Homily: 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time
September 15, 2024
My dear brothers and sisters, our reflection today will center on this question that Jesus asked His disciples, ‘who do you say that I am’. This question is indeed eternal, who is Jesus for us? It is not a rhetorical question; it is a real question that demands a personal answer from each one of us. When Jesus posed this question to His disciples, they gave Him the popular people’s opinion of Him as a powerful prophet of God. Peter called Him Christ the Son of the living God and Jesus scored him 100% but when Jesus started explaining what it entailed for Him to be the Christ, the same Peter that scored 100% nosedived to 0%. We can see that Jesus’ explanation of His mission and the understanding of the Jews, even His disciples about Him were totally at odds.
We need to understand the background of the question and the reason for the type of answer that Jesus got. The Jews needed a Messiah, and they expected the coming of the Messiah, but the type of Messiah that Jesus was presenting to them was not what they expected and thus Jesus was not accepted. We know too well the history of this people. The Jews never forgot that they were in a special sense God’s chosen people. So, they naturally looked forward to when a King would arise again on the throne of David to conquer all their enemies and to rule the world and be the center of global attention.
But as time went on, it dawned on them that this dream of universal greatness would never be achieved by natural means. The ten tribes of Israel were carried off to Assyria and lost forever. The Babylonians conquered Jerusalem and carried the Jews away captives. Then came the Persians as their masters, then the Greeks, then the Romans. So, far from knowing anything like dominion, for centuries the Jews never even knew what it meant to be completely free and independent. But even at that, that idea of conquering the world never vanished, another thought grew up in them, what they were not able to achieve through a natural means, that God would do it for them through a supernatural means by divine powers. So, they looked forward to when a Messiah would break through the heavens and destroy all their enemies and rebuild the new Jerusalem. Their idea of the Messiah was more violent, nationalistic, destructive, vengeful, there was no room for the cross on it. When Jesus came as the expected Messiah and started talking about dying on the cross as the way, they saw him as a disappointment, a betrayal, an impostor. You can now understand why Jesus asked, who do you say that the Son of man is. You can understand why even Peter protested, you can understand why they connived and killed Him as a heretic.
However, even with this hostility and total lack of understanding about His mission, Jesus did not dilute the truth, He did not shift from His divine mission. He did not induce or bribe anyone by the offer of an easy way. Jesus was honest, He was clear and firm. ‘If you want to be my disciple, take up your cross and follow me.’ To be a Christian, we have to pay the prize of discipleship. There is no other way!! Jesus himself took the lead, He paid the prize on the cross of Calvary, so He did not propound a theory that He himself was not prepared to face. Till today, Jesus’ mission faces a lot of hostility, misunderstanding and rejection in every age, including our own age. That is why this question requires a sincere personal answer, who is Jesus for me.
