The Life of Christ in the Synoptic Gospels
THE GREAT QUESTION

Lesson Plan:
1. The Disciples Learn a Lesson Concerning the Messiah as a Suffering Savior (vs 27-33)
2. Jesus’ Disciples Following in the Footsteps of the Master

Lesson Setting:
Time: Autumn of A.D. 29. Soon after our last lesson.
Place: In the vicinity of Cesarea Philippi, 25 miles northeast of the Sea of Galilee, among the foothills of the Lebanon Mountains.
Place in the Life of Christ: About six months before His crucifixion. A fuller revelation of the Messiah.
Persons: Jesus and His disciples.

Research Thoughts: Compare Matthew’s report with Mark’s. Why is Jesus called The Christ? Why was it necessary for Jesus to suffer and die? Christ’s rebuke of Peter. What is it to confess Christ before men? What is it to take up the cross? Saving and losing one’s life. The Kingdom of God come with power.

Scripture Reading: Mark 8:27-33

1. The Disciples Learn a Lesson Concerning the Messiah as a Suffering Savior

Introduction: In this lesson we come to a new stage in the training of the disciples. It is the culmination of Jesus’ instructions, in a new vision of Himself as the Messiah, a Suffering Savior; to be followed in our next lesson by the vision of Himself as the triumphant Messiah glorified through His sufferings. They had been walking slowly northward up the Jordan, till they came ...

v 27 ... "into the towns of Caesarea Philippi." A city near the foot of Mount Hermon, at the eastern and principal source of the upper Jordan, about thirty miles north of the Sea of Galilee, and on the confines of Jewish territory. Herod Philip refounded a former city, Paneas, "a sanctuary to Pan," and named it Cesarea in honor of Augustus Caesar, and added his own name to distinguish it from the Cesarea his father had built in Palestine on the coast of the Mediterranean. It is now called Banias. "No spot in Palestine can compare with this in romantic beauty. Abundant water produces luxuriant vegetation, fertile fields stretch away to westward, while groves of stately poplars, great oaks, and lowlier evergreens surround the place with perennial charm" (W. Ewing, Hasting’s Bible Dictionary).

The Disciples Learn a Lesson Concerning the Messiah as a Suffering Savior: He begins by asking them two questions:

First question – "Whom do men say that I am?" (v 27) Jesus was praying alone in some solitary place, but His disciples were near him (Luke). All through these journeyings Jesus seems to have been troubled as if He were fighting some inward battle. Matthew adds to the question, "whom do men say that I the Son of man, who appear to be merely a man, am?" The disciples had been a long time under Jesus’ teaching, witnesses of His miracles, observers of His life and character, and His question was a kind of examination as to what were the results of this training, whether to them Jesus was really the Messiah sent from God. It was the summing up of the previous development of the disciples. It was more than this. "Jesus brings them to articulate utterance of the thought that had been slowly gathering distinctness in their minds (See Matt. 14:33). We see our beliefs more clearly, and hold them more firmly, when we put them into definite words" (Maclaren). Outspoken confession changes the soft clay into rock. This result was brought about by first obtaining their statement of the opinions they had heard from the various people they met. The variety of opinions shows that the people were thinking and discussing the question, and of course these opinions had set the disciples to thinking.

The Answer – "They answered," some say, "John the Baptist" (v 28), returned to life, as the commonest expression of opinion. Among these was Herod (Matt. 14:1, 2) ... "some, Elias" (Greek form of Elijah), who was the expected forerunner of the Messiah (Mal. 4:5; Matt. 11:14). Or "Jeremias" (Matt 16:14), Greek of Jeremiah, a representative of the prophets, being the first named in the Jewish canon. "Others, One of the prophets," i.e., "that one of the old prophets is risen again" (Lk. 9:19). Such thoughts were as high as the people could then go. The great body of the people apparently could not entertain the idea that He was the glorious King of kings. They were looking for and expecting a king with a crown, a scepter, a throne; with princely followers, treasures, and armies. No doubt it was difficult even for the disciples to understand and believe that Jesus was the expected Messiah. It must have taken a long training in understanding the Scriptures, in seeing spiritual realities, to overcome the influences which were universal as to King, Messiah, in which they had lived from childhood up.

