September 16, 2018 - Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost - Recasting A Vision of Messiah Through Jesus

Photo by Ron Houser

Youth Sunday today. The worship service opened with a rousing, energetic performance of We Congregate! Everyone clapped and sang with the youth and musical leaders.

Today the congregation also gave our Godspeed to Brian who is embarking on his Via Dolorosa journey.

As Pastor Ray gave his sermon I marveled at the two leaps which happen in today's Gospel. The first is Peter's answer, "You are the Messiah." when Jesus asks "Who do you say that I am?

The next leap is more subtle. Jesus rebukes Peter saying "Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things." after Peter rebukes Jesus for teaching about the suffering and death Christ must undergo.

Human things and divine things. Is Peter's mind set on human things? Peter is speaking from the Jewish understanding of Christ, the anointed one. Certainly this was based on a desire for deliverance from the power of Rome. 

Here is where more of our judgment that the "the disciples just don't understand Jesus" comes in. The difference between the Peter's traditional conception of the messiah and Jesus could not have been greater. I think that was a reason that in the Matthew account Jesus comments on Peter's answer by saying "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven."

Peter might have been clued in by hearing what Jesus taught in the synagogue at the beginning of his ministry as told in Luke 4:17 - 21:

"And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

'The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
    to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.'

Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, 'Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.'”.  

So are we in error when reading this as if God the Father revealed this directly to Peter?