Jesus-Who is He?

 Read Mark 6.

Throughout the Gospels there are statements of how people responded to Jesus.  His identity was never hidden.  Prior to His birth, the angelic announcements were clear.  Jesus is God in the flesh, the long awaited Messiah, the One who would save people from their sin.  However, the human realization of that truth varied, as it does today.

Jesus taught the Scriptures in the synagogues and in public with authority.  This was in great contrast to the religious leaders of the day who spoke, instead, of various opinions about the Scriptures.  Jesus called for people to repent.  The religious leaders only asked people to comply with rituals.  Jesus physically healed people, including raising some from the dead.  The religious leaders of His day spurned the infirmed as guilty of sin.  He cast out demons and entered into direct spiritual warfare against evil.  The religious establishment had no answers.

One would think by hearing Jesus and seeing what He was doing, the light would go on inside.  Everyone would understand and come to Him in worship.  But such was not the case.

1. Some felt offended by Him. (vv.1-6)
After all He had said and done, the people who knew Jesus best rejected Him.  This may be a basis for the folk proverb, "Familiarity breeds contempt."  They had no respect for this carpenter's son of questionable birth that they had known all His life.  They knew He was not educated by the local rabbi, nor did He teach as one.

2. Some thought He was John resurrected. (v.14)
When Jesus performed miracles over sickness, disease, death and nature, some jumped to conclude that somehow John, the Baptist had come back to life.  This superhuman being was displaying God's power and His preaching reminded them of John.

3. Some concluded he was Elijah, as promised. (v.15)
It was well-known according to Malachi 4:5 that Elijah would come to prepare the nation for Messiah.  John, the Baptist, appeared in the spirit of Elijah to pave the way for Jesus.  The description of one of the two witnesses in Revelation 11 looks like Elijah before the return of Christ.  But, Jesus was not John and He was not Elijah.

4. Some concluded He was like one of the Old Testament prophets. (v.15)
His preaching style reminded them of what they had heard from the Old Testament.  Jesus was a powerful preacher, delivering God's word for that generation.  But Jesus was more than a good preacher.

5. Some were burdened by their guilt. (v.16)
Herod had imprisoned John, the Baptist, for no reason other than the guilt of his own sin.  To heap heinous sin upon sin, Herod made a foolish decision and ordered John to be executed.  When Herod heard of Jesus, he thought that John had come back to haunt him.  He chose to keep running from the truth, from God, the only source of spiritual relief from condemnation.

In Matthew 16, Jesus quizzed the twelve as to His real identity.  They echoed some similar responses.  Then, Jesus asked the most important question in the universe.  The answer changes one's eternal destiny.  "But who do you say that I am?  Simon Peter replied, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.'" (Matthew 16:15-16)