Second Question – "But whom say ye that I am?" (v 29) ‘Ye’ is emphatic in the Greek. ‘Ye, whom say ye that I am?’ What have you learned about Me these past two or three years you have been with Me?

The Answer – "And Peter answered" (v 29), as the spokesman for all. The practical Peter came quicker to conclusions than the more philosophic John ... "Thou are the Christ." The expected Messiah for whom the people were looking and hoping. ‘Christ’ is the Greek, and ‘Messiah’ is the Hebrew for ‘anointed.’ Anointing was the method by which kings, and sometimes prophets, were set apart for their work. The Messiah, the Christ, was the one appointed by God, and foretold by the prophets to be the Deliverer and King, the Redeemer of the World. Matthew adds, "The Son of the living God," another name for the Messiah, for only such a one could bring in the kingdom of God.

v 30 ... "Tell no man," because the time had not come. It would merely perplex the people, keep them from believing in Him, and turn their attention away from their present duty. And the disciples were not sufficiently grounded in the truth, and would not be till after His death and resurrection, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Jesus Teaches the Real Method and Nature of the Messiah’s work ...

From that time (Matthew) "he began to teach them" (v 31). This was the beginning of this teaching. The disciples were now strong enough in their conviction that Jesus was the Messiah, to have their errors concerning His nature and kingdom corrected. Another view must be brought to their minds, which would show them that the kingdom was spiritual and not earthly.

v 31 ... "That the Son of Man must suffer many things." Opposition, ridicule, condemnation by the rulers, trials before the ecclesiastical and Roman courts.

v 31 ... "And be rejected of (by) the elders." The people as a whole, through their leaders, rejected Jesus as the Messiah. All this would tend to stagger the faith of the disciples. How could they, unlearned fisherman, set up their views against the learning and wisdom of the nation.

v 31 ... "And be killed." How then could He be the eternal Messiah?

v 31 ... "And after three days rise again." This was the answer. In this fact was the whole alphabet of human hope.

v 32 ... "And he spake that saying openly," distinctly, without reserve. v 32 ... "Peter took him" one side to speak to Him privately.

v 32 ... "And began to rebuke him," saying, "Be it far from thee, Lord" (Matthew). Only began, for he was soon interrupted. Peter had just before received Christ’s commendation. On the rock of Peter’s confession that Jesus was the Messiah the Son of God, or of Peter and the disciples, filled with this belief and acting upon it, the Church of our Lord has been built, and gained all its successes. But now Peter by his rebuke of Jesus was rejecting Christ’s essential truth and the foundation rock on which alone the kingdom of God could be built. On the Rock, Jesus Christ, the church is safe. Its foundation is like the Gibraltar rock, which no storms or ocean waves can destroy.

Hence Jesus "rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan" (v 33). Satan means ‘adversary,’ the great ‘enemy’ of all good. He did not mean that Peter was Satan, but Peter was voicing the views of Satan in his temptation in the wilderness, that Jesus might gain His kingdom without the cross. Jesus would thrust Satan and all his suggestions behind Him, out of sight.

v 33 ... "For thou savourest not (mindest not, ‘partakest not of the quality of,’ ‘dost not side with’) the things that be of God." God’s wise plan for His kingdom.

v 33 ... "But the things that be of men." The natural human view of the Messiah, an earthly kingdom, riches, honor, glory, and triumph. There ever has been, and still exists, a tendency to fall into Peter’s error, and seek the growth of the church by temporal power and worldly wealth and greatness, instead of by suffering for the world.

