Who Do You Say Jesus Is?

Who do you say Jesus is? Jesus’ ministry creates a big stir and big speculation. He’s powerful in word and deed. Who is Jesus?

Maybe you’re not sure. Do you want to hear what others are saying? Jesus’ disciples had a list of what the crowds were saying about who Jesus is. The suggestions are surprising:

Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life. Luke 9:19 (NIV)

Earlier in ch. 9, Herod had a similar list of rumours.

John the Baptist

We met John earlier in gospel. He’s the son of Z&E. John’s job: “prepare the way for the Lord” – like “teacher’s coming!”

Leads to baptism of repentance; except when he called out Herod for adultery, Herod killed John.

Is it foreshadowing for Jesus, you think?

Elijah

OT prophet during the reign of Ahab, idol-worshipping king of Northern Kingdom (I Kings 17-19 and II Kings 1-2). Elijah didn’t die; he was taken up into heaven. OT prophet Malachi:

See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. Malachi 4:5 (NIV)

One of the prophets from long ago

I recently read the 12 Minor Prophets. Reading Luke beside OT prophets, Jesus sounds like a prophet, acts like a prophet. If he sounds like a prophet and acts like a prophet, you think he’s a prophet?

Is that why Herod and crowd wonder if Jesus as an OT prophet? Could this prophet signal the Day of the Lord?

Peter and the other disciples don’t buy those rumours. Peter speaks for all of them, saying Jesus is “God’s Messiah.” Hebrew “Messiah” and Greek “Christ” both mean “anointed one.”

It’s a big statement of faith. The title “the Messiah” carries baggage and big expectations. If you’ve always heard of Jesus as “Christ” or “Messiah,” you might not realize the big implications in Peter’s day to calling Jesus the Messiah of God.

If Jesus is the Messiah, he’s the long-awaited son of David. He has to live up to all the Messianic psalms. The Messiah is expected to bring back the golden age of Jerusalem, reestablish the great Empire of King David and Solomon. To profess that “Jesus is the Messiah of God,” is a loaded statement.

Yet Peter is correct: Jesus is the Messiah. Luke knows like most of us know the rest of the gospel. Luke’s gospel is about Jesus’ victory over sin and death. Remember, Luke sailed the Mediterranean with Paul proclaiming: Jesus Christ is Lord!

Luke also knows that Peter and the other disciples don’t get it yet. The disciples don’t understand the role of the Messiah, not yet. That’s probably why Jesus “strictly warned them not to tell anyone” Jesus is God’s Messiah. Someone emailed me about that, “Why can’t they tell anyone?” It’s probably better if Jesus’ disciples don’t confuse others with their misunderstandings.

Earlier in Luke 9, Jesus sends the 12 disciples to proclaim the kingdom of God. In Luke 10, Jesus sends 72 disciples to proclaim the kingdom of God. But here, Jesus strictly warns them not to tell anyone that he is the Messiah. The kingdom is coming, but Jesus is just beginning to reveal his plan, beginning to unveil how he will win victory over sin and death and regain the allegiance of God’s people and reign over all creation.

If you’ve been reading Luke’s gospel, you know how Jesus teaches about life in the kingdom of God. Jesus also lives up to the unique code of his kingdom. He doesn’t live by the hockey code of slash for slash, punch for punch, and dropping your gloves. Jesus practices what he preaches. He’s willing to be beaten, spit upon, and crucified to rescue the world from violence and wrongdoing.

In a much of Luke’s gospel, it looks like the code of the kingdom of God will cost Jesus dearly. In his hometown, people who watched Jesus grow up got angry because Jesus didn’t do the same miracles in Nazareth that he did down in Capernaum. They wanted to throw him off a cliff.

When Jesus healed a man with a shrivelled hand in a synagogue on the Sabbath day,

The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus. Luke 6:11 (NIV)

2 examples of opposition Jesus faces; the people he angered.

Now, here in Luke 9, Jesus tells his disciples openly:

The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Luke 9:22 (NIV)

Quick note: Jesus refers to himself as “the Son of Man.” It’s another loaded term borrowed from the OT prophet Daniel (ch. 7) to describe the king who is coming. “The son of man” is the king whose kingdom will never be destroyed His is an everlasting kingdom. The way the religious leaders of Jesus’ day interpreted Daniel’s visions, they expected “the son of man” to come and drive out the Romans. Jesus’ explanation of what will happen to him as “the son of man” is surprizing to his disciples.

Right after Peter’s confession that Jesus is God’s Messiah Jesus describes the rejection, death, and resurrection that lie ahead for him. Jesus understands his mission. Betrayal, trial and execution by hanging on a cross don’t catch Jesus by surprise.

