Rethinking Jesus: Aligning Your View with the Biblical Witness (Mark 8:30-33)

This Topic Consists of Three Parts.

• A Call To Start Thinking About Jesus (Mark 8:27-29)
• Rethinking Jesus: Aligning Your View with the Biblical Witness (Mark 8:30-33)
• The Example of History (The Creeds and Christian History)

Introduction

In the previous post the reader was encouraged to start thinking about Jesus. I asked you to figure out what you believe to be true about this man who’s life (and death, and resurrection) has had such a massive ripple effect on world history. In this, the second post of the series, the focus is to encourage the reader to look at their beliefs and compare and contrast it with what the Bible teaches about who Jesus is and what He came to do.

Mark 8:27-33¹

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 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

Tell No One? (Mark 8:30)

We often read that Jesus tells people not to tell others about him (Mark 1:43-44; Matt 9:30). To most modern day Christians this seems like a strange request. We have all heard that we are part of the great commission. That we are to “go and make disciples” (Matthew 28:19-20). Aren’t we to tell everybody about Jesus? Yes, this is true. We all have a part to play in sharing Jesus with a lost world. So why would Jesus tell his disciples not to tell others who he is? The answer lies in the first century Jewish view and expectation of who the Messiah² would be. Most Jews were waiting for the offspring of David who would overthrow the Roman Empire and be seated on the throne of Israel forever (Isa 9:6-7; Jer 23:5; Ezek 37:24-25). In John 6:1-15 we see this play out clearly. After Jesus feeds the 5 000 the people are amazed and proclaim that Jesus is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world” (John 6:14). Jesus withdraws from the crowd at that moment because he realizes “that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king” (John 6:15). The people were expecting a warrior and a king for Israel! Not a Rabbi who would die on a cross for the world³.

Not What They Expected (Mark 8:31-32)

We see that after Peter’s bold exclamation, “YOU ARE THE CHRIST” (8:29), Jesus tells them not to tell anybody about him (8:30) and then he starts to teach them that he is to suffer, be murdered and then rise again after 3 days (8:31). After their recognition and profession of him being the Messiah Jesus knew that his disciples had not truly understood what that meant. Thus he started to teach them. But Peter, so stuck in his “the messiah is a warrior and king” mindset, started to rebuke Jesus for speaking of his suffering and death (8:32). “Why?” one might ask. The answer is simple, this was not the picture of the Messiah that Peter came to believe in. I can only imagine Peter saying something like “Don’t say such things, I will fight off every army to save you and get you on your throne”⁴.

Friends, we do the same thing. Many Christians have become Christians expecting Jesus to be a certain way, or do a certain thing. Liberal Christians hold onto “God is love” and as such refuses any thought of coming Judgement. Certain members of the prosperity gospel do not believe that Christ will allow hardship to come upon those who trust in Him. I find that if I do not guard my heart I tend to lose sight of the Triune God being a loving God who truly has our best interest at heart. And I wonder, is there anything that you think to be true about Jesus that might not align with who he really is?

Setting your Minds on the Things of God (Mark 8:33)

Finally, we look at the words with which Jesus rebuked Peter. “You are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man” (8:33). Jesus takes these incorrect thoughts of Peter and calls it satanic⁵. He does this because his thoughts were not things of God, rather they were the made up thoughts of man. We do well to notice how the Jews were not wrong about the Messiah being a king forever. They even had scripture to back their thinking. However they were not looking at the whole picture (see Isa 53; Psa 22; Dan 9:26). They took the parts of scripture that fit their current felt needs (that of a saviour and king) and made their own human picture of what that would look like. Peter made the same mistake. He was told that his thoughts about the Messiah and what he was to do was not the thoughts of God, rather he was believing in a man made image of the Christ. And yet, Jesus continued did not chase Peter away. Yes, Jesus rebuked Peter, but he also continued to teach and show Peter (often from the Scriptures) who the Christ truly was.

Christians, we have that same privilege. Yes, maybe as Peter did so we have proclaimed Jesus to be the Messiah, our Lord and our Saviour. And yes, we do get some things right about the nature, character, will, and ways of Jesus. But just like Peter, we might have some blind spots where we have created a Jesus after our likeness. Thus it is crucial for those who call themselves followers of Christ to make sure that they know the true Christ as found in the pages of the Bible. Therefore I encourage you to take stock of your thoughts, bring them before God in prayer, open your Bible and allow the Holy Spirit to transform your thoughts (2 Cor 10:5)⁶. If we are to worship and follow the real Jesus we have to align our thinking and seek to understand who he truly is.

Let’s keep the conversation going! Reach out to me if you have any questions or would like me to speak at an event.

1. All Scriptures are quoted from the ESV unless otherwise indicated. ↩︎
2. The Greek for “Messiah” is “Christos” (Christ). When Peter said that Jesus is the Christ (Mark 8:29) he was saying that Jesus is the long awaited Jewish Messiah. ↩︎
3. See the ESV Study Bible’s note on Mark 8:29b-30 ↩︎
4. This is not scriptural, we do not know what Peter said and it does not matter. What matters is that Peter was not willing to accept this idea of Jesus having to die instead of becoming king over Israel. ↩︎
5. See the ESV Study Bible’s note on Mark 8:33 ↩︎
6. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.(2 Corinthians 10:5) ↩︎