I once heard a professor of Shakespeare say that the events in the middle of Shakespeare’s plays were the key to understanding their ending. I remember that professor’s comment each time I read this part of the Gospel of Mark. Saint Mark used the same brilliant technique in the composition of his Gospel several centuries earlier. Perhaps Shakespeare copied him!

Today's Gospel reading is taken from the last verses of chapter eight. Since the Gospel of Mark has only 16 chapters, today’s Gospel reading gives us the event in the middle of the Gospel of Mark.

First, the Lord poses the question at the heart of the Gospel message to his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” Second, the Lord makes the stunning revelation that He is the Messiah. Next and in a startling manner, the Lord makes the first prophecy or announcement of his passion, death and resurrection. Finally, the Lord clearly states the radical demands of Christian discipleship.

This event is exactly what gives us the key to understanding the ending of the Gospel. The Gospel of Mark ends with the Lord’s passion, death, resurrection and ascension. On Calvary, once the crucified Lord breathes his last, the Roman military official in charge of the Lord’s execution, the Centurion, makes a confession of faith that is the high point of the Gospel, “Truly this man was the Son of God” (Mark 15:29).

The final verses of the Gospel of Mark are about the Lord’s Ascension and the beginning of the disciples’ preaching and ministry. Undoubtedly, today’s Gospel reading is at the heart of the Gospel, literally in the middle of it and containing the Gospel’s central question.  

It is important to note that everything that Saint Mark had narrated up to that moment, the events of the first eight chapters, had led to the Lord’s central question, "Who do you say that I am?" In other words, what we saw on the Lord in these first months of his public life, his words and actions had been parables or images of the mystery of his identity. These parables or images both revealed and concealed the Lord's identity. Everyone who ever met him up to that point must have asked himself, "Who is he?"

Now in Caesarea Philippi, the Lord asks the Gospel’s central question, "Who do you say that I am?" The Lord not only posed this question to his disciples at the time, but he continues to ask every Gospel reader. The way the Lord asks this question is emphatic, definite. The words, "Who do you say that I am?" could be interpreted, "But you, who do you say that I am?" This is a question that ultimately must be answered from the depths of each person's heart. This is the question the Lord asks us today. This question is at the heart of our relationship with him.

That's the thing about the Lord's words. If He is God as He says, then I must believe everything He says. I must live my life according to his teachings. I must put Him at the center of my life.

Today’s Gospel reading is paired with a reading from the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah tells us about a mysterious suffering servant several times. The Lord Jesus is Isaiah's mysterious suffering servant. The reading begins, “The Lord opens my ear that I may hear; and I have not rebelled, have not turned back” (Isaiah 50:5). These words foreshadowed the Lord’s rebuke to Saint Peter. The Son of God perfectly obeyed the Words of his heavenly Father. The Son of God did not rebel, nor turn back.

Let us ask the Lord to open our ears so that we may hear and not rebel. Let us ask the Lord to grant us the grace to acknowledge him as God and follow him through suffering and death to eternal life.