To understand more fully the Gospel we have just heard we need to read the verses before in which Jesus asks his disciples ‘”Who do people say that I am?”’ He goes on ‘”But who do you say that I am?”’ and Peter replies “You are the Messiah.”
Peter and the other disciples have journeyed with Jesus.
He called them and they followed.
And when they followed they saw healings.
They heard teaching with depth and authenticity.
They witnessed thousands fed with five loaves of bread and a couple of fish.
They saw him walk on water.
They saw a girl restored to life.
Jesus asks ‘“who do you say that I am?”’ And Peter replies ‘“You are the Messiah.”’
That’s the backdrop to the scene described in today’s Gospel when Jesus unpacks what it means to affirm him as Messiah.
He speaks first of the journey, of how before him lies ‘great suffering’, rejection and death.
Peter cannot quite believe it.
And yet Jesus is clearsighted, painfully describing his companion as Satan and then going on to say more about what following him will look like for them.
He talks of taking up of the cross. Of losing life to save it. Challenging stuff that follows the question ‘”but who do you say that I am?”’
Of course, we are all on a journey with the question too and maybe we never quite feel able to answer as Peter does. Yet it is the question.
Continue reading “It matters.”