The Messiah

The disciples, however, saw more of Jesus than anyone else and as time went on they realised he was something more than a prophet.

One evening he asked them to row him over in their boat to the other side of the Lake of Galilee.  He had had a tiring day teaching and on the way across he fell asleep on a cushion in the back of the boat.  Suddenly, as still happens on the Lake of Galilee, a great storm blew up and before long the boat was shipping more and more water.  When they saw the huge waves beating into the boat the disciples became afraid and woke Jesus up.  And Jesus “…rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace!  Be still!’  Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm…And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’ “ (NRSV, Mark 4:35-41).  In other words, the disciples said “Who is it we have with us in the boat?”

Besides his power over the forces of Nature, there was another strange thing about him which made him different from anyone else.  He never did any wrong.  Never once did he sin. 

One day, after his disciples had now been with him for over two years, he asked them what the people were saying about him.  “Who do people say that I am?”  His disciples replied that some thought he was one of the prophets of old come back to life.  “But who do you say that I am?” asked Jesus.  Peter answered, “You are the Messiah” (NRSV, Mark 8:27-29).  What Peter meant was that Jesus was the Christ, the great Prophet, Priest and King sent by God for whom the Jewish people had been waiting for centuries.