Then comes the bombshell. Let us now forget what other people say or think about me. What do you say yourselves? Who am I? The disciples must have felt that they had been put on the spot. This is a much harder and a more challenging question. There is no way that they could escape from giving an answer. Their answer was expected and Jesus who was with them was waiting for the answer. I imagine that with trepidation and yet with confidence and faith Peter on behalf of the others said "You are the Messiah. You are the anointed one. You are the one that the prophets spoke about. You are our God and our Master."
Then comes the big surprise. As soon as Jesus heard this He started to talk that as the Son of God He was going to endure pain, hurt and suffering and that He will be put to death as a criminal. Peter could not cope with this. He flipped. Peter's idea of the Messiah was so different. The Messiah was going to be always victorious, powerful, in control of every situation. Surely the Messiah sent by God will not succumb to suffering and pain and end by being crucified, the penalty of a criminal. Stop talking like this Jesus. This is too much. Don't let the people hear you speaking in this manner and with this attitude. Otherwise they would leave us. We will remain on our own. No one would believe in you. So please be quiet.
As if all this was not enough, Peter experienced a bigger surprise. Jesus called him "Satan" and he asked him to get out of his way because he was an obstacle to what God has planned to achieve.
I sympathise with Peter. Who wants to hear about suffering and fear? Who wants to contemplate dying in a very brutal and shameful manner? We all crave for success. We all want to be respected and accepted. We all want people to speak well about us and to acknowledge our talents and gifts. As much as pain and suffering are a reality in our lives we tend, at times, to brush this aside even from our remotest thinking. Even though we know that suffering and disappointment is very much part of our human condition, we tend to say that these things happen to others rather than to ourselves. It is other people who get seriously sick. It is other people who suffer depression and other maladries. It is other people who get in serious emotional, psychological and spiritual turmoil. We somehow tend to believe that we are immune from such conditions. Consequently we pretend that we are safe until the moment that we are hit ourselves.
What are we to do in these circumstances Yet it is important to seek the proper professional medical help. Yes it is crucial to be able to have someone who can understand us and with whom we can share this journey. However, as believers in Jesus Christ as our God we are today once again invited to remember what kind of a God we have. Jesus spoke about suffering as being part of His own life to make us understand that He is very much present in our times of disappointments, hurts, anxieties, doubts, pain, upheaval and death. There is nothing that we experience that Jesus has not also experienced. Therefore we have a God who understands precisely what we are going through. His invitation is "Invite me into your situations. Let me walk with you. Do not give up. I am here. I know exactly what you are going through. I am here to give you my peace, my healing, my consolation, my life. Trust in me. Hang on with me and together we will go through what you are experiencing at the present time."
And this is not all. Just as Jesus turned his death into a resurrection, He will also help us to turn our tragedies into triumphs. Susan Retik was seven months pregnant with her third child when she lost her husband when American Flight 11 plunged into the Twin Towers in New York on September 11, 2001. I am sure that she went through a horrible time of sadness, serious questioning and feelings of hatred and revenge. Susan was profoundly moved by the support offered by friends, family and strangers from around the world, but she also felt a growing friendship with the overwhelming number of widows in Afghanistan who receive no such support. She co-founded "Beyond the 11th" to help provide financial and emotional support to these widows and their children and to give them hope for a better future. This year marks the third annual "Cycling Forward" fundraising bike trek from Ground Zero in New York to Boston. This 275 mile ride has raised over $300,000.00 to support these widows and their families in Afghanistan.
Who do you say I am? I can only answer this question for myself. Jesus you are my God. I trust you with my past life, with my present situations and with my future" What is your response?
God bless.
