Monday, March 29, 2010

Who is Jesus?

That was the question being asked tonight in Dundonald Baptist Church as the week of special meetings for holy week began. It's the midpoint of Mark's Gospel, the disciples have been getting to know Jesus over two years or so, watching him teach and heal, drive out demons and raise the dead, feed the crowds and calm the waves. Earlier, they were asking who Jesus was, but now he turns the tables.

Who do the crowds say I am? And who do you say I am? An important question to answer. Peter gets the right answer, but also the wrong answer. He says the right words, that Jesus is the Christ (God's anointed King), but gets it wrong as he can't understand a crucified Christ, a suffering Messiah. From hero to zero as Peter goes from top of the class to the bottom of the bunch.

Jesus spells out the necessity that the Son of Man must suffer, be rejected and be killed. It is God's way, the way of the cross, but Peter can't see it. Not then, not before the event. He would, of course, but not there, at Caeserea Philippi.

There are many opinions in the world about who Jesus is and what he does. Many wrong ideas. But this Holy Week, let's listen to Jesus' own words. He is the Christ, the Son of Man, the ransom.

So what about you? Who do you say that Jesus is?

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