Most mornings, I listen to the daily readings that are put online by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Today's gospel reading was Matthew 16:13-23:
Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi
and he asked his disciples,
"Who do people say that the Son of Man is?"
They replied, "Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah,
still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets."
He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"
Simon Peter said in reply,
"You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
Jesus said to him in reply, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah.
For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.
And so I say to you, you are Peter,
and upon this rock I will build my Church,
and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.
I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven.
Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven;
and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."
Then he strictly ordered his disciples
to tell no one that he was the Christ.
From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples
that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly
from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed and on the third day be raised.
Then Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him,
"God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you."
He turned and said to Peter,
"Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me.
You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do."
I was struck by the parallel conversations our Lord and Peter have, which are recorded right next to each other. Let's start with the two things Peter says initially:
"You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
"God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you."
And then in the Lord's replies:
"Blessed are you....You are Peter [Petros]."
"Get behind me, Satan."
"Upon this rock [petra] I will build my church."
"You are an obstacle [skandalon = stumbling block] to me."
"Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you."
"You are thinking...as human beings do."
"My heavenly Father [has revealed this to you]."
"You are not thinking as God does."
So, first Peter identifies the Lord correctly as the Christ (= Messiah = Anointed One = one chosen for a certain task, e.g., prophet, priest, or king). Then Peter mis-identifies the Lord, he incorrectly says that Christ is not the crucified one. He does not perceive that the task for which the Christ is christened is to suffer, be killed, and on the third day be raised.
In response to the first, the Lord blesses Simon Barjonah and gives him a new name, Petros/Rock. In response to the second, the Lord utters what at first sounds like a curse and gives him a different name: Satan/Adversary.
The Lord responds to the correct identification by saying that on this petra/rock he will build his church. He responds to the incorrect identification by saying that he could trip on this skandalon/stumbling block. I looked for the literal meaning of skandalon and I found that it goes back to the thing one trips over that brings a trap down on one. And it developed so it could mean a stone sticking up out of the ground that could trip one. So when Peter identifies Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah, he is the foundation stone of the church, but when he mis-identifies him as not the crucified, he becomes the stone that could trip Jesus and cause him to miss his calling.
Skandalon, you may know, recurs in 1 Corinthians 1:23: "we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block/skandalon to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles."
When Peter correctly sees Jesus as the Christ, he is not thinking like an unaided human—flesh and blood has not revealed this to him, but he is thinking in the way revealed by the Father in heaven. When Peter incorrectly sees Christ as uncrucified, he is thinking like a human/anthropos, and he is not thinking as God does.
This is pretty much what came to me as I listened to the Gospel passage this morning and thought about it through the day. I went to online lexicons, dictionaries, translators, etc. to confirm what I thought (was "obstacle" a translation for skandalon? What does skandalon really mean? Am I recalling correctly when I think that Satan means "Adversary"?—by the way it also means "Accuser.") And while I was looking around, I came across a blog entry from 2011, by a gentleman named Brant Clements, who, according to his profile, is a Lutheran pastor.
He writes of the final verse in today's passage, specifically about the saying, "Get behind me"/Hupage opiso mou, and then looks at the next verse (not included in today's passage) in which Jesus says: If anyone desires to come behind me"/Ei tis thelei opiso mou elthein...he must take up his cross and follow me. The NIV translates "If anyone desires to come behind me..." as "Whoever wants to be my disciple..."
So when our Lord says to Peter "Get behind me," he's not saying "Get lost," he's telling him, "Go behind me, which is where my disciples are," and later he says, "If you want to get behind me, you too must take up your own cross and follow in the way I am going—the way of the cross." He's not cursing Peter, he's calling Peter back to his role as Christ's disciple. Christ's task for which he is christened is to suffer, die, and be raised. That is also the task for which Christians are christened.
When Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, Jesus said simply, Hupage, Satana. "Go, Adversary." But to Peter he says, Hupage opiso mou, Satana. "Go behind me, Adversary." Change from Adversary to disciple, to Petros.
When we oppose the way of the cross for Christ or for ourselves, we are Christ's adversaries. When we follow him in the way of the cross, we are his disciples, the building blocks of his church.
The next question is, What is the way of the cross for each of us?
No comments:
Post a Comment