Friday In the 25th Week of Ordinary Time, September 26, 2025

Luke 9, 18-22

Once when Jesus was praying in solitude, and the disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” They said in reply, “John the Baptist; others, Elijah; still others, ‘One of the ancient prophets has arisen.’” Then he said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter said in reply, “The Christ of God.” He rebuked them and directed them not to tell this to anyone. He said, “The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.”

“The Christ of God.”  This differs from St. Matthew’s recollection of Peter’s answer: “Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16, 16).  Luke‘s shortened version emphasizes that Jesus was the Messiah whom the Jews awaited.  Luke has already, throughout his Gospel, made it clear that Jesus was the Son of God.  It begins with his quote of the Archangel, “He will be called the Son of God” — a Hebrew idiom meaning, He is the Son of God. So now Luke means to show his Greek Christian readers how the Jews rejected and killed the very Messiah they had awaited. For the Gentiles, the fact that the Lord fulfilled the Scriptures, performed astounding miracles, and then rose from the dead, and the Jews still rejected him, was baffling.

We might be greatly puzzled by the fact that Jesus evidently did not want people to know that he was the Messiah, the Son of God.  In fact, the term Messiah had been adopted and modified in its meaning by the Pharisees in the century before Jesus was born.  It became identified with political independence, with the restoration of David’s kingdom.  And so Jesus, “the anointed” of God, refused to be known by the public by this title, preferring “the Son of Man”, the title given by The Prophet Daniel.  He did however want his Apostles to know him as Christ, and to see what this title truly meant — not for a restorer of an earthly kingdom but for the one who would restore the human race for the heavenly kingdom.

“The Son of Man must suffer greatly.” By omitting the promises made by Jesus to Peter which Matthew 16, 17-19 records, Luke directly ties the Lord’s identity as Messiah to his rejection by the Jews and their leaders and then his Death.  It is as though he were saying: Jesus was killed because he was the Messiah.  

We rejoice in the gift of faith by which we know that the Lord Jesus as our God and King, as our Savior from sin, and marvel at what he endured for our salvation.  Let us pray for the conversion of those who lack faith so that they may rejoice with us.