You Are the Christ: Mark 8:27-30

The road to Caesarea Philippi wound through Gentile territory, past temples to Pan and shrines to Caesar. At the foot of a cliff where spring water gushed from rock, in the shadow of a cave the pagans called the Gates of Hades, Jesus asked his disciples a question:

"Who do people say I am?"

The answers came easily: "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets."

The crowd had theories. Jesus was a resurrected prophet, a returned hero, a voice from the past speaking again. They were impressed but uncertain, awed but uncommitted.

Jesus pressed deeper: "But what about you? Who do you say I am?"

The question hung in the air. Not who do the crowds say. Not who do the Pharisees say. You—you who have left everything, you who have watched me calm storms and multiply bread and raise the dead. Who do you say I am?

Peter spoke. Perhaps he surprised himself. The words came out with the force of revelation:

"You are the Messiah."

The Christ. The Anointed One. The King that Israel had awaited for a thousand years, promised through prophets, anticipated in psalms, expected to overthrow Rome and restore David's throne.

Jesus warned them sternly not to tell anyone.

The confession was correct. But Peter's understanding of what "Messiah" meant was about to collide with a reality he could never have imagined. The Christ was real. The crown would come. But the path to glory led through a cross.

The revelation was true. The revolution was just beginning.