“SO, WHAT’S YOUR FINAL ANSWER?”

Passage: Mark 8:27-30

“Regis Philbin's question from the popular game show „Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,‟ has become a common buzz-phrase. „So what's your final answer?‟” (Angier) Every day we are being confronted with so many questions in life. Some questions are very easy to answer. Questions such as, “Did you have your breakfast already?” “Which movie would you like to watch?” “What shirt shall I wear?” But there are questions that would require us to pause and think about our answer. These questions require wise answers for it will affect greatly our future. Questions like “Will you marry me?” “What course shall I enroll in college?” When Jesus was traveling with his disciples from Bethsaida to the villages of Caesarea Philippi he confronted his disciples with questions that will reveal their understanding about the person of the one whom they call master.

Question #1: "Who do people say that I am?"
“Mark‟s presentation sets the readers mind about the motion taking place because of the words „on the way‟” (Brooks, 134). They were not yet in Caesarea but traveling on that direction. When we travel with someone, we don‟t miss talking about the place we are going to. It may be about the scenic spots that attract many people, a historical event that took place in the area, or places with memorable experiences we have had with someone. I believed the question was not asked incidentally by the master but it had a significant reason and connection with the place. “Caesarea Philippi back then was a major Hellenistic city built by Herod in Honor of Augustus. It was also a place called „Paneas‟ dedicated to a god named „Pan.‟ In that city we will also see the shrine of a cult emperor erected. It was also known in the ancient days that the place was a sanctuary of Baal worship” (Witherington, 239). It is interesting to know that Jesus, while on their way to the villages of Caesarea Philippi, chose to reveal his Messiaship to the disciples. It is possible then that he wanted to convey a message to them, by asking a question about how people perceived him, that the messiah is far greater than the emperors and the gods worshipped by the people. In the city dedicated to false gods, Jesus‟ true identity was going to be revealed.

“In rabbinic tradition the learners are the ones usually asking questions while the teacher/rabbi is the one giving the answers” (Brooks, 134). But in this case, it was the teacher who asked, thus it must be an interrogation and not an inquiry. “Who do people say that I am?” Jesus‟ first question was directed to the perception of other people about him. The answers given by the disciples were similar with how the officials of Herod described Jesus in Mark 6:14-15, “And King Herod heard of it, for His name had become well known; and people were saying, „John the Baptist has risen from the dead, and that is why these miraculous powers are at work in Him.‟ But others were saying, „He is Elijah‟ And others were saying, „He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old‟” (NASB). Seemingly it sounded like a verbatim report. “It is interesting to know that the names of Elijah and John the Baptist were mentioned. Both of them were forerunners of the messiah, but clearly they were not the expected messiah” (Cole, R., 135). Their answers tell us that the people in those days have a wrong conception about the person of Jesus. What they saw was only the surface of what Jesus really is.

The situation reminds me of the RMS Titanic story. It was unimaginable that the “Unsinkable Ship” Titanic was sunk by an iceberg. “On the night of Sunday, 14 April 1912, the temperature had dropped to near freezing and the ocean was calm. The moon was not visible (being two days before new moon), and the sky was clear. Captain Smith, in response to iceberg warnings received via wireless over the preceding few days, had drawn up a new course which took the ship slightly further southward. That Sunday at 13:45, a message from the steamer “Amerika” warned that icebergs lay in Titanic's path, but as Jack Phillips and Harold Bride, the Marconi wireless radio operators were not focused on relaying such „non-essential‟ ice messages to the bridge. They underestimated the tip of the icebergs they saw. At 23:40, while sailing about 400 miles (640 km) south Fleet sounded the ship's bell three times and telephoned the bridge, but it was too late already. The iceberg brushed the ship's starboard side (right side), buckling the hull in several places and popping out rivets below the waterline over a length of 299 feet (90 m).” (RMS Titanic)

