Peter’s confession about Jesus

It is now the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time and today’s gospel; reading comes from Mark 8:27-35 as it is about St. Peter’s confession about our Lord Jesus. To be perfectly honest about this, this passage is my favorite gospel reading except that this one comes from the evangelist Mark which is not as long as the one in Matthew 16. But then Mark’s gospel was written very much ahead of the others.

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“27 Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, “Who do people say I am?”  28 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” 29 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.”

“30 Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him. 31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32 He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

“33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” 34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.”

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While I have already visited Israel, I was not able to go to Caesarea Philippi so during my catechism show with Fr. Lucas Inoc when he asked me what was there I could not answer him. Fr. Inoc pointed out that this place was the farthest place in Israel and close to the Syrian border and therefore a lot of gentiles lived in that place because they had statues of their gods.

So it was then when the disciples of Jesus were in that place with so many false gods and so the Lord asked his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” In the version of Matthew this was a long conversation, but in Mark’s gospel, St. Peter immediately responded to the Lord, telling him that he is the messiah. After saying this, Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him. This is because they were in the presence of so many gods, the Lord Jesus did not want to draw any attention.

He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. Now this was the very first time he mentioned to his disciples the manner of death that he would suffer. Naturally for St. Peter who just correctly addressed Jesus as the messiah, only to be told that he would be killed was something out of this world. A messiah should never be killed as far as Peter was concerned!

It was then that the Lord Jesus rebuked Peter saying to him, “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” I have encountered our separated brethren who told me that we follow St. Peter as the first Pope, but Jesus calls him “Satan!” Of course Satan means “one who opposes!” Then the Lord said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.”

This is the very first time that the disciples heard the word “cross” for them to take up to follow the Lord. When the Lord mentioned this, I’m sure no one knew what the cross meant except for execution. But for us Christians last Friday, we just celebrated the Exultation of the Cross!

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