In Mark 8, Jesus, filled with compassion, miraculously provides food for the thousands, issues a warning about the Pharisees and Herod, heals a blind man and is walking with his disciples when he asked them a question. “Who do people say I am”?… “What about you? Who do you say I am? Peter answered, “You are the Christ” (Mark 8:27,29)
Eugene Peterson offers this commentary on Jesus’ question and Peter’s answer. “In Mark’s telling of the gospel, he put this question and this answer at the exact center of the story. Literarily, it is at the center of Mark’s Gospel, just as it is experientially at the center of our lives. Every narrative and every detail of life coverage at this point: random events, unfinished projects, restless meanderings, discouraging failures, disappointing successes- these are all funneled into the narrow way of this question and this answer.
God puts the question to each one of us and waits for our answer.
He is here to be answered, not questioned: Will you worship the God who made you?
He is here to be recognized, not looked for: Will you believe in the God who loves you?
He is here to be received, not bargained with: Will you accept the God who saves you?”