Jesus’ question in today’s Gospel is pointed and personal: “But who do you say that I am?” In yesterday’s Gospel Herod the tetrarch is curious: “John I beheaded. Who then is this about whom I hear such things?” (Luke 9:9). Today’s Gospel begins with Jesus in prayer. After praying Jesus puts his twofold question to his disciples: 1) “Who do the crowds say that I am? 2) “But who do you say that I am.” Peter professed that Jesus is the Messiah, or Christ of God.” Jesus’ response might strike us as strange: “He rebuked them and directed them not to tell this to anyone.” Jesus’ reserve about this title was that it could mean many things to different people. The Hebrew/Aramaic word “Messiah” means the anointed one. The original meaning of the Greek word “Christ” also means the anointed one. So, it could refer to a powerful, even warrior king like King Davis. Jesus rejects such a way for himself as we hear in his next words of correction to his disciples:
“The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.”
Jesus teaches his disciples that he must be a suffering or crucified Messiah. This teaching was very difficult for the original disciples to accept and was a scandal for St. Paul:
“For since in the wisdom of God the world did not come to know God through wisdom, it was the will of God through the foolishness of the proclamation to save those who have faith. For Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block [skandalon]to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.” (1 Corinthians 1:21-25).
Paul at first could not accept the scandal or “stumbling block” of a crucified Christ (Messiah). His conversion led him to realize that his ways are not God’s ways. God’s way, incarnated in the life and death of Jesus Christ, is the ways of humility, service and sacrifice.
Today Jesus puts his same twofold question to each one of us: 1) “Who do the crowds say that I am? 2) “But who do you say that I am.” How do we answer his questions?
Image: “Jesus on the cross” by MastaBaba is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.