Have you ever thought about what it must have been like to be Jesus? Did he know everything that was going to happen to him? He asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” It seems like he was aware that there were different theories or rumors about him floating around. But perhaps because most of his time was instructing the disciples, he did not have as much contact with the conversation happening among the people. This is a consequence of leadership. Once you become a leader some people might act differently around you, so that it is difficult to get the whole story. By asking the disciples about what people think about him, Jesus indicates that to some degree he is living in a bubble, and that he needed to have a dose of reality. 

The disciples tell Jesus about the different theories. Some say that he is John the Baptizer. What a strange theory. John and Jesus were born within months of each other. Their mothers were cousins who were pregnant at the same time. How could Jesus be John? It doesn’t make any sense! And yet enough people must have believed that for the disciples to have registered it and reported back to Jesus. Another theory was that Jesus was Elijah. This makes a bit more sense. Elijah had been raptured away in a chariot of fire hundreds of years before, and to this day there are traditions of expectation for Elijah’s return. Others said that Jesus was one of the prophets. But both John and Elijah were prophets. What all of these theories have in common is an orientation toward the prophetic past. Jesus can be explained by one the previous people who have gone before

Then Jesus shrewdly turns the question onto his own disciples. Who do you say that I am? Peter nails it. You are the messiah. Wow. What a confession. Peter to his credit, does not look merely to the past or somebody else to explain Jesus. Peter makes a claim on the present. You are the anointed one, now! Of course Jesus wasn’t the first Messiah. There was Saul, David, Solomon, and the list goes on. Kings were anointed by prophets to rule the people on behalf of God. This was a daring claim. A prophet surely has power, but their power and role is to spur and influence kings and rulers. To be the messiah, was to be more than a prophet, it was to be none other than God’s own son appointed to rule over and above anyone else. 

But what did it mean to be the messiah or the son of man? Jesus said that he would be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the law, and that he would be killed. Talk about cognitive dissonance. Peter had a hard time hearing this because it didn’t make any sense. How could Jesus be the chosen one of God, divinely appointed to rule, and so quickly suffer and die? The problem was that Peter was looking at things from a human perspective and not a godly perspective. This is the age old problem of works righteousness. It is the enduring opposition to the will of God. This is the perspective that you deserve what happens to you. Peter was afraid that people would lose faith in Jesus if he were to suffer and die like a common criminal.  Both then and now there is a temptation to believe that external metrics like power, wealth, and physical beauty were supposed signs of God’s favor. It is a toxic way of attempting to make sense of reality.