The Hinge of History Text: Luke 9:18-22
Introduction: The Ultimate Poll
We live in an age that is obsessed with polls. We want to know what the public thinks, what the focus groups say, what the approval ratings are. Our leaders, both political and frequently ecclesiastical, govern with one eye on the truth and the other on the latest survey from Gallup. They want to know what the crowds are saying. But this is a fool's errand, because the crowd is a fickle beast, a many-headed monster that cries "Hosanna" one day and "Crucify Him" the next.
In our text today, Jesus conducts a poll. But He is not doing it because He is insecure, or because He needs to adjust His messaging for the Galilean demographic. He is not trying to find Himself. He knows exactly who He is. He is doing it to force a foundational crisis, a moment of decision, for His disciples. He is drawing a line in the sand. The time for vague notions and popular speculations is over. The time for confession is at hand.
This passage in Luke's gospel is a continental divide. Everything in Jesus' ministry has been building to this point, and everything that follows will flow from it. It is the hinge on which the door of redemption swings. Up to this point, Jesus has been demonstrating His power, teaching with authority, and gathering a following. Now, He will define the nature of His mission and the identity of His person in the starkest possible terms. And He begins by asking a simple question: "Who do people say that I am?" But the ultimate issue is not what the amorphous "they" think. The ultimate issue is the second question, the one that every man, woman, and child must answer for themselves: "But who do you say that I am?" Your answer to that question is the anchor of your life, or it is the rock on which your life will be shattered.
This is not a matter of idle curiosity. This is the central question of all human existence. Get this wrong, and you get everything wrong. Get this right, and everything else begins to fall into its proper place. But as we will see, even getting it right is just the beginning. For Peter gets the answer gloriously, wonderfully right, and in the next breath, he will show that he has no idea what it actually means.
The Text
And it happened that while He was praying alone, the disciples were with Him, and He questioned them, saying, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” And they answered and said, “John the Baptist, and others say Elijah, but others, that one of the prophets of old has risen again.” And He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” And Peter answered and said, “The Christ of God.” But He warned them and directed them not to tell this to anyone, saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised up on the third day.”
(Luke 9:18-22 LSB)
The Public Opinion Poll (v. 18-19)
The scene is set with a simple, profound action: Jesus is praying. This is Luke's consistent emphasis. Before every major event, every critical turning point, Jesus is in communion with His Father. The incarnation does not mean independence. The Son lives in perfect, prayerful dependence on the Father, and we, who are adopted sons, must learn to live the same way.
"And it happened that while He was praying alone, the disciples were with Him, and He questioned them, saying, 'Who do the crowds say that I am?' And they answered and said, 'John the Baptist, and others say Elijah, but others, that one of the prophets of old has risen again.'" (Luke 9:18-19 LSB)
Jesus asks for the word on the street. What's the buzz? And the disciples report back with the top three answers. Some say He's John the Baptist, risen from the dead. This was Herod's superstitious theory, born of a guilty conscience. Others say He is Elijah, the great prophet who was expected to return before the Day of the Lord. Still others just lump Him in with the general category of "one of the prophets of old."
Now, we need to see what all these answers have in common. First, they are all compliments. Nobody was saying He was a charlatan or a demon. They recognized a genuine prophet of God when they saw one. They saw the power, they heard the authority, and they reached into their Bibles for the highest category they could think of: a prophet. In their own way, they were trying to honor Him.
But second, and more importantly, they are all wrong. They are honorably wrong, respectfully wrong, even religiously wrong, but dead wrong nonetheless. To say that Jesus is merely a prophet, even the greatest of prophets, is to miss the point entirely. It is to place Him in a category of men, when He Himself is the Creator of all men. It is to see Him as a messenger from God, when He is God the Messenger. This is the fundamental error of every false religion and every liberal denomination on the planet. They are willing to give Jesus a seat in the pantheon of great moral teachers. They will put Him on a coin with Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. They will call Him a prophet, a sage, a revolutionary. But they will not call Him Lord. And any honor paid to Jesus that falls short of worship is, in the final analysis, blasphemy.
The Personal Confession (v. 20)
Jesus dismisses the popular opinions with a sharp turn. He is not interested in the chatter of the crowd. He brings the question home, making it intensely personal.
"And He said to them, 'But who do you say that I am?' And Peter answered and said, 'The Christ of God.'" (Luke 9:20 LSB)
The "you" here is emphatic. Forget the crowds. Forget Herod. Forget the scribes. You have walked with Me. You have seen the storms calmed and the dead raised. You have heard my teaching. Who do you say that I am? This is the question that cuts through all the religious fog. Christianity is not a corporate activity in this sense. You are not saved by a group vote. You must answer for yourself.
