NOTES for Mar 8:27-9:1
Today's passage describes the event usually called Peter's confession. Peter was indeed the first of the apostles to call Jesus the Christ, or, in Hebrew, the Messiah (v. 29). It is not surprising that many who heard Jesus considered Him a prophet (v. 28): both Jesus' way of life and the form of His preaching most closely resembled the life and preaching of the prophets of old. Nor is it surprising that some people took Him for the ancient prophet Elijah or for John the Baptist, who had recently been executed by Herod. At that time many expected the Messiah-Christ to come soon, and according to an idea widely held among the people, Elijah was to return from heaven to earth shortly before that event. Many legends also circulated around the name of the innocently executed John the Baptist. Among other things, people said that God had raised him from the dead, thereby vindicating John and confirming that the coming of the Messiah-Christ was already near. Interestingly, even Herod himself was ready to believe this (Mk 6:16). Now the word had been spoken: Peter had for the first time called Jesus the Messiah (Christ) aloud, and it was now necessary to tell the apostles everything else connected with Jesus' messianic ministry on earth, everything about the Cross and the Resurrection (v. 31). Jesus' principal theme here is the "soul," a word that in the Bible usually means life (vv. 34-38). Jesus points out that there is no true life in all its fullness in the world, and even if a person gains the whole world, he will not find such fullness. On the contrary, in gaining everything he may lose what matters most (v. 36). Nor is it possible to preserve an individual human life: in its isolation it is finite, and sooner or later everyone will have to part with it, for no ransom can deliver anyone from death (v. 35, 37). There is only one way out: to widen the bounds of an individual human life so as to receive the fullness of the life of the Kingdom of God brought into the world by Christ. Then, instead of an isolated, finite, and limited life, one receives the infinite life of the Kingdom of God in all its fullness, not turning away from Jesus out of fear or shame, but following Him instead (vv. 34-35, 38).