Commentaries

22nd Sunday - A
Matthew 16: 21– 27

Your cross, my cross. It’s real.

The Gospel passage of this week follows immediately what we heard last week. It was in Caesarea Philippi when Peter, as the leader and the voice of all the disciples, professed his faith in Jesus, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus told him that he was the rock on which Jesus would build his church.

It is the same Peter who, in today’s Gospel, becomes “a stumbling stone” (obstacle) “over which [Jesus] might stumble.” And to Peter the stumbling stone, Jesus said almost the same words he ordered Satan at the end of the temptations in the desert. To Peter it was, “Get behind me Satan.” While to Satan, “Get away.” (4:10)

It seems easy to profess the faith in a victorious and “cool” Messiah, the one who commands over evil and illnesses. The environment of the city of Caesarea Philippi, a city built by a ruler (Philip the Tetrarch) and named after 2 world leaders may have led Peter to a worldly view of the Messiah.

The real Messiah is one who carries the cross and suffers in fulfilling his Father’s plan of salvation for the entire humanity. And it’s much tougher to accept this Messiah. And Jesus could not have been clearer on what Messiah Peter and all his disciples, then and now, must follow.

It is easy to fall in the temptation of an easy and fuzzy Christian life. But that is not the life Jesus invites and demands us. “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”

We often fail, but there is always a second chance for us. Unlike the words to Satan “get away,” Jesus tells Peter to get behind him. This means that even when Peter’s faith is at its weakest moment, Jesus still invites him to follow Jesus on his way to Jerusalem and to the cross. And the proper place of a disciple is following, not getting in the way of the Lord.