Spirituality of the Readings
Suffer? Be Killed?
The simple Gospel story this Sunday is actually one of the great ones in the New Testament. Why? Let’s look.
First, Jesus was much more than just one of the great heroes from the past—John the Baptist, Elijah, the prophets, etc. Naturally, people were treating him as if he were one of these, so he asks the disciples what they think.
Peter responds. “You are the Christ.” A fabulous recognition.
To acknowledge this, Jesus, gave to Simon the name “Peter,” or “Rock.” Under this designation, Peter had proclaimed a turning point for believers, a crucial depth that underlies all Christianity. He saw that Jesus was not just a buddy or a healer, he was the long-awaited Messiah.
This made Jesus able to tell them more about what this answer (the Christ) actually meant. He said, boldly, “the Son of Man must suffer greatly … and be killed, and rise after three days.” (Gospel)
What?
This was the very last thought the apostles could have had about the Messiah. “Suffer? Be killed”? No, no!”
Second, look at the intense drama that followed. The same apostle who had just recognized and detailed Jesus as the Christ we see now in complete rebellion.
“This will never happen to you, master, we will never allow it!”
Now Jesus gives him still another name. “Satan”! What a contradiction! Jesus flares out with anguish and frustration. “Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”
Why so harsh a response?
For an answer, check out the temptations in the desert (Mt 4:1-11).There the devil’s enticements had the same point that Peter’s does now. Something like this:
Save yourself. Do not give up your life for others. Since you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread. Show your power. Be the Christ. You keep talking about your heavenly Father: doesn’t he want you to carry out your mission instead of suffering and being killed? (cf. Mt 4:2 )
Do you and I ever listen to such a temptation?—when do we not?
The apostles hear the temptation. When Christ finally undergoes his fate, to “suffer greatly and be killed,” they actually run away! It will take time for them to understand, just as it does for you and me.
But terrible suffering had been in the scriptural tradition for a long time. Read about the “Suffering Servant” in the First Reading:
I have not rebelled, have not turned back. I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard. ... See, the Lord God is my help; who will prove me wrong? (Isa 50:6)
Whichever name he used for Simon Peter, Rock or Satan, Jesus was not being careless or intemperate. The Satan-like Simon was blindly rejecting just what Jesus must have been struggling with most: that he had to
suffer greatly
and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed,
and rise after three days.
Who wouldn’t object to such a plan? But this was Jesus’ his true mission, and Simon Peter had named it and then swept it aside.
Which do you or I choose?
John Foley, SJ
**From Saint Louis University