Peter's Confession of Faith: Key to Understanding Mark's Gospel

Who Do You Say That I Am?

Understanding the Gospel of Mark through the Confession of Peter

The Gospel of Mark

The gospel of Mark is the shortest of the four gospels with just 16 chapters. Many bible scholars describe Mark as a long passion narrative. The reason given is the presentation of Christ's ministry which flows directly towards His passion, death and resurrection.

There are many ways of understanding the gospel of Mark. One way of understanding is through a key passage - the confession of Peter at Mark 8:27-30, where Peter confessed Jesus as, "You are the Christ". If this is seen as the turning point and central axis of the gospel, then it will be easy to understand what the passages mean before this turning point, and what the passages signify after this turning point.

If the gospel of Mark is divided with the confession of Peter as the central passage between the first part before the confession, and the second part after the confession of Peter, then the main themes of the division will be:

1. theme: Who Am I?
2. central point: You Are The Christ
3. theme: What Does This Imply?

1 From this gospel structure, one can see that before the confession of Peter, the meaning of the passages generally lead to the general thematic trend-question of who and what the identity of Christ is. In these passages before Peter's confession, Jesus was multiplying the loaves of bread and performing healing miracles. These signs impressed the people's minds and made them aware of Jesus and wonder who Jesus is.

2 And then this leads to the turning point: the confession of Peter. Peter gave the right answer under the inspiration of God's Spirit.

3 From hereon, the answer of Peter, "You are the Christ", leads to the thematic trend that being the Christ, the Messiah, means suffering and death. This answers the thematic question, "What does this imply?", and leads to three predictions of Christ's passion.

The main thematic passages of the Gospel of Mark

Below is the structure of the gospel of Mark according to the themes before the turning point and the themes after the turning point.

I. Who Am I?

• Mark 1:1 - "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God"
• Mark 6:30-34 - First multiplication of the loaves
• Mark 7:31-37 - Healing of deaf-mute
• Mark 8:1-10 - Second multiplication of loaves
• Mark 8:22-26 - Healing of blind man of Bethsaida

II. You Are The Christ? - Mark 8:27-30

III. What Does This Imply?

• Mark 8:31 - First prediction of the passion
• Mark 9:31 - Second prediction of the passion
• Mark 10:32-34 - Third prediction of the passion
• Mark 10:35-45 - The Sons of Zebedee
• Mark 10:46-52 - Healing of blind Bartimaeus
• Mark 15:39 - Confession of the centurion: "Truly this man was the Son of God."

The main message of the Gospel of Mark

The first part of the gospel speaks about the signs performed by Jesus during His public ministry. Many people wondered who Jesus was because of the great signs He was performing. (First multiplication of the loaves, Healing of deaf-mute, Second multiplication of loaves, Healing of blind man of Bethsaida: Mark 6-8).

After that first part, Mark leads the readers to the confession of Peter: "You Are The Christ" - Mark 8:27-30. But before this confession of Peter, Mark presents passages that builds up the readers' interest:

• the apostolic group gathered at Caesarea Philippi,
• Jesus turned to His apostles and questioned them, "Who do people say that I Am?".
• The first answers were answers in line with what prophets usually do,
• and so some say that Jesus was Elijah, or John the Baptist who came back from the dead, or just one of the prophets.
• And then Jesus turned this question to the apostles and asked them, "Who do you say that I Am?"
• It was Peter who gave the right and inspired answer.

Note that this confession of Peter was echoed and reaffirmed by the confession of the centurion towards the end of the gospel when the centurion confessed, "Truly this man was the Son of God" (Mark 15:39).

What is Mark's reason for making the confession of Peter the turning point of the gospel? Mark wants the reader to also be aware that the Christ is not a Messiah in the manner by which the Jewish world understands what a Messiah should be. Rather, the Christ and Messiah, must suffer and die in order to save humanity from sin. This was Mark's emphasis. The Jews in biblical times were blind to this truth. They, and the apostles themselves, do not as yet see that Jesus as the Messiah is called to suffer death on the Cross. We can also point out the irony that exists in the gospel of Mark: the physically blind whom Jesus healed "saw" Jesus as the Messiah, while those who have preconceived notions of a Messiah as a glorified king or political liberator, are the ones who are blind, spiritually blind ("they have eyes and ears, but they do not see or hear" [Isaiah 6:9-10])

Mark also implies that this truth flows into the meaning of Christian discipleship. Just as Jesus served and did not seek political glory, then those who are called to follow Christ are also called to follow Him not in the road to political glory, but to serve one another in the manner that Christ did.