13 Now when Jesus came to the area of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Human One is?”
14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.”
15 He said, “And what about you? Who do you say that I am?”
16 Simon Peter said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
17 Then Jesus replied, “Happy are you, Simon son of Jonah, because no human has shown this to you. Rather my Father who is in heaven has shown you. 18 I tell you that you are Peter. And I’ll build my church on this rock. The gates of the underworld won’t be able to stand against it.
Reflection
If you took a survey of people on the street today, you may get similar responses to what the disciples told Jesus that others were saying about him centuries ago. Some would say he was a prophet, others a moral teacher, others a mythical person, and others would say that he was and is the Son of God.
Peter answered correctly and because of his belief, he was charged with starting the Church that we are a part of today. There are other times when Jesus asked people who they thought he was. Take for instance Matthew 25, when Jesus asked those around him when they cared for him. They said they had never seen him hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, imprisoned, or as a stranger, but he told them whatever they did to the least of their fellow humans, they did to him. Jesus was and is the Lord who became human, so he understands the human condition. He felt hunger, anger, pain, loneliness, illness, tiredness and every other need we have. He understands that we need to be servants for our fellow humans, to help those who need help because they are he.
He represents all of us – happy, sad, afraid, fearless, at the end of our rope in anger or frustration, but yet he gives everyone equal access and opportunity to come to him. We try to put Jesus in one of our boxes – whatever that box may be – from a political party affiliation to what football team he would like. But as a human he was the best example of our better selves. We know Jesus is God, but Jesus was the best example of a servant leader that we could have. He spoke out against injustice. He did not put the wealthy and intellectuals above the everyday person. When he spoke, he spoke in stories that everyone would understand – although of course, sometimes the intellectuals didn’t get it. When I was thinking about this it dawned on me that we don’t see WWJD (what would Jesus do?) anymore. Interestingly enough that phrase initially was popular in the early 1900’s then came back in the 1990’s. We may not need to advertise it, but we certainly need to think about and pray about what Jesus would want us to do to help those who are ‘the least of these.”
by Janet Waryck
For Pondering and Prayer
We believe in Christ as our Savior, but how can we take his example and show people who we believe Jesus to be so that “the Church” Peter started can continue to grow, and so that others may come to know Jesus as their Savior?
Prayer: Jesus, our Lord, Savior, servant teacher and leader, show us what you would do during these difficult times and help us to live the way you would want so that others may see you reflected in us. In your name we pray, amen.