Why Was This Method of Suffering and of Resurrection Necessary for the Accomplishment of the Messiah’s Work of Redemption? (a) Because they were foretold concerning the Messiah (see Is. 53), and no one could be the Messiah who did not fulfill them. (b) Because they were the natural result of the antagonism of men to the teachings and principles of Jesus, and if Jesus were true to His teachings He must endure them. (c) No ideal, no picture of perfection, no holding before us of the perfect creed, "Love to God and love to man," which in some degree all ages and all religions do, can save us. No one lives up to that creed. It bids you, ‘Hitch your wagon to a star,’ but the star is too far away for any of us to reach with our line. Men tell us, ‘The religion of perfect love is good enough for me;’ but who possesses that religion? Do you? (d) What men most need is the power of the mightiest motives that can inspire the human soul. (e) The Son of God coming from heaven and becoming man – an infinite self-denial – to save us is the revelation of God’s love, and of our need of salvation. (f) His life of self-denial on earth made clear, vivid, real, the love and holiness of God, a present ideal actually lived before us, are sources of His redemptive power. This is a power that kindles love and hope and a desire to be good like Him. (g) His sufferings and death expressed the highest devotion to duty, the greatest necessity of goodness, the infinite love of God, His readiness to forgive, and the atoning love which makes it possible to forgive without increasing sin in the world. (h) The resurrection the third day is equally essential, for it gives us a Leader who is ever living, and as really guiding us now as He did the disciples 2000 years ago. It is the motive of loyalty to the Greatest Leader and the Greatest Cause in the world. (i) And note that these motives are the ones that have been successful throughout the history of Christianity.

Scripture Reading: Mark 8:34-38

2. Jesus’ Disciples Following in the Footsteps of the Master

Jesus now "called the people unto him with his disciples also" (v 34). The teaching about the Messiah was for the disciples only, because they only could understand and use it, till after His death and resurrection; but the practical duties and principles were for all.

v 34 ... "Whosoever will," wishes to, "come after me." Be His follower, His disciple; and seek to attain His character and His reward. There was no other way, and is no other way, to follow Jesus, but to make choice of the same principles, the same purpose, the same kind of life, as Jesus chose, and lived. Hence He simply set these before them.

First – Let Him Deny Himself: Renounce self as master, accepting Christ as master. When the heart accepts Jesus and chooses God, then the whole lower nature, all passions, aims, desires, are to be subjected not only to conscience, but to Jesus and His cause. We then cease to make ourselves the object of our own life and action. The center around which all our purposes and actions move, is Jesus Christ, i.e., His principles, His kingdom, His work of redemption of man from sin; and everything contrary to this is denied and rejected; and everything that is pleasant and right and good in life is subordinated, but not rejected. It is the subordination of all the lower nature to the higher, of the body to the soul, of the worldly to the spiritual. Self-denial is exactly what Jesus showed in His life. Every earthly thing was subordinate to His great purpose. Let us note several things that will aid us to clear thinking. (a) This is not giving up pleasant things simply because they are pleasant. Self-denial for self-denial’s sake is not a virtue, and is not pleasing to God. Our mere pains and troubles are not sweet incense to God (2 Tim. 4:1-3). He desires us to be happy as He is, and He knows that only through true self-denial can this joy be obtained, and retained. We are not to believe that "Every pleasure hath its poison too, And every sweet a snare." Here is the announcement of a great principle, that human life is a restricted life, a life subjected to law; and he who confesses this subjection remains in Eden; and he who denies it is banished. As God made the ocean to roll between shores and said to it, “Thus far and no farther,” so He placed the created soul between banks, and said, “here only may thy bright waters flow.” The banks are not narrow. Human life need not be called a river, for it is vast as the ocean, deep, and strong, and sublime; but it has a shore all around, and along that shore the cherubim stand, and flaming swords gleam, to banish those who cross the boundary, marked all around by the finger of the Almighty. (b) But self-denial does mean that we are to have one great aim and purpose in life, and that we are to deny ourselves everything wrong, no matter how pleasant it may be; and to give up what is pleasant and right in itself when we can there by best aid the cause of Christ and the redemption of our fellowman; it is to do right, to serve Christ, to promote His kingdom at whatever cost. (c) All of life is full of choices between the higher and the lower, between work and play, between study and idleness, between honesty and dishonesty. The reason for this is that it is the greatest means of education we have, i.e., the necessity of choosing and deciding. It’s an old saying but true, "The Will creates the man." We make our own brains by repeated choices which are acts of Will. The one question with him is whether these are a mob or an army, and who is the general, the controlling power. All sin is the breaking away of some of these forces from the right control of conscience, and reason, and God as the source of both. It is the mob-rule of the internal forces that ruins men. The drunkard is one whose appetites have broken away from due control. The perfect man is one who is perfectly self-controlled; all his powers are subject to his will, submissive to God, and guided by reason and conscience. There is no other way of opening the door to man’s highest possibilities, his fullest development, his purest holiness, his greatest happiness, his largest usefulness, his real success in life.

