Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from the Gospel according to Mark, the 8th chapter:
And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” And they told him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.” And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him. And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he said this plainly… And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
Our passage here today gives to us a good word, as we have been hearing about Jesus. We have seen in the Gospel according to Mark that Jesus is good and does many good things. We have seen Him heal the blind, feed the four thousand, open the deaf man’s ears, and teach the doctrine of God, which is life itself. But, until now, the disciples of Jesus have not understood, or at least have not said, what they know this man to be, who they see Him being for them.
That is why He asks, “Who do people say that I am?” Jesus is working here with the disciples to show them that what people see Him as may not be quite the reality. A medicine man, a holy man, a good man, a healer, a preacher, a prophet, a weirdo, a rabbi, a miracle-worker. Jesus is these things, to some extent or another, at least as to how we see Him, but this is not all that He is. He knows this, and He desires that those who follow Him know this, too.
So, He asks, “Who do people say that I am?” He awaits the answers. They aren’t right, of course, but Jesus doesn’t chide them. After all, no one has seen Jesus for who He truly is yet, Son of God, Son of the Father, sent to bear the sins of the world. And the disciples, as good as they are, as well-chosen by Jesus as they have been, they will not see Jesus in all of His glory, for all of who He is, until after the Resurrection, when they see that Jesus fulfills His promises.
But, then Jesus asks them, “Who do you say that I am?” This somewhat mirrors the questions Jesus asked in Matthew, the 16th chapter, where our Lord asked who the Messiah would be, and then used that to point to Himself. Here our Lord is asking His disciples, “Do you think that I am the promised Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One? Do you believe in me? Do you see me only for what I am giving these poor people in this life, or do you look to me for the gifts that go beyond all time and space?”
Now, that’s a big question, and Peter, my favorite apostle, if only for his stubbornness and his ability to put his foot in his mouth, says such a good thing. “Lord, we know that you are the Promised Messiah, for we have seen every good thing that you have done, and we look for all that you will do as you lead to the Promised Life of freedom.”
Now, I know I added to Peter’s words here, but this is what he means. He, and every Jew, he was looking for the Messiah to come and save them. They, perhaps, thought this Messiah would only be their political hero, saving them from the Romans. Others thought the Messiah would bring in some utopian life on earth, where everything was good. Very few, though there was always those few, thought this Messiah would save us from our sins and iniquities as Isaiah promised, as even was promised to Abraham.
But, I do not think anyone foresaw exactly that the Messiah would die, doing the very good work of God to save all His people, and then yet leave us to struggle with sin even through this sin-filled life. What a marvelous thing it would have been if the cross were the end of history, and there were no more suffering. Now, this is hard to think about, because that might imply then that we would not be here, that we would not be living since the end of time was used in at the cross. Yet, the Lord would have been justified in this work, to end the old world of sin and usher in the new life of the Resurrection even then.
But God didn’t do that. The Father didn’t end the world at the death of His Son. Rather, the life of the world began with the death of the Son of God. The mercy of God rained down all the more after the Son’s death on the cross. The world had languished in their sin until then, hoping for someone to save them. And so, Jesus did, dying upon the cross for their sin, redeeming them and reconciling them back to the Father. This was Jesus’ good work.
And for all the miracles that He had done to this point, for all the teachings that He had given, this was the greatest work of His life. His death was like a seed being planted in the ground, dead with no life, and from that small seed, the life of all the living grew forth. In that resurrection is found the plant of the Resurrection unto eternal life. That is the life of Christ, and that is the gift that no one was looking for.
While Peter’s words were good, he could not have imagined that this would be the result of His Lord’s work. But this would be the fruit unto everlasting life, and Jesus would take this death and resurrection of His and bind it up into water, into the Word, and into bread and wine. He would take plain water and use it to give you everlasting life. He would take plain words, spoken out of a holy book, and use them to give the absolution for every sin. He would take plain bread and plain wine, and use them to strengthen every good gift of faith and life and bring you to Himself at the very end of all things.
He is the Messiah for you, and He has done all of this for, and gives all of this to, you. That is Jesus’ goal and desire. In all honesty, this is one of the ways we take up His cross and follow Him. His cross is bound up in the Word and in the Sacraments, and as we gather together, we deny our sinful flesh and we look to Christ’s gifts.
But this also then does mean that we take up the burden of following after Christ. If He is the Messiah, the Christ, then we also must live lives that are worthy of His life, His gifts. It does us no good to sin, when we know that sin works to separate us from the love of God. It does us no good to lie, or to cheat. It does us no good to gossip, to backstab. It does us no good to have hatred, anger, or malice in our hearts. So we should stop. For every sin we commit, the devil will use that sin and drive a wedge between you and the Lord, and especially between you and the Lord’s gifts.
So, we take up our cross, we deny ourselves, and we look to the light of the Lord Jesus, following in His footsteps, following the Holy Commandments of God, so that we would know that our lives are pleasing, not to God, but to our neighbor. God wants you to live righteously, not for Him, but for the one whom you serve.
We do not lie to our parents or our teachers because it does not make it easy for them to teach us and train us, but it does not serve them and harms them. We do not gossip about our church family because it does not build them up, but tears them down to the bowels of hell. We do not hate anyone or have malice toward them because that is as good as murdering them. We do not lust after anyone for that lust is committing adultery with them, and we have spoiled their virtue.
We think of our sins too lightly. Hatred is murder. You are murderers, and I am, too. Lust is adultery. You are adulterers, and I am, too. Lying is to be a son or daughter of the greatest liar, Satan himself. And you are liars, and I am, too. So stop. Be better. Obey God’s holy, righteous, and good Law for the sake of your neighbor. Deny yourself; serve your neighbor in righteous living.
But, who of us can do this? None of us. And this is where we come back to have the cross of our sin taken from us, and receive the cross of Christ. For, as He comes in His Word and Sacrament, He calls us not liars, not adulterers, not murderers, but brothers and sisters, sons and daughters of the Most High God. He has made us righteous in His blood, not covering over our sins, but taking those sins to Himself so that He would die.
And despite our sin, He brings us to Himself. Despite our sin, Jesus sees only the holiness which He has won for us. Despite our sin, He calls us His own. This is the Messiah’s work. He is the medicine man, bringing us the medicine of immortality in His Holy Supper. He is the holy man, having done all good things and giving to us the benefits of His righteousness. He is a good man, who laid His life down for His friends. He is the healer, cleansing us from our sickness, our sin. He is the preacher, the one who brings the Good News of the Gospel to all who will hear it. He is the prophet, declaring the future to come for each of you, namely that He shall raise you to everlasting life. He is the weirdo, doing the works of His hands which the world cannot and will not understand. He is the rabbi, the teacher, the one whom we shall follow. And He is the miracle-worker, for by His hands, all of His promises, all of His teaching, all of His works are fulfilled on the Last Day, and, through this life, He continues to strengthen us so that we may become holy as He is holy, working to leave behind our sins, but, more importantly, cling to Him ever more when we realize we cannot.
These are His works for you, to have saved you, to forgive you, to strengthen you, to show you He is the promised Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One. Believe in Him, for He gives us not only every temporal gift, but also the gifts that go beyond all time and space. He gives us this through His cross, which is the Good News for all people. And it comes to you today through the Word, through your Baptism, and through His Supper. It is with you every day, for you are a sinner, but you are a sinner who has the true Messiah, Jesus Christ. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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