He knows the rescue plan. But it’s a challenge for his disciples to accept. No matter how often Jesus describes his suffering, death, and resurrection to his disciples, they’re surprised when Jesus is arrested, shocked when he dies on the cross, and amazed when he rises to life 3 days later.

It’s not until after the resurrection that the disciples get it. It’s not until Jesus explains from the OT law and prophets in Luke 24 that the Messiah had to suffer these things before he could enter his glory that the disciples’ eyes were opened, and they recognized Jesus as the Messiah.

Jesus’ disciples don’t understand the importance of his suffering … yet. Luke, writing to Theophilus years afterwards, has the benefit of hindsight.

Luke can see that, when he died on the cross, Jesus’ suffering and death atone for the sin of humankind. Luke travelled with Paul, making disciples, teaching leaders, and planting churches all over the Roman Empire: How many times has Luke heard the Paul, Silas, Timothy and others explain the power of Jesus’ death and resurrection for our salvation? Did Luke preach too?

When he is crucified, Jesus endures the punishment for human sin. Sin is disobeying God’s instructions for goodness and righteousness. It’s a Q for all of us: I don’t love God 100% and my neighbour as myself, not all day every day, do you?

That’s why the gospel is good news! Jesus endures the punishment of my sin and the sin of the world. Jesus suffered and was rejected to rescue us and to redeem the world from sin and death.

Here’s the amazing part of Jesus’ victory over sin and death: when Jesus is raised to life on the third day, we are raised with him by faith. Jesus atones for our sin and draws us back to our Creator. We’re adopted into the family of God. Jesus’ heavenly Father becomes our heavenly Father.

That’s part of the sign and seal of baptism. This morning, Jace was baptized. He passed through the water of God’s judgement without harm because Jesus died and was raised to life on his behalf. All who have faith in Jesus as Saviour and Lord are freed from punishment for their sin. With Jesus, we’re raised to life as citizens of the kingdom of God.

All of us are invited—challenged—to live as Jesus’ disciples. Disciples gain citizenship in the kingdom of God and enjoy the outpouring of the HS. We gain opportunities to pray, worship, and to serve God. We get a front row seat as people come to faith and grow in faith. There are many perks to being Jesus’ disciples!

But Jesus has a warning for his disciples too. His warning is not the kind of thing you find on recruiting posters:

Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. Luke 9:23–24 (NIV)

There are dangerous times ahead for Jesus and his followers. If Jesus was about to suffer many things, being rejected by Jewish leaders and then executed, his followers face danger too.

Jesus—the Messiah of God—invites his disciples into life as citizens of the kingdom of God. It will put them in-step with God. They’re called to live by the same code as Jesus follows.

Here’s where it gets difficult: following Jesus puts us out-of-step with the powers of this world. We’re called to turn the other cheek when the opponents to the kingdom of God are willing to slap us twice. Just ask John the Baptist.

Luke knows what he’s talking about. If you piece together context clues from the book of Acts, if you trace out the “we” sections when it appears Luke travelled with Paul, then Luke was there when the Apostle Paul and Silas were arrested in Philippi. He witnessed how the magistrates in Philippi “ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods,” before being thrown into prison and had their legs locked in stocks (Acts 16:22-24).

Using the same clues, it seems likely that Luke was in Jerusalem when Roman soldiers rescued the Paul from the angry Jewish mob in the temple. It’s a chaotic scene:

When Paul reached the steps, the violence of the mob was so great he had to be carried by the soldiers. The crowd that followed kept shouting, “Get rid of him!” Acts 21:35–36 (NIV)

Luke knows all about the violence facing Jesus’ disciples. As Luke records the warning Jesus gives his inner circle of 12 disciples, you can imagine the memories Luke has of the violence he witnessed against Jesus’ disciples as he travelled with Paul and Silas, including the voyage across the Mediterranean, when Paul was a prisoner being transported under guard to face trial before Caesar. In fact, the peace and religious freedom we enjoy is a rarity around the world and throughout church history.

Yet in baptism, we gain all the benefits of Jesus’ victory over sin and death and the forces of evil. But baptism also sets us apart as Jesus’ disciples. By expressing our faith and allegiance to Jesus, we have a target on us.

It’s a weird paradox: “whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.” Jesus invites you to enjoy life. By faith in Jesus as the Messiah, you enjoy forgiveness and eternal life with God and the power of God the HS to live as a disciple of Jesus and citizen of his kingdom. It depends on your answer to Jesus’ big question:

Who do YOU say Jesus is?