27 Jesus and his disciples left Galilee and went up to the villages near Caesarea Philippi. As they were walking along, he asked them, “Who do people say I am?”
28 “Well,” they replied, “some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say you are one of the other prophets.”
29 Then he asked them, “But who do you say I am?”
Peter replied, “You are the Messiah.”
30 But Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.
31 Then Jesus began to tell them that the Son of Man must suffer many terrible things and be rejected by the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but three days later he would rise from the dead. 32 As he talked about this openly with his disciples, Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things.
33 Jesus turned around and looked at his disciples, then reprimanded Peter. “Get away from me, Satan!” he said. “You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”
34 Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. 35 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it. 36 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? 37 Is anything worth more than your soul? 38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
Mark 8:27-38
Dear God, as I read this passage this morning, I was wondering about how close Peter was and yet how far. He knew Jesus was the Messiah, but he didn’t know how to define Messiah. His Messiah would conquer. That’s what he thought he was signing up for. Yes, we are going to fish for men, but we are gathering them together so that Israel will be great again. Yes, they will be devout Jews in this new era. Yes, they will be closer to God, but with Jesus here, it’s just about “go time.” So he defines him as the Messiah, but he puts his own definition on what Messiah means.
Then Jesus starts teaching them the real definition of Messiah, but Peter isn’t having it. I don’t know the exact words of Peter’s rebuke, but after Jesus begins to “teach” them that the Messiah must suffer greatly, be rejected by the Jewish leadership, and be killed, he decides that Jesus is teaching the wrong thing. It’s Jesus who does not understand what Messiah means.
In “The Grand Inquisitor” by Fyodor Dostoevsky, the grand inquisitor during the Spanish Inquisition makes the same mistake Peter makes. Here’s a summary from Wikipedia:
In a long diatribe directed at Jesus Himself, who has returned to Earth in Seville at the height of the Inquisition, the Grand Inquisitor defends the following ideas: only the principles of the devil can lead to mankind’s unification; give man bread, control his conscience, and rule the world; Jesus limited himself to a small group of chosen ones, while the Catholic Church improved on his work and addresses all people; the church rules the world in the name of God, but with the devil’s principles; Jesus was mistaken in holding man in high esteem. Jesus remains silent throughout the Inquisitor’s speech.
Father, help me to not repeat Peter’s mistake. Help me to really know how you defined Messiah. In fact, let me take a shot at defining Messiah now. How did you define it compared with how Peter defined it. I think my definition is somewhere along the lines of, “A piece of God that came to earth to teach us directly who God intended us to be and how to act, and then offer himself as a sacrifice so that we might be rightly related to God and, through that relationship with God live out what Jesus taught. In the process, we invite everyone we can to join us. That’s the Good news. Help me live that today.
I pray this in Jesus the Messiah and your Holy Spirit,
Amen
Emails to God 