The Magnitude of the Situation (Mark 8:27-33)

My youngest brother was just beginning to get a handle on language so that he could use it to express himself. My older brother taught him the phrase, “You cannot comprehend the magnitude of the situation!” Since my little brother was too young to mentally grasp what the phrase meant, his older siblings had a lot of fun listening to him talk about the magnitude of the situation.

This memory came back to me when I thought of how Jesus asked His followers, “Who do you say I am?” (Mark 8:29) Peter didn’t hesitate, “You are the Messiah!” Others might be confused thinking that Jesus was John the Baptist, Elijah or one of the prophets, but Peter spoke for all the disciples. They had followed Him, they knew that Jesus was the Christ.

This conversation took place on the road as they traveled to Caesarea Philippi. I have a vivid memory of being in this area when I visited Israel. It was beautiful! Caesarea Philippi was the center of the worship for Baal, then the Greek god Pan. Pan is considered to be one of the oldest of the Greek gods. He is associated with nature, wooded areas and pasture lands. The worship of Pan centered on nature. Pan was a mythological creature, a satyr with the legs of a goat and the body of a man. He was a god who claimed to be a man.

Herod the Great was given this beautiful area by Caesar Augustus. Herod then built Caesar three temples. One of these beautiful temples built to Caesar, a man who claimed to be a god, was placed beside Pan’s temple, the god who claimed to be a man. What a setting for Jesus' question, “Who do men say that I am?”

Peter and the disciples knew who He was--or did they? Could they truly understand that Jesus was the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation? Could they begin to comprehend that the one that they had been traveling with was the same one who had created all things in heaven and on earth, things visible and invisible? But even if they could begin to comprehend Jesus in this way, it was incomprehensible that the Christ, the Messiah, would suffer at the hands of the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes. How could it be that the one Israel had waited so long for would be rejected and killed? What did He mean when He said that He would be raised in three days? Peter and the disciples could not understand the magnitude of the situation!