am?” and Peter answered for them all saying, “You are the Christ!” Not just one of the prophets. Not just a great teacher. Not just one great man among many. But the Christ, the one who had been promised all through the Old Testament. The one even the Samaritans, with their mixed up religion, longed for, as the woman at the well said, “I know that when Messiah comes he will tell us about these things.”
There’s an enormous difference—like the difference between night and day—between saying that Jesus is a great man, one of many, and that Jesus is the Christ. No one in this whole godless world is bothered by the assertion that Jesus was a great man, or even that Jesus was a prophet. People of all the world religions are fine with that claim. Many even explicitly agree with it. Even among militant atheists, who do you think would be offended if you declared, “I think Jesus was an influential teacher.”
What will offend people? “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus is our only Lord, our only God, our only Savior.” That is an assertion so bold that it enrages those who are trapped in sin. And that’s every one of us by nature. We’re born in sin, born into Satan’s control, into his kingdom. And Satan cannot bear Jesus as Lord and Jesus as the Christ. Instead he shrieks and howls and gnashes his teeth. He will do anything he can to silence this word. And so sinners can for a time live peaceably with one another. But when one person in their midst stands up and says, “Jesus is the Christ,” they are outraged. Though he has committed no crime except to love his neighbor and care for the needy, they drag him outside the city walls and stone him to death, as they did with Saint Stephen.
Because of our sinful natures, the confession that Jesus is the Christ is so foreign to us and hated that we would never accept it. No one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. It wasn’t the amazing miracles or persuasive arguments that led the disciples to believe this. It was the grace of God. It was the same grace of God that has called you, that has led you to believe and confess that Jesus is the Christ. You also have a nature that loves sin and hates the Savior. We scoff at the blind Pharisees and people of Israel and their misunderstanding of Jesus. All these things that that proved Jesus was the Christ were right in front of them, but they couldn’t see it. But you are not so much wiser. The difference between you and them is not your own great personal righteousness. There is no difference, except that you have received God’s gracious call. Peter and the others were chosen by Jesus, called by him, taught by him, and they confessed, “You are the Christ.”
Peter was absolutely right. But he was also very wrong.
He knew that Jesus was the Christ, but he still did not know what it meant that Jesus was the Christ. And that’s why Jesus taught them. It’s why Jesus teaches us. Mark writes:
31Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things; be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the experts in the law; be killed; and after three days rise again. 32He was speaking plainly to them. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33But after turning around and looking at his disciples, Jesus rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! You do not have your mind set on the things of God, but the things of men.”
34He called the crowd and his disciples together **and said to them, “If anyone wants to follow me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. 35For whoever wants to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.”**
Peter believed that Jesus was the Christ, but he didn’t think that the Christ should have to suffer. What should it mean to be the Christ if not glory upon glory and success upon success? Should it not mean taking up the throne of David, and restoring Israel, and bringing vindication to everyone who looked to him for help and justice?
Peter thought he was going to do the right thing. He thought he was going to encourage Jesus and buck him up. “No, Jesus, you aren’t going to suffer. You aren’t going to die.”
But how very wrong he was. And not just about Jesus, but about everyone who follows Jesus. “If anyone wants to follow me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”
Do you want to follow Jesus? Of course you do. Jesus is the Christ. He’s the way and the truth and the life. He’s the only true God and our only Savior from sin. But are you prepared to follow Jesus while carrying a cross? It’s easy to follow Jesus if following Jesus means glory and success. It’s easy to follow Jesus if following Jesus doesn’t intrude on the rest of my life. It’s easy to follow Jesus if there’s no cost. But if that’s what I’m thinking then I’m not really following Jesus at all. If I call Jesus the Christ but never leave the comfort of my couch, then I too might have the right answer but be very wrong. If I call myself a Christian but don’t deny myself for the sake of my brother, then am I a Christian at all? There’s no such thing as a Christian without a cross. Confessing Christ means carrying a cross.
I don’t always know if I can do that. Sometimes the troubles of this life that torment me, and the temptations that hound me, and the accusations of Satan that plague my soul are a cross so severe that I don’t know how I can possibly carry it one more step. Sometimes it seems that all there is in this life is pain and sorrow and despair. Why should I deny myself? Why not just give in to temptation? I’m a lost cause anyway.
But not to Jesus. Jesus is the Christ, the only Son of the living God. And what that means is that he came into the world to bear your sin. He came into the world to take your cross, to lift it up onto his humble and mighty shoulders and to carry it all the way to Golgotha, and to bleed and die there so that your old sinful nature would die there with him, and so that Satan would be robbed of his power over you, and so that you might also rise with Jesus as a new person, a holy person, to know and love your God just as your God knows and loves you.
Confessing Christ means carrying a cross. But as a new person, one who has been given a new birth by being baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, something changes in us. The cross becomes something we no longer fear or dread or despise. For the sake of Jesus the cross becomes dear to us. Jesus’ cross is our highest treasure; our forgiveness and our life. And our own crosses? Let me boast in my weakness! Let me find Jesus’ peace in suffering, and his strength in temptation. Let me deny myself for his sake, and share in the joy he has set before me.
Dear Christians, confessing Christ means carrying a cross. But your cross is not too hard to bear. For you follow the Christ who has borne your sins, who lifts you up in his saving strength, and who brings you with him to everlasting life. Amen.
— Pastor Seth Georgson