a bi-annual article to the News Tribune

The Ultimate Question

Eight chapters into the Gospel according to Mark is the fulfillment of the very first verse of that Gospel which reads, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”  Here is how that fulfillment unfolds.

Jesus is walking and praying along the road with His disciples and He asks a couple questions of them.  The first one is “Who do people say that I am?”  Jesus is asking them for the word on the street; he is asking what His disciples are hearing;  and He wants them to articulate these opinions to make a point with His second question.  The disciples bring up the popular answer of the day that Jesus is John the Baptist raised from the dead.  The second most popular answer was that Jesus was one of the prophets like Elijah, Jeremiah, or others of olden times.  The Pharisee named Nicodemus who came to Jesus in the night said that the consensus of the religious order was that Jesus was a teacher from God.  The word on the street was that Jesus was a man who was a teacher from God who spoke of God and for God.

Jesus then moves on to His second question to His disciples, “But who do you say that I am?”  I picture Him moving down the line of disciples and asking each one individually, face to face and eye to eye.  It is Peter who is given the answer from God that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.  Therefore the fulfillment of Mark 1:1 comes in Mark 8:29.  We experience by watching the disciples, through the reading of the Bible, as they come to this conclusion about Jesus.  Jesus was more than a teacher or someone they could name from the past but rather He was the Messiah, the Anointed One of God.  He is the Savior of the world that those dead prophets spoke of coming.

This second question is not for the man on the street.  It is not for those who, to take a common phrase in golf, “have no skin in the game.”  This second question was directed to a group of men who:

·      had been called by Jesus – “Come follow Me”

·      had been selected by Jesus – a night of prayer and then calling them by name

·      had lived with Jesus – a 2 ½ year, 24/7 time with Him

·      had been taught by Jesus – publicly and privately, sermons and sessions

·      had experienced Jesus’ miracles – publicly and privately, for the masses and them alone

·      had been sent out by Jesus – two by two with the authority to do what He was doing

·      had been with Jesus on a missionary journey to those unreached by the religious establishment of the day

The point is that this second question was given to those who had “some skin in the game.”  I relate this today as a question to those who fill the pews or the seats of our churches on a regular basis.  We may have grown up in the church with training from our early years in Sunday School classes to a yearly summer Vacation Bible School program.  We were a part of the church youth group and attended a variety of evangelistic rallies and concerts.  We have set through numerous sermons and claimed our pew or chair in the sanctuary.  We may have even been a part of a small group fellowship that met in a home with our Bibles open in our lap and a specialty coffee in our hand talking with others in the circle about a passage of Scripture.  When it comes to knowing about Jesus, we definitely have “some skin in the game,” much more than the man on the street and his opinion of who Jesus is.  This second question is for us.

What is your answer?  Do you see Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God?  In that statement it is more than just saying “yes” to Jesus in simple prayer but giving full weight to the words you just spoke.  Who Jesus is and all of what He says is the final authority of your life.  You cease to live for you and you live for Him in light that He is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Pastor Adam