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And he sent him to his home, saying, “Do not even enter the village.”
John Davy's Notes: Sam showed us how we, like Peter, can misunderstand what Jesus is doing. He took us through some stories that showed us how Jesus had authority over, humans, demons and nature, and appeared to be the promised Messiah. Sam then focused on Jesus’ call to follow him, being tied up with a kind of ‘death’ to self. We saw how Peter’s disappointment was a small, temporary human view, but Jesus’ aim was much bigger. We considered how we are tempted to focus on our temporary comfort, success and happiness and can miss the bigger thing that Jesus is doing. Finally, we saw that call to ‘lose our-self’ involves surrendering our being ‘in charge’, giving up on our fake ‘ideal self’, and trusting God even when things are tough.
The Three Major Passion Predictions in Mark
The Three Major Passion Predictions in Mark
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?”
This is the structural center of the Gospel of Mark: Peter’s proclamation of who Jesus is and Jesus’ explanation of what His journey will entail.
It is preceded by a blind man seeing and proceeded by the transfiguration. These aren’t chance story’s, Mark want's his readers to have their eyes opened to who Jesus is, and thus begins his passion predictions with this sandwich effect.
Three times in Jesus predicts his death, the disciples fail to understand or to respond appropriately, and he then teaches them about discipleship.
Announcement of Jesus’ Death
Failure on the Part of the Disciples
Jesus Teaches on Discipleship
Jesus will suffer, be rejected, killed, and will rise after three days ()
Peter rebukes Jesus ()
Jesus commands them to deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow him ()
Jesus will be delivered, killed, and will rise after three days ()
The disciples do not understand the saying and are afraid to ask him about it ()
Jesus teaches that the first must be last and that those who receive children in his name receive him ()
Jesus will be delivered, condemned, mocked, flogged, killed, and will rise after three days ()
James and John ask that they may sit next to Jesus in his glory ()
Jesus teaches that, to be great, they must become servants; to be first, they must become slaves; and that he came to serve by giving his life as a ransom for many ()
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?”
Caesarea Philippi was some 25 miles (40 km) north of the Sea of Galilee, and had been a center of the worship of Baal, then of the Greek god Pan, and then of Caesar.
Jesus avoided the city of Caesarea Philippi, seeking instead to retreat to the villages of this predominantly non-Jewish region. Caesarea Philippi. Some 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of the Sea of Galilee. Rebuilt by Herod’s son Philip, it was named for himself and Caesar Augustus and was associated with imperial worship.
And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.”
Peter’s response is the first time that Jesus is identified as the Anointed One by anyone in the narrative, but Mark told the reader the identity of Jesus at the beginning of the book ()
And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him.
It’s vital for us to be clear at this point. Calling Jesus ‘Messiah’ doesn’t mean calling him ‘divine’, let alone ‘the second person of the Trinity’. Mark believes Jesus was and is divine, and will eventually show us why; but this moment in the gospel story is about something else. It’s about the politically dangerous and theologically risky claim that Jesus is the true King of Israel, the final heir to the throne of David, the one before whom Herod Antipas and all other would-be Jewish princelings are just shabby little impostors. The disciples weren’t expecting a divine redeemer; they were longing for a king. And they thought they’d found one.
Nor was it only Herod who might be suspicious. In Jesus’ day there was a prominent temple in Caesarea Philippi to the newest pagan ‘god’—the Roman Emperor himself. A Messiah announcing God’s kingdom was a challenge to Rome itself.
Wright, T. (2004). Mark for Everyone (pp. 107–108). London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him.
Many Jews at the time expected the Messiah to be a political figure. If they found out about Jesus’ identity, they might attempt to make Him king, misunderstanding His true mission to suffer and die on behalf of humanity
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.
This wasn’t what Peter and the rest had in mind. They may not have thought of Jesus as a military leader, but they certainly didn’t think of him going straight to his death. As Charlie Brown once said, winning ain’t everything but losing ain’t anything; and Jesus seemed to be saying he was going to lose. Worse, he was inviting them to come and lose alongside him.
Jesus’ friends and followers were used to danger. It was a perilous time; anyone growing up in Galilee just then knew about revolutions, about holy people hoping God would act and deliver them, and ending up getting crucified instead. Any new leader, any prophet, any teacher with something fresh to say, might go that way. They must have known that by following Jesus they were taking risks. The death of Jesus’ mentor, John the Baptist, will simply have confirmed that.
Wright, T. (2004). Mark for Everyone (p. 110). London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
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.”
It is only Peter’s thought, not him personally, that Jesus rejects as satanic.
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.
The Way of the Cross. For the first time in Mark, Jesus clearly states the cost of being his disciple. To follow him means one must die to one’s own agenda, whether social, political, or spiritual.
For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
ashamed. Crucifixion was an unspeakably weak and shameful death in the eyes of a world fixated on status and power (cf. ; ). But the world’s standards have no place in God’s kingdom, and Jesus will repudiate those who hold them. adulterous. A common Scriptural metaphor for idolatry, meaning to be unfaithful in one’s relationship to God (; ; ; see note on v. ). Those who reject the way of the cross commit adultery against God; ultimately Jesus, God’s authoritative Son, will reject them.
For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
Following Jesus is, more or less, Mark’s definition of what being a Christian means; and Jesus is not leading us on a pleasant afternoon hike, but on a walk into danger and risk. Or did we suppose that the kingdom of God would mean merely a few minor adjustments in our ordinary lives?
Wright, T. (2004). Mark for Everyone (p. 112). London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power.”
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