Second – And Take Up His Cross: The idea is that one must be willing to choose Christ and His cause even though it lead him to the most painful death. "A disciple is to follow the example of Jesus in giving up everything, even life itself, that belongs to the selfish interests, sooner than anything belonging to the higher purposes of life" (Gould, Int. Cit. Com.). Therefore, It is (a) the emblem of all suffering for the sake of Christ and His cause. (b) Each one must take up his own cross. (c) He must take it up voluntarily, accept it, not merely endure what is laid upon him. This is what changes the cross into a glory. The cross for the cross, never; but the cross for the Lord, always. (d) The cross is a test. It is the Ithuriel’s spear, which tests whether we are disciples in deed and in truth, or only seekers after the loaves and fishes.

Third – And Follow Me: This adds to the other two ways of following Jesus, just noted, this truth that we must keep Jesus’ life and principles always before us as an example, like the pillar of cloud and fire that led the Israelites through the wilderness. And with this remember that Jesus not only leads us, but gives us strength to follow. Compare Garibaldi to his dispirited forces: "Soldiers! What I have to offer you is fatigue, danger, struggle, and death, the chill of the cold night in the open air, and heat under the burning sun; no lodgings, no munitions, no provisions, but forced marches, dangerous watch posts, and the continual struggle with the bayonet against batteries. Those who love freedom and their country, follow me." And they answered the call. Ruskin said, "Neither is good work ever done for hatred any more than hire – but for love only. For the love of their country, or their leader, or their duty, men fight steadily, but for massacre and plunder, feebly. Your signal, ‘England expects every man to do his duty,’ they will answer."

Reasons Why We Should Follow Jesus: It is the only way to make the most of life – "For whosoever will save his life" (v 35). Wishes, wills to save it by making that his object in living; by doing wrong, by avoiding hard duties and self-denial, by gaining worldly good at the expense of religion and righteousness.

v 35 ... "Shall lose it." Shall utterly fail, shall lose even the earthly rewards he seeks, and his eternal blessedness. Life is the same word as soul in the next verse. It is the man himself, and all that in his eyes makes life worth living. The paradox lies in this, that life in the first instance refers to what the man sees in life, what it seems to him to be; in the second, life is what true life really is.

v 35 ... "And whosoever shall lose his life," his earthly life as in martyrdom, gives up the lower life, the things which make life seem desirable, even though it be to gain the whole world "for my sake and the gospel’s," making these supreme;

v 35 ... "the same shall save it." The mere loss of life has no promised blessing. It is only loss for the sake of Christ that has this promise. Multitudes of people lose their lives for gain, for pleasure, for fashion. Each of these has more martyrs than the cross ever required; but the loss was without compensation or hope. But whosoever loses it for the love of Christ, for the sake of preaching and advancing the gospel, shall find it. Shall have a blessedness and glory which will a thousand times compensate for every loss. The loss was temporal, the gain eternal; the loss was small, the gain infinite; the loss was of outward things, the gain is in the nature of the soul itself; the loss was of things desirable for one’s self, the gain is the blessing of helping to bring many to Christ and to heaven, the blessing of making the world better. The next verse tells us why this is true ...

v 36 ... "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world," as Satan offered to Jesus Himself in the temptation "and lose his own soul," or life, the same word in the Greek as ‘life’ in the previous verse. "In rendering the Greek translators have had to choose between ‘soul’ and ‘life;’ it covers both, but we have no word that says so. We have therefore to use either ‘soul’ or ‘life,’ and add the other in the mind" (Dr. H.M. Whitney). Dr. Whitney further writes: “It denotes "the center of personal being, the ‘I’ of each individual ... an emphatic designation of the man himself.” The word is used with a lower or higher reference in different contexts. The English versions seek to distinguish the two uses by the double rendering, ‘life’ and ‘soul.’ In the present saying, both meanings are in view, and an adequate translation is perhaps impossible. The Authorized translation ‘soul’ seems better here than the Revised ‘life,’ because the tendency of most readers would probably be to think of the physical life. The statement is true both in the higher and the lower sense of the word. He loses eternal life, and all the best enjoyment of the worldly life. Thus, if a man in gaining the whole world becomes lost (Luke), as on a desolate island, or if he dies in the process, or if he loses his health and is racked with pain, or if he loses his innocence and is tormented with remorse, what has such a person gained? All this applies with double force to the eternal loss of character, happiness, peace, and heaven.

v 37 ... "Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" There is no compensation for the loss of the soul. All other losses may be repaired. The loss of the soul is without remedy and without hope. “Daughters of Time the hypocritic days, Muffled and dumb like barefoot dervishes, And marching single in an endless file, Being diadems and fagots in their hands, To each they offer gifts after his will, Bread, kingdoms, stars, and sky that holds them all” (Emerson).

