Big

DAILY BYTE

As soon as children are old enough to speak, the first question parents like to ask them is, ‘How big are you?’
Children almost always give the same answer, ‘I’m soooo big!’
They generally raise their hands and stand on tiptoe to gain additional stature, as if to say, ‘I’m huge – a giant. There’s no telling how big I’m going to get.’

Do make careful note, however, that this is not a scientific answer that can be used in every context. If another member of your household, say a spouse for example, happens to ask you: ‘Do my hips look big in these jeans?’
You might not want to throw your arms wide and exclaim, ‘Your hips look soooo big!’ (Adapted from John Ortberg).

I think though that this is the basic question Jesus asks in today’s focus text (see below). When he says to his disciples, ‘Who do you say that I am?’ he is actually enquiring, ‘How big am I to you, how important am I in your life?’

Now there are two points of interest about this text that are necessary for us to understand from the beginning. The first is that when Jesus says ‘Who do YOU say that I am,’ that ‘you’ is in the plural, because the author of Mark’s Gospel meant it for the ears of ALL disciples (yes that does include you).

The second point of interest is found in v27b – ‘on the way he asked them’. That phrase ‘on the way’ or ‘en tei hodoi’ is used in Mark on at least 4 significant occasions, always to make a particular point.

For you see ‘hodoi’ or ‘Hodos’ can simply refer to a road or path, OR it can refer to a WAY of life. This phrase caught on with early Christians because they described themselves as ‘Hodos’ or ‘the Way’. Mark used this phrase to emphasise the idea of spirituality as a process, of being a journey of growing awareness and gradual transformation and not just a one off event.

So to sum up these two points, it seems that the message of this text is that growing our picture of God is a journey that we all need to grapple with on a daily basis.

It’s as if that question Jesus asks his disciples – ‘who do you say that I am?’ – cuts through all time and history until it arrives in our own consciousness, addressed directly to us.

So then … who is Jesus to you really? How big is God in your life?

PRAY AS YOU GO

Holy God, as we may our ‘way’ through this week, it is our prayer that you would help us to truthfully grapple with the question that this text addresses to us. We pray that this grappling would be a growing experience. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Mark 8 : 27-29 (NIV)

Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, "Who do people say I am?"

They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets."

"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"
Peter answered, "You are the Christ."