To declare Jesus the Messiah
was not only a challenge to the religious authorities of the time but it was
also a political statement. As Messiah, Jesus is the Anointed One, The King of
Israel, and immediately becomes a threat to Herod and the Roman Empire. It is
no wonder Jesus ordered the disciples to keep quiet for fear of early opposition
from the authorities.
A deeper reflection of may
conclude that Jesus did not want the wrong sort of success. He gives the
disciples a new title in today’s Gospel: ‘Son
of Man’ and a new definition of Messiahship. Jesus does not want to be a
leader of a violent revolt against an establishment. He has rejected that sort
of power earlier in the Gospel. Jesus leads in a different way, the least are
the greatest and the poor own the Kingdom. The message of His way is of a great
reversal and this forces his followers to re-examine what ‘Messiah’ (and disciple)
actually mean. There can be no violence, no hunger for power, yet it is also
not a passive way. Jesus still opposes suffering and evil. His leadership is
one of solidarity with those who suffer and who are oppressed and that way is
not an easy journey.
“Jesus did the ultimate violence to violence: he laid it bare, and still
did not succumb to it…. People like Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, by
having violence turn against them, they unmask it and thereby begin to undo it.
It is to this costly alternative that Jesus is inviting his disciples both in
ancient times and today.” (Justo Gonzalez)
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