GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 8:27
Who is Jesus?
Alice and I went to a service center to have some work done on the RV. Alice said that the mechanic who helped us reminded her of her brother. His hair was about the same color, and his facial features were remarkably similar. She thought his voice was also similar to Philip’s. Working on a translation of Mark’s account of Jesus quizzing his disciples reminded me of that occasion.
ark said that after healing the blind man, “And Jesus and his disciples went out to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way, he asked his disciples, saying to them, ‘Who do people say that I am?’” (Mark 8:27) Caesarea Philippi is about twenty miles north of Bethsaida, where large springs feed the Jordan River. Located in the foothills of Mount Hermon, the region was the site of pagan temples. There was a shrine to the Greek god Pan, the god of pastoral life. There were shrines to other gods in the caves, and Herod Philip, the tetrarch of Trachonitis, had a temple built in honor of the Roman emperor, Caesar. In the midst of these cultic symbols, Jesus asked his disciples who people said he was.
There are several parallels between the situation Mark described and the present. There are wonderful natural phenomena brought to our attention through travel and the ever-present media. There are cults and idols calling for attention. There are even humans extolled as if they were gods—not unlike the homage paid to Caesar in the gleaming temple of white marble that Philip had built to the godhead of the Roman emperor, the ruler of the world, who was regarded as a god. Here, of all places, against the background of all natural phenomena and religions, Jesus asked his disciples who people said he was.
Perhaps there’s no better time to ask the same question: “Who is Jesus?”
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