Opinion polls can tell us something about what people are thinking. There is a whole science about polling that I don’t completely understand. But, perhaps, I am not alone. Even the best pollsters get the results wrong. Even the worst get it right sometimes. So many factors determine the results. Even pollster bias plays a role.
How you ask the question makes a big difference in the outcome. A young man wanting a kiss could ask, “Do you want me to kiss you now?” and he could be very disappointed. But if he asked, “Do you want me to kiss you now, or at the top of the stairs?” he might get a very different answer.
Even the order of the questions makes a difference. People tend to stick with their last responses if they are on a roll. For instance, multiple ‘yes’ answers in a row tend to continue getting more ‘yes’ responses. The tone of voice, time of day, quality of relationship between questioner and answerer, number of questions, and delivery vehicle all can change the outcome.
Jesus asks His disciples about public opinion on who people think He is. This is not a very good survey. It is a survey about what they have heard and remembered. They are listening in on the gossip mill and reporting it. One person’s opinion gets as much weight as hundreds of people’s opinions. This first question simply provides the range of opinions.
What I find interesting is that all the choices are religious figures. None of them are political. They don’t say Jesus is a political reformer or zealot. People put Jesus in a category of religious leader. Each of the people mentioned were not the official religious leaders of their day. They weren’t born in the right tribe. They were outside the normal structure of religious authority.
Each of the people mentioned called people to a radical surrender and an uncompromising obedience to the LORD. In their day relatively few people responded to their message in an affirmative manner. Most rejected their message and chose to stay on their original course of disobedience.
This is significant because even today people have different opinions about Jesus. Everyday ordinary people thought Jesus was a religious person, with religious goals. Only those with political power framed Jesus as a political radical. Only those whose power would be lost called Jesus a zealot. Only those whose powerbase required that they be in power discounted Jesus’ obvious spiritual power. This is the same today. Those who label Jesus and His agenda as political do so to maintain or gain political power. They discount His radical calls for surrender and obedience to the LORD.
The Arnold Journey 