Peter knows who Jesus is; he knows Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah of God. What Peter neither knows nor accepts in today’s Gospel account is how Jesus would be the Christ, how Jesus would be the Messiah of God.
In today’s Gospel – a continuation of last week’s Gospel – Peter tells Jesus how to be God. Rest assured, the dramatic Gospel exchange is hardly confined to Peter and Jesus.
What are some ways we tell Jesus how to be God?
- Sometimes we love only the Jesus of our imaginations and neither understand nor accept who Jesus says He is.
- Sometimes we only love the Jesus of our piety and neither understand nor accept who Jesus says He is.
- Sometimes we only want Jesus on our terms so that He conveniently fits in our world.
The real Jesus lives, suffers, dies and rises. His love is total and complete self-outpouring. The real Jesus lays down His life for us and our salvation.
Like Peter, we may not want Jesus to be God on His terms. And when we tell Jesus how to be God, He says, “Get behind me Satan.” That is, Jesus tell us to get out of the way, to not be a stumbling block and to fall back in line following Him.
Let Jesus be the Lord, Savior and Messiah He truly is!
