Week 38 Luke
There’s a short paragraph in chapter nine where king Herod sits thinking: so who is this man about whom I hear such strange stories? It’s not like Herod had absolutely no idea who the Lord was. He’d heard rumours: when report of Jesus’ miracles reached Herod Antipas, he was worried and puzzled because some were saying, “This is John the Baptist come back to life again.” Others were saying, “It is Elijah or some other ancient prophet risen from the dead.”
Personally I’m not super-interested in what Herod was thinking but I did pick up a kind of reverb just nine verses later. The Lord is alone with his disciples and he asks them: Who do people say I am? “Well,” they replied, “some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say you are one of the other ancient prophets risen from the dead.”
So what’s the line on the Lord?
Is he John the Baptist?
Elijah?
Another prophet?
Herod’s wondering. People are wondering. The disciples are wondering. But when the Lord asks the twelve the light suddenly goes on for Peter as he realizes: you are the Messiah sent from God.
Popular guesswork had elevated the Lord to a Very Special Status. But it turns out that the VSS designation was selling him short. John or Elijah or Isaiah-or-Jeremiah-or-Ezekiel-or-Daniel were all special but not special enough. Not even close.
Note: quotes from Luke 9:9, 7-8, 18-19, 20 (NLT)