Jesus asked the disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” This is perhaps the most important question posed in the gospels. Peter said to him in reply, “You are the Christ.” Then Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.Perhaps you are wondering why Jesus told them to keep this a secret but he had good reason for asking this favor of them.
Peter’s notion of the Christ was not what Jesus had in mind. Moments later Jesus shared with the disciples for the first time his fate that he would be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes and be killed and rise after three days. Peter protested. The notion of Jesus enduring such suffering was unthinkable. Mark doesn’t tell us what Peter said, but whatever he said prompted Jesus in turn to harshly rebuke him. “Get behind me Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”
What did Peter have in mind when he called Jesus the Christ? From Jewish tradition, he anticipated that the Christ, also called the Messiah, would be the great king who would restore the powerful Israel of old. His homeland was under Roman occupation so he and the apostles imagined that as the Christ, Jesus would liberate their country from the Romans and establish a new kingdom. He expected the long awaited Messiah would defeat Israel’s enemies and restore their nation’s prestige, ushering in an era of “good times.” Despite all that Jesus had said to them during his public ministry, they had not yet begun to think as God does.
Have we? What does Jesus as the Christ mean to you? We have an advantage over Peter and the disciples. We know about the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus, so we understand what Jesus meant when he predicted his fate. We understandthat even though he rode a donkey into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to shouts of “Hosanna, hosanna blessings on the king!” that Jesus never intended to be an earthly monarch. No, his kingdom would be universal, transcending earthly kingdoms and nations. He is there to rule us no matter where we are in the world.
As the Christ, Jesus rules us in ways unlike any earthly ruler would or ever has. As the Christ, Jesus rules his subjects with love and calls on them to love one another as he loves them. When we do that, we are thinking as God does. God created us in his image. But for their love to be real, God gave his subjects free will. With that freedom, regrettably, sin, suffering and death entered into the created order.
Given the freedom to rebel, we have all chosen to sin from time to time and oftentimes sin has led to much suffering. All of us have suffered because someone has sinned. Many people have died because someone has sinned. Alas, too many still choose to think as human beings do and as a result, the world continues to suffer.
Our Church is suffering enormously because some of her ordained have chosen to sin and forget that they were ordained “in persona Christi,” that is, ordained in the person of Christ. They were ordained to act as Christ would. They failed their victims, as well as you and me. As a priest, I am sorry that they failed to think as God does when they were tempted to act so wrongly and abusively. I am sorry for the times when I may have failed you and not think as God does before doing or saying something that may have hurt you.
As his disciples, as people willing to follow Jesus, we are urged to think as God does. And how might that be? Consider the advice Jesus gives. “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.” We are to live for others, following the example of Jesus who came to serve, not to be served. As James points out, our faith means nothing unless we do serve others.
It doesn’t take a genius to see the lesson here. More than ever we need to realize that real love requires dying to self if we are to live for others and that suffering is the blood, sweat and tears of life. However, we live in a world that does all it can to avoid the reality and value of suffering. Many refuse to face their problems and attempt instead to distract themselves with overwork or hobbies. Some medicate their problems with alcohol and drugs. They spend much effort to avoid feeling the hurt of life.
We have all witnessed suffering up close and distantly on the news. But how do we react to that suffering? Do we think as God does, asking how we might respond with love or do we think humanly, ignoring someone else’s plight so that we are not discomforted? Trusting in the divine will, Isaiah’s good man did not turn back from life’s difficulties. Neither did Jesus. Neither should we.
Today, Jesus teaches us the need to take up our cross, not literally but the cross of facing up to the issues, difficulties, and sufferings of our life. He will give us the courage, wisdom and grace needed to deal with what comes our way.
Peter learned his lesson. Fortified by the Holy Spirit, he faced the persecution that is essential to following Christ. He led the early Church with great wisdom and gave his life as testimony to his love of Christ. Countless others have done the same since, learning to think as God does. Jesus has given them and he gives us the power to endure sufferings that come our way, promising to walk with us to the end.