Who is Jesus? (Mark 8:27-33)

We have all had those moments in life when the light bulb goes on for us. You know what I am talking about. Times like when a baby figures out that they can walk. Or when they try ice cream for the first time. Times like when you learned to ride a bike without training wheels. We have all had those time. Something happens and now what didn’t make sense before, what seemed impossible before, now makes sense. 

Over the last two weeks we discussed the reality that our view of God dictates our view of life. As a result, we need to open our eyes and see Jesus for who he is. We noted that the disciples didn’t see Jesus for who he is. They were busy worrying about food while he was teaching them. But these texts set the table for the text today. The text today serve as the centerpiece of the Gospel of Mark. Everything in the book has been leading to this point. And in this text, the light bulb goes on for the disciples. Throughout the book, the question has been, “Who is Jesus?” and in this text, the disciples finally have the answer. Yet, as we saw with the healing of the blind man last week, this comes in stages. In this text, Mark reminds us that Jesus is the Christ, who died for us, that we should follow. And encourages us to acknowledge Jesus as Christ and follow Him. And through this text, we discover what it means to follow Christ. We will read through verses 27-38. However, as with the last text, this will take us a couple of weeks to work through.