The profession of faith by Peter in today’s passage from the Gospel is a culmination point in the first section of the Gospel. Everything that comes before this moment in the Gospel, all Jesus’ preaching, marvelous deeds, table fellowships, and teaching, is meant to show the disciple who he is. In this first stage of the Gospel, Jesus attracts and works with large crowds of people – many come to him only with an interest in being cured or fed. After all those experiences, Jesus asks very directly: Who is the Son of Man (redeemer/messiah) in your life? This is a very personal question. Rather than responding in a personal way, most of the disciples respond sharing what others think. There were a lot of opinions and theories floating around in the rumor mill about the messiah: John the Baptist, one of the prophets of old, maybe Elijah, maybe Jeremiah. In their responses there was nothing specific, nothing personal, nothing from own lives, nothing about Jesus.
Seeing this Jesus gets much more personal with a right in your face question: Who am I in your life? Despite all their experiences and time with Jesus, the disciples, at first, did not identify the Son of Man, the Messiah, the Christ, the Lord, or the redeemer with the person of Jesus. Challenged by this new, very personal question, Peter makes the connection and makes a wonderful proclamation of faith: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Based on that proclamation of faith, Jesus begins a new stage in the Gospel. He takes the road to Jerusalem (to the Cross) and begins to concentrate on teaching mostly just the disciple. No more big crowds; no more big miracles. He begins to share with the disciples the image of the Christ redeemer as the Suffering Servant who lives the cross to save all others. At first hearing and despite his recognition of Jesus as the Christ, Peter openly rejects this image of the redeemer as one who sacrifices himself serving and redeeming others.
How easy it is of us to follow Peter’s thoughts and actions at that moment! We want to proclaim Jesus as our redeemer but leave out the Cross. Beginning with this moment here and throughout the second half of the Gospel, Jesus is emphatic in saying that the Cross is an essential part of Christian life and redemption. By service and sacrifices for others, he leads us to the Cross, through all our suffering and sadness to the resurrection.
Our faith should be based on a personal relationship with Jesus and centered on the Cross. Anything else is a political, messiah king Christianity, a false Christianity that is really centered on our own needs.
You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.
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