Matthew 16:15-19, 21-23 – “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” … From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
Ah, Peter. Such a staunch follower of Christ, yet receiving a harsh chastising for his not wanting Jesus to have to go to His death. What should we take away from this? First and foremost is a strong faith in who Christ is: the Son of the Almighty God. Yes, He is a teacher, a miracle worker and our connection to the Father, and because of His kinship to God, when we accept that Jesus is His son we come closer to a blood relationship ourselves to both Christ and God. But what does that entail in our earthly lifetime? We still have our feet on the ground, so we will surely be set upon by the evils of this world – greed, dishonesty, hate and jealousy, just to name a few – but we now have an escape plan, a way in which our spirit need not be overcome by those evils. We have to lean into that hard, though, or it is not easily seen by the world or of much benefit to us. He has, after all, given us a spirit of strength and bravery, not one of fear and trepidation. That is our job now, to expose very openly our Living Rock that is Jesus. By proving to others what our faith can do, by worshiping and praising God in all circumstances, we show that Christ is the winner, making us winners, too. Other people may not understand this contradiction of the faithful – loving and trusting Jesus while bearing burdens – so we just keep smiling and carrying our cross until at last we see the Lord face to face, praying that somehow the others’ eyes and hearts will be opened before it is too late.