Application:
Of all our senses, the eyes give the brain the most information to be processed. It starts working from the moment we wake up until we close them at night when we go to sleep. They bring-in tons of information about the world – movements, events, changes, beauty, and many more. Our eyes are very useful and powerful. But it has its limitations. It cannot see when there is no light during night time and it cannot see through/beyond a matter. In that case the information our eyes can give are also limited. Sometimes the brain has to assume some judgment about the matters that eyes cannot see. That was exactly what happened to Jack Phillips and Harold Bride. What they saw was only the tip of the iceberg, and the brain assumed its size under the water. In the same sense, during the ministry of Jesus he performed miracles so that they will know that he is God. He turned the water into wine, gave sight to the blind, strengthened those who cannot walk, drove out demons from those who were possessed, healed those who were sick, and restored life to those who died already. But the problem with the people, particularly the Pharisees, was that they saw only the surface of the person of Christ. Their eyes testified to them that he was just like them, an ordinary man whose father was a
carpenter. They thought he was only a prophet who received revelations and power from God, a forerunner of the messiah that they have been expecting for so many years already. Their eyes failed to see those wonders he made that can testify his deity. No wonder at the end of the day they all shouted “Crucify him!”

We are privileged with what we have today. The Bible gives us the vivid picture of who really Jesus is. God deserves our thanksgiving for giving us the eyes to see and the faith to believe. It is my prayer that if someone will be asked, “Who do the ZCAEC people say that Jesus is?” the person would testify “That church says Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.” May we all shout and testify the entirety of Jesus Christ. May we all be his instruments to open the spiritual eyes of those who cannot see.

Question #2: "But who do you say that I am?"
After hearing the common people‟s perception, this time Jesus directed the question to his disciples. The first word of his query “But” indicates that he was expecting a contrasting answer to the earlier opinion given by the people about him. Now they are required to give their own perception of their master. Peter, as the most impulsive among the disciples as I have observed in the gospel, answered the question with certainty. There was no second thought when he declared Jesus as the Christ. He said neither “maybe” nor “probably” but plainly declared it right after the interrogation.

The disciples got it right, but partially right. They realized that Jesus was the Messiah that the prophets have foretold about. But in their minds he was a different messiah. They were expecting for a political deliverance that would culminate in a peaceful and bountiful kingdom led by the Christ. With an ordinary Jewish mindset the disciples did not capture the whole picture about the kingdom that Jesus was preaching. In chapter 9 verses 31 and 32, Jesus mentioned to them the coming events pertaining to the betrayal and his death, but none of them understood what it was all about. It was not surprising then to know that after this confession they discussed among themselves their real motives and expectations. Their understanding about the messiah was later revealed in chapter 10 verse 37, “They said to Him, „Grant that we may sit, one on your right and one on your left, in your glory.” (NASB)

Prior to this account we see Jesus healing a blind man in Bethsaida. He spat on the eyes of the man while laying upon him his hand. Then he asked him if he sees anything. The man figured out men walking like trees. He was already seeing but blurred. So Jesus laid again his hand upon his eyes. This time the vision was clear already. “The stepwise movement from blindness to sight recorded in the miracle story of 8:22-26 is partially repeated in the responses first of the disciples and then of Peter” (Moloney, 165). As I have said Peter and his colleagues were partially right with the answer they gave. “But like the blind man his eyes are not fully open to the truth about Jesus. There is a deeper mystery to the messianic status of Jesus of Nazareth, whom the disciples are following. They are yet to come to full sight, matching the final experience of the blind man, seeing everything clearly” (Moloney, 167). No wonder Jesus, after hearing the answer of Peter, warned them not to tell anyone about him in verse 30. It has something to do with the popular misconception of the nature and role of the Messiah. “As a matter of fact the word „warned‟ uttered by Jesus ordinarily means „to rebuke.‟ The association of this term suggests that the popular conception of Messiaship is not only inadequate, but erroneous.” (Brooks, 135) 

Application:
This account reminds me of the story “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant. The story begins with a description of Madame Mathilde Loisel. Though she is „„pretty and charming,‟‟ she and her husband, a clerk in the Ministry of Education, are not well off financially. She has always dreamed of a life of leisure, but her lifestyle is decidedly more modest. Ashamed of her social standing, she no longer visits Madame Forestier, an old school friend who has become rich. When they are invited to a ball, Madame Loisel becomes very upset, insisting that she has nothing appropriate to wear. No elegant dress and jewelries to show off. They ended up buying a new dress and barrowing a diamond necklace from Madame Forestier. At the party Madame Loisel was the most beautiful woman in attendance. When the ball was over and they were home already they were surprised to know that the necklace was gone. They did all their best to find it but they failed. After a few days they found themselves in jewelry stores searching for a similar necklace. They were dismayed to find out that it cost 40 thousand francs. They borrowed money, bought the necklace and returned it to Madame Forestier. The Loisels began to live a life of crippling poverty. For ten years they toil to pay all their debts. Ten years after, while she is out for a walk, Mathilde spots Madame Forestier and opens to her what happened. It was the time when Madame Forestier informed her that the necklace she barrowed was an imitation worth 500 francs. (De Mauppasant)

