And he saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Peter answereth and saith unto him, Thou art the Christ.
Jesus first asks what the people say about Him and then presses the disciples for their own confession of who He is. Peter answers that He is the Christ, the Son of the living God, the Messiah. That identification stands apart from popular views that regarded Him as a prophet or hoped He would become an earthly king.
The disciples' identification of Him as the Christ belongs to the setting of His mission to give His life to win the world back to loyalty to God, enduring the cross for the joy of that outcome. His self-revelation as the Christ brings the disciples out of the darkness in which they had been groping. The confession gives them opportunity to affirm their faith and be strengthened for the coming trial when He will tell them of His suffering.
The revelation raises glowing expectations of the Messiah's kingdom and of seeing their Lord exalted to the throne of David. Peter has believed this from the first and still holds it when others doubt after John the Baptist is imprisoned and put to death and when many disciples who expect Jesus to take David's throne leave Him because He has no such intention. Peter and his companions do not turn from allegiance, and unlike the vacillating course of those who praise one day and condemn the next, true following does not wait for kingly honors to crown its Lord but accepts Him in His humiliation.
Beside this revelation, His words about continuing as a humble homeless wanderer and about going to Jerusalem to be despised, rejected, and put to death seem incomprehensible, leading the disciples to question how He could resign Himself to such humiliation and leave them in even greater darkness than before.
Jesus first asks what the people say about Him and then presses the disciples for their own confession of who He is. Peter answers that He is the Christ, the Son of the living God, the Messiah. That identification stands apart from popular views that regarded Him as a prophet or hoped He would become an earthly king.
The disciples' identification of Him as the Christ belongs to the setting of His mission to give His life to win the world back to loyalty to God, enduring the cross for the joy of that outcome. His self-revelation as the Christ brings the disciples out of the darkness in which they had been groping. The confession gives them opportunity to affirm their faith and be strengthened for the coming trial when He will tell them of His suffering.
The revelation raises glowing expectations of the Messiah's kingdom and of seeing their Lord exalted to the throne of David. Peter has believed this from the first and still holds it when others doubt after John the Baptist is imprisoned and put to death and when many disciples who expect Jesus to take David's throne leave Him because He has no such intention. Peter and his companions do not turn from allegiance, and unlike the vacillating course of those who praise one day and condemn the next, true following does not wait for kingly honors to crown its Lord but accepts Him in His humiliation.
Beside this revelation, His words about continuing as a humble homeless wanderer and about going to Jerusalem to be despised, rejected, and put to death seem incomprehensible, leading the disciples to question how He could resign Himself to such humiliation and leave them in even greater darkness than before.