AN ATHEISTIC BIBLE READING – WHO DO YOU SAY THAT I AM?
This is the point in the Gospels, or at least in Matthew 16:13-15, and Mark 8:27-33 at which Jesus establishes his spiritual identity in the minds and hearts of his closest followers, the Apostles.
Jesus knows who and what he is already, as do the more believing credulous readers, given the nature of his virgin birth. Jesus has performed various miracles including curing people who have been blind or crippled for years, and we have only just seen the feedings of the 5,000 and the 4,000 people immediately before the $64,000 question is put.
Jesus actually asks the question in two stages, as he and a party of the Apostles arrive at Caesarea Philippi. He first asks about the opinions towards him of the general public, the people he has fed miracle bread or preached to in the Sermon on the Mount. ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’
The question is loaded with the ‘Son of Man’ insert. Jesus is giving a clue to the answer he hopes to hear from the outset. Son of Man, or Son of Adam, he is using it to assert right away that he is a higher being and authority than other sons and daughters of man.
That Jesus has not addressed members of his audience directly to establish that they are getting the right impression and opinion of him is itself a mistake, especially as in the two recorded bread sharing events alone he has addressed 9,000 people.
The Apostles answer him freely. ‘Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.’
This shows that Jesus has actually left followers confused as to his identity and motives. People he has addressed sense something out of the ordinary is going on, as they must with cripples running round and blind people seeing the daylight round them. Jesus has nevertheless left people vague as to who he is and the reasoning behind the miracles and fine words presented. His mission is spreading as a game of Chinese Whispers and urban legends. People have different ideas as to which Old Testament prophet Jesus is the reincarnation of. Those taking him for John The Baptist are more confused still, given that Jesus and John met one another before large crowds and cannot be the same person.
Jesus now slams the question more directly at the Apostles. “He said to them, ‘but who do you say that I am?’”
Peter answers for the Apostles, clearly seen now as their leader. In Mark he simply states, “You are the Christ.” In Matthew, he says a little more. “Thou art the Christ. The Son of the living God.”
Jesus praises Simon who is now Peter for this as he (Jesus) thinks such a heart-felt conviction must have been revealed to Peter directly from God the Father. That many others would be messiahs held and still hold people in such beliefs should not be lost on us now.
Jesus does not correct Peter on such an assumption – he feeds it and implores the Apostle to keep this ‘truth’ to them for the time being. He predicts that Peter will be the foundation stone of his church, but not to reveal to others that Jesus is the Messiah. He tells them of his looming fate – to be rebuked, arrested, made to suffer and die, but to return from the grave triumphant.
Peter is alarmed and actually loses the credit Jesus has just awarded him, by begging Jesus not to suffer or die.
Jesus snaps at him, “Get thee behind me Satan.” He admonishes them all for wanting to live on without suffering. He tells them that to follow him will be dangerous. The Apostles commit themselves to going on, following and promoting a living God, but not yet able to tell people the full truth about him, for fear of bringing his death about even sooner.
Who do I say Jesus was? An ambitious political, religious leader, raconteur and story teller who let rumours spread far and wide about himself, staged a few miracles, and eventually died un-resurrected, for disrupting the status quo in his messianic fervour. Paul and other early Christians taking things further caused the rest.
Arthur Chappell