Illustration: A Russian legend of one who entered a diamond mine in search of great riches. He filled up his pockets with great gems, and then threw them away to make room for larger ones. At length he became very thirsty, but there was no water there. He sought to find the way out, but was hopelessly lost in the intricate mazes. He heard the flow of rivers, but they were rivers of gems; and he hastened forward at the sound of a waterfall, but it was a cascade of jewels. He was very rich in precious stones, but he was dying of thirst, and his riches were worse than useless. He had lost himself and perished amid his treasures.

"Open Your Eyes!" – The words of Jesus; meant to be exactly what they sound like when they come from our mouths. A rebuke. A criticism. Perhaps even a signal of irritation. The larger setting for them is the pericope in John’s Gospel which tells of a conversation between Jesus and a Samaritan woman beside Jacob’s well. Jesus was resting beside the well while His disciples had gone about half a mile away to Sychar to buy food. As He waited for their return, a woman of Samaria came to draw water from the well. Jesus startled her by asking, "Will you give me a drink? (Jn. 4:7). Hostility between Jews and Samaritans went back almost a thousand years. He startled her even more by dropping a hint about "living water" which, if drunk, would take away thirst forever and by telling this woman he had never met about her past life. With a not-so- subtle approach, He said, "You have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband" (Jn. 4:18). He revealed Himself to her as the long-awaited Messiah. At that point, the disciples returned from the city. Assuming their return marked the end of her conversation with Jesus, the woman left her water jar and ran to Sychar and pleaded, "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" (Jn. 4:29). Ready now to eat, the disciples offered Jesus some of the food they had just purchased. When He replied, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about" (Jn. 4:32), they were as slow to grasp the meaning of His "food" as the woman had been earlier when He spoke to her about "living water." It was then that Jesus said: "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work ... I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest" (Jn. 4:34-35). The disciples had just been to Sycar and had apparently invited no one there to come meet Jesus. They had met the Samaritan woman going into the town as they came out and said nothing to her. Had they assumed Samaritans were no part of the harvest God wanted? Were they so wrapped up in the mundane trip to buy groceries that they had forgotten that men do not live by bread alone? Soon the woman returned with a host of townspeople. "Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in Him because of the woman’s testimony" (Jn. 4:39). The blemished and troubled Samaritan woman was the unlikely agent of God that day for leading many others to faith. Why was she God’s instrument that day? Because the disciples couldn’t be. Refused to be. Were too blind to be. They were distracted by prejudice and preoccupied with their routine. Are things any different today? Don’t the prejudices of present-day disciples keep us out of certain parts of the world – or of the city? Doesn’t the everyday routine absorb us so fully that we often forget to offer "living water" to thirsty people we meet and thus fail to nourish our own souls with the "food" which is doing God’s will in the world and finishing His work? We are probably going to meet someone today under the most unlikely of circumstances who will need to drink from the holy fountain. We will have the opportunity to be God’s instrument for pointing someone to life. Here’s the question – Are our eyes open?

Another Reason – "Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me" (v 38) etc., afraid to trust Him and His words, and obey them, since He seems to have so little power.

v 38 ... "Of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed," because he is unworthy of his Master and His cause.

Another Reason is that however humble Jesus seemed then, yet "he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels" (v 38), and "there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power." A statement made four times in the Gospels. The apostles lived to see the marvelous day of Pentecost, when Christ began to come in His kingdom, and three thousand were converted in a day; and some of them to see the end of the Jewish dispensation in the destruction of Jerusalem, A.D. 70. From that time the churches of Christ (Rom. 16:16) became the representative of the kingdom of Christ on earth, with a marvelous power of growth.

“If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you.
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone.
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings – nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!"
(Rudyard Kipling, “If”)

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