And Peter, as is his custom, speaks for the twelve. He is the first to put his hand up, the first to open his mouth, sometimes for good and sometimes for ill. Here, it is for the greatest good. He gives the answer, the only answer, the definitive answer: "The Christ of God."
Let us not allow two thousand years of church history to dull the explosive force of this statement. "The Christ" is not Jesus' last name. It is the Greek translation of the Hebrew "Messiah," which means "the Anointed One." This was the king that all of Israel had been waiting for, the one promised to David, the one who would crush the head of the serpent, the one who would restore the fortunes of God's people and reign on the throne forever. To say that Jesus of Nazareth was "The Christ of God" was to say that all of history had reached its climax in this Galilean carpenter. It was a confession of His royal, divine, and saving identity. This was not a conclusion Peter reached through his own cleverness. As Matthew's account tells us, "Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 16:17). This is a divine revelation, a gift of grace. You cannot reason your way to this truth; it must be revealed to you by the Holy Spirit.
The Strange Command and the Shocking Mission (v. 21-22)
After this high point, this glorious confession, we would expect Jesus to say, "Excellent! Now go print up some banners and start the campaign!" But He does the exact opposite. He slams on the brakes.
"But He warned them and directed them not to tell this to anyone, saying, 'The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised up on the third day.'" (Luke 9:21-22 LSB)
First, the command for silence. Why? Why keep the most important truth in the universe a secret? Because Peter had the right words, but the wrong dictionary. His definition of "Christ" was, at this point, all about glory, power, and political triumph. He and the others were thinking of a Messiah who would drive out the Romans and restore a golden age to Israel. If they had gone out and preached "Jesus is the Messiah!" at that point, they would have been recruiting for a political revolution, not proclaiming the gospel of salvation. The title "Christ" had to be redefined, and it had to be redefined by the cross.
And so, immediately, Jesus begins that redefinition. He connects the glorious confession of "The Christ" with the shocking identity of "the Son of Man." This was Jesus' favorite self-designation, drawn from Daniel 7, where the Son of Man comes on the clouds of heaven to receive an everlasting dominion. It is a title of supreme authority and divine glory. But look at what this glorious Son of Man must do. He doesn't say He "might" suffer or "could" be rejected. He says He "must." This is a divine necessity. It is the plan of God, determined before the foundation of the world.
And the mission is a horror show. He must suffer, be rejected, be killed. And notice by whom. He will be rejected by the establishment, the religious authorities, the very men who should have been the first to recognize Him. The elders, the chief priests, and the scribes. The entire Sanhedrin. The rejection will be total and official. This is not a political Messiah who will conquer the religious leaders. This is a suffering Messiah who will be murdered by them. This is the great stumbling block. This is the offense of the gospel. The Christ of God wins His kingdom not by killing His enemies, but by being killed by them. He triumphs through suffering. He is enthroned on a cross. His crown is made of thorns.
This is the truth that shatters all of our man-made conceptions of power and glory. We want a king who will make our lives easy. God gives us a king who calls us to a cross. We want a God who serves our ambitions. God reveals Himself as a servant who suffers for our sins. And in this great reversal is our only hope. For the prophecy does not end in the tomb. He must be killed, yes, but He also must "be raised up on the third day." The suffering is the path to the glory. The cross is the way to the crown. The death of the Son of Man is the way to the life of the world.
Conclusion: Your Personal Confession
The question Jesus asked His disciples two thousand years ago still hangs in the air today, and it demands an answer from each of us. "Who do you say that I am?"
It is not enough to give the crowd's answer. It is not enough to say He was a good man, a great teacher, or a prophet. That is to damn Him with faint praise. The demons know more theology than that. You must come to the point where you can say with Peter, by the grace of God, "You are the Christ of God." You are the Anointed King, the only Savior, the Lord of my life.
But we must not stop there, where Peter initially did. We must confess Him as the Christ who is defined by the cross. We must embrace the Messiah who must suffer. Why? Because His suffering was for us. He was rejected by the elders so that we might be accepted by the Father. He was killed for our sins so that we might be raised to new life. His death was our life. His condemnation was our salvation.
To confess Jesus as the Christ of God is to confess that you have no other hope. It is to abandon all your own efforts and righteousness and to cling to His bloody cross as your only plea. And it is to embrace the same pattern for your own life. To follow this Christ is to follow Him to the cross, to deny yourself, to suffer for His name, in the sure and certain hope that the third day is coming. The path of suffering is the path to glory. That is the logic of the gospel. That is the wisdom of God. And there is no other.