Sometimes we only grasp a portion of the whole truth and proceed to believe that we already know it in all aspects. In the story, the Loisels toiled for ten agonizing years paying for the money they used to buy the necklace which they believed was an original one. It is absurd to pursue something with a misconception. They had a partial knowledge and a mistake. The knowledge was it was a necklace similar to the one that was lost, and the mistake was the lost necklace was believed to be an authentic one. You see here an illustration which explains to us that a partial knowledge about something makes everything different and wrong. In the experience of the disciples, they were pursuing something that they did not understand fully. Mathilde knew that what she lost was a necklace, but did not know that it was an imitation. On the other hand the disciples knew that Jesus is the messiah, but they did not understand the true meaning of Jesus Messiaship. If they were not warned not to tell anyone about Jesus, they could have shared and presented the Lord to others with a wrong understanding.

There are two challenges that I want us to sincerely consider. First, as God‟s children, I challenge you to study the word of the Lord seriously with eagerness to dig deeper and capture the whole picture and understand the truth, so that when we present the good news to the world it will give them the right perspective and eventually change their lives. Second, upon knowing the truth about the messiah we must take by heart what the Lord has commanded us to do in Matthew 28:19-20, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (NASB) In the end when we meet our master he would say to us, “Good and faithful servants.”

Bibliography
Angier, Michael. “Is That Your Final Answer?” Success Networks International, 2001. http://www.trainersdirect.com/resources/articles/Misc/IsThatyourFinalAnswer.htm (accessed 26 January 2011).

Brooks, James A. The New American Commentary: An Exegetical and Theological Exposition of Holy Scripture. Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman Press, 1991.

Cole, R. A. The Gospel According to St. Mark. Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1976.

De Maupassant, Guy. East of the Web: Short Stories. “The Necklace.” http://www.eastoftheweb. com/short-stories/UBooks/Neck.shtml (accessed 29 January 2011).

Moloney, Francis J. The Gospel of Mark: A Commentary. United States of America: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 2002.

Bible Gateway. “New American Standard Bible.” http://www.biblegateway.com/versions/New- American-Standard-Bible-NASB/ (accessed 2 February 2011).

Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. “RMS Titanic.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Titanic (accessed 28 January 2011).

Witherington, Ben III. The Gospel of Mark: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary. Grand Rapids, Michigan/Cambridge, UK: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2001

PRINCIPLES OF PRAYER UTTERED BY THE MASTER

PASSAGE: Matthew 6:9-13

Matthew mentioned some spiritual disciplines in this chapter such as giving, praying, and fasting. All of these virtues must be exercised within the perspective of genuine humility and not of hypocrisy.

After Jesus set the heart in the right perspective (1-8), he then proceeded by giving the right approach. This prayer is what we call today, the Lord’s Prayer. This prayer that Jesus taught His disciples is a model of both private and public prayer. This prayer model has two main divisions. The first division depicts God in relation to Man, while the second portrays Man and his Need.

DIVISION 1

OUR FATHER WHO IS IN HEAVEN, HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME

Principle 1: Our prayer is based on the fact that we have a relationship with God.

Principle 2: Our prayer is uttered out of faith and reverence to God.

YOUR KINGDOM COME. YOUR WILL BE DONE, ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.

Principle 3: We should be willing to receive and will continue to believe whatever answer that God will give. It’s His will, not ours. He is the King, and we are His subjects.

DIVISION 2

GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD.

Principle 4: Prayer is an expression of daily faith-in relation to His providence in all aspects of life.

AND FORGIVE US OUR DEBTS, AS WE ALSO HAVE FORGIVEN OUR DEBTORS.

Principle 5: Receiving of forgiveness is inseparable from releasing of forgiveness.

AND DO NOT LEAD US INTO TEMPTATION, BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

Principle 6: Overcoming evil is not of our own, but it is of the grace of God done by the Spirit of God.

Reflection: Of the six principles you learned today, which one speaks to you the most?

Note: I used NASB in my study of the passage.