Listen to the audio of today’s Reflection:
https://soundcloud.com/hapearce/reflection-for-may-15-2023
Luke 9:18-26
Peter’s Confession of Christ
18 Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?”
19 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life.”
20 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Peter answered, “The Christ of God.”
21 Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone. 22 And he said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”
23 Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, they must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.25 What good is it for a person to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? 26If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.”
This passage tells us about the first time one of Jesus’ original disciples identified him as “the Christ.” And as you might remember, that word is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word Messiah. (Both words mean “the anointed one.”)
At our church, we’ve been watching and discussing the episodes of the TV series The Chosen, about the life and ministry of Jesus. I like it a lot, and quite a few of our members seem to, as well. But the one thing I’ve seen so far that seems questionable is that some of the disciples (including Simon Peter) meet Jesus and immediately recognize him as the Messiah. I doubt that was the case.
It seems to me that it took a while for them to realize that he was the one who had been promised by God through the prophets centuries before. Most of the Jews seem to have expected a messiah who would be a military and political hero like King David, and Jesus was quite a bit different than the liberator they had in mind.
In our reading for today, Jesus asks his disciples who people think he is. They say that people thought he might be John the Baptist or the prophet Elijah or one of the other prophets from the history of their people. Those really aren’t bad answers. All of them point to prophets – to people who were sent by God to speak into the world on his behalf. So it seems that lots of people who had heard about Jesus came to the conclusion that he was someone who spoke with divine authority – someone who spoke for God.
So apparently lots of people were on the right track about Jesus. It’s just that they didn’t see the whole truth. Jesus wasn’t just one of many prophets. Jesus was the one and only example of God taking on human form and walking the earth. Jesus represented God’s once-for-all-time action to restore the relationship between humankind and himself.
That makes this event especially significant. For the first time, a member of the human race recognized Jesus for who he really was.
There a couple of other things that make this story especially significant.
First of all, there’s the fact that the question Jesus asks here – “Who do the crowds say I am?” – is a question that’s still meaningful in the world of our time. Even in our time, twenty centuries later, lots of people who don’t consider themselves followers of Jesus still have positive opinions about him. They think of him as a profoundly insightful moral philosopher. Or as a brilliant psychologist and a keen observer of human nature. Or as an ingenious interpreter of the Hebrew religious tradition.
And like the answers the disciples gave Jesus in our passage, those really aren’t bad answers. They just all fall short of the whole truth about Jesus. In our time, as in the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry, it’s important that those of us who follow him explain to the world that Jesus was and is God – the creator and sustainer of the universe – in human form. And that in him, God sacrificed himself to restore the relationship between humankind and himself.
The other important thing about this passage is that it reminds us that Jesus said that we must be prepared to ‘take up our cross daily’ – to sacrifice ourselves just as he did. Acknowledging him as the Messiah – and as our Savior – means committing ourselves to join him in serving and suffering. Of course, most of us will never be called to sacrifice our lives for our faith. But we’re all called to be prepared to ‘lose our lives’ for him – even though in our case, that’s more likely to mean giving up some of the comfort and convenience of the lives we’ve come to know for the sake of serving him more faithfully.
Jesus was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for each of us. We’re told that when he returns, Jesus will ask what sacrifice we have been willing to make for him. And he will judge sacrifices made on his behalf as identifying marks of those who are really his followers.
Let’s pray. Lord, we thank you for revealing yourself to us as the Messiah, and as God in human form. And we thank you for the great sacrifice you made to reconcile us to yourself. Move our hearts to be so thankful for that great sacrifice that we are willing to give of ourselves in your service. Amen.
Every Blessing,
Henry
(The other readings for today are Psalms 97 and 145; Deuteronomy 8:1-10; and James 1:1-15. Our readings come from the NIV Bible, as posted on Biblica.com, the website of the International Bible Society.)
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