In Mark's orderly account of Jesus' life, today's gospel text introduces a new dimension of the Jesus mission, revealing Jesus and his disciples to be moving along a new and dangerous path. From 1:16 until 8:26 Jesus had traversed Galilee, healing and teaching and preaching the Good News of the kingdom of God. Yet he had done so in relative anonymity. The secret of his messianic identity, clearly revealed at his baptism, was well-guarded only a few unclean spirits had recognized him and called him by name.

But in 8:27, Jesus turns to his disciples and pointedly asks them, first, "Who do people say that I am?" and then follows with the even more personal "But who do you say that I am?" (v.29). It is as though the time had come for final exams and the disciples were now put to the test. Yet …