What do you think about when you read that question? I immediately get the scene in my mind where Peter answers correctly… followed by Peter taking Jesus aside and trying to tell Him what being the Messiah looks like. 🤦🏽♀️
In Matthew 16:13-23, it reads like this:
When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
“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.” Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
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.”
Now, fast-forward to the last supper as described in Matthew 26.
When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the Twelve. And while they were eating, he said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.”
They were very sad and began to say to him one after the other, “Surely you don’t mean me, Lord?”
Jesus replied, “The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me. The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.”
Then Judas, the one who would betray him, said, “Surely you don’t mean me, Rabbi?”
Jesus answered, “You have said so.”
It wasn’t until Pastor Q taught on this very passage last weekend, before celebrating communion, that I realized that the response of Judas was only one word different from the response of the other disciples. That one word reveals who they each, thought He was. (I was shocked that I had studied and read that section many, many times… and never noticed!!!)
It is easy to be a back-seat disciple. I can read the gospels and think, “If I had been walking with Jesus in those days, I would have been so much smarter… better… loyal… etc.” But these men walked with God for over three years and still struggled with what that actually meant! When Jesus mentions that one will betray Him, they have each had enough surprises and shocks to their systems, that they have no confidence in themselves. They know by now, that if He said it, it will happen. And they are sad to realize that it might be one of them. I had to struggle for a few days this week to really think about Jesus. Oh, I love that He is my savior. And His teachings far surpass any others. But, have I been saying and behaving as if He is my Lord?
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
– C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
There are still many times I hear today about the great moral teachings of Jesus. I pray that we all find the strength to boldly claim Him as Our Lord and Savior… especially if you’re hearing those words from a friend or someone else you love! (It did not end well for Judas, who merely called him Rabbi. It does not end well for anyone else that refuses to call Him, Lord.)