The Gospel of
today is about the identity of Jesus. In the middle of Mark’s Gospel, Jesus
evaluates His ministry by asking feedbacks. The disciples first give the opinions
of ordinary people on Jesus. They consider Jesus as John the Baptist or Elijah
or one of the greatest prophet in their religious history. This opinion is fair
enough. Next, Jesus moves on to get the opinion of His disciples. Their conception
of Jesus is more important than ordinary people. The ordinary people’s
conception of Jesus is based from the exterior signs of Jesus. But His
disciples know much more than those sings. In fact, they do know the causes for
those external signs. Simon Peter, the spokesperson of Jesus’ disciple replies
that Jesus is the Messiah. The disciples having lived closely with Jesus by hearing
Him, witnessing His acts and experiencing His way of life have rightly
understood the identity of Jesus. They have evaluated, compared and tested
Jesus with revelation and prophecies. The fruit of their deep study on Jesus
comes out of the mouth of Simon Peter.
This incident
happens in Caesarea Philippi. It is a pagan territory. This place is filled
with mighty statues of pagan gods. As Jews enter this territory they witness the
glorious and mighty structure of pagan gods. At times, the perceiving of those
statues evoke fear, reverence and submission. Peter’s affirmation of Jesus as
Messiah – son of God, in this very place
dethrones the glorious nature of pagan gods. The acclamation of man Jesus as
God humiliates pagan gods who always remain in their prominent place and never
share the life of humans. The God of Israel has come down to share the life of
humans and show humans as highest creature in His creation. The participative
nature of Israel’s God humiliates and mocks the indifference of pagan gods. They
are not worthy to be called gods and in fact they are not gods.
Although the
disciples understood the identity of Jesus properly, still they are ignorant of
the nature of His identity as Messiah. Their idea of Messiah is not different from
depictions of those pagan gods. Just like the mightiness of pagan gods, the
disciples want Jesus to be glorious Messiah and overthrow Romans from Israel’s
land. And so, Peter rebukes Jesus’ preference to be suffering Messiah. It is
also a temptation for Jesus to reconsider His obedience to God and assume His
divine prerogative as Son of God. But, Jesus is set resolutely to follow the
way of God. He chides Peter for tempting Him. Jesus rebukes peter as Satan. Indeed,
it is Satan operating in Peter. In the beginning Satan recommended Jesus to
enjoy His divine power to sustain His life on earth. Now through Peter and His
disciples the Satan cunningly suggests Jesus to avoid suffering and assume His
glorious nature.
Jesus’s resoluteness
to fulfil the will of God is to show His faith in God. In the second reading
St. James tells that if there is no work, faith is useless. How can one show
his/her faith without works? Faith has to be manifested externally through
works. The cross of Jesus is a manifestation of Jesus’ complete faith in God.
Jesus’ hope in God that He will not be left helpless and God will reward Him is
expressed on the cross. This nature of Jesus is foretold in the suffering
servant’s song in Isaiah 50:5-9, which is also the first reading for today. The
suffering of Jesus is not justification that every human has to suffer. It is
an affirmation that God is not indifferent to our suffering. He shares and
participates in our suffering. Our expectation of Him to remove our suffering instantly
through miraculous intervention, contradicts His plan of allowing us to enjoy
our full freedom in joys and sufferings. Salvation is the goal. Whether we
experience joy or suffering, if we attain salvation, the purpose of God in our
life is achieved. The ultimate motive is that. He would see to that our suffering
doesn’t discourage us to choose a contrary path that hinders our salvation. In every
suffering, the Satan who was operative in Peter comes to us and tell us to
choose an easy path. Are we ready to be fixed on salvation and reject the cosy
path? Faith without work is useless (Jas 2:17). Let our faith work in our
sufferings. Our God is present in our sufferings to ensure that the purpose of
our life (salvation) is achieved.
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