Chapter II: The Confession of Peter
Matt. xv. 39; xvi. 1-28; Mark viii. 10-38; ix. 1; Luke ix. 18-27.
When the crowds had all disappeared Jesus walked down the moorlands to the shore, whence a bark bore Him across to the opposite bank. What design could it have been that moved Him to revisit these places which from now on were destined to be so hostile two Him? Was it the desire to once more oversow the fields of Genesareth with the holy seed of His word, or did He hoped to find, further inland, in the hill country of Zabulon, a still profounder solitude? The latter hypothesis seems the likeliest one, after all; for the Master ordered them to land, not at Capharnaum but upon the desolate shores of Magdala, and Saint Mark tells us that He set out immediately for Dalmanutha, an obscure hamlet lying among the mountains which separate Magdala from Tiberias.
But despite the care which Jesus took to conceal His presence, He could not escape the persecution of the Pharisees and Sadducees. For a considerable time they had appeared to be indifferent to the movements of the Christ. So absorbed were they by the schemings of their political life that they bothered themselves but little has to this Galilean Prophet and His "Kingdom of Heaven;" but the Jewish Scribes had at last managed to arouse them from their state of indifference. Tiberias, where Herod had a royal residence, was nearby, and the courtiers and high officials of this prince belonged mostly to the sect of the Sadduceans; accordingly it is some of their number whom we find here, mingling with the emissaries of the Sanhedrin. In former years the Saviour had found it sufficient to withdraw for a short space, in order to quiet the mistrust of the Tetrarch; but since that time the blood of John Baptist was upon Herod, destroying his peace; his courtiers and ministers were readily instigated against Jesus, and promptly joined the Zealots of the Law in their relentless pursuit.
This time the attack of Hi sworn foes took a new turn. Until now the Pharisees had been content to depreciate the Miracles of the Christ by attributing them to Beelzebub, persuading the people that know prodded you performed upon earth can be regarded as proof of a Divine Mission, because there is none which is beyond the power of the devils. But here at Dalmanutha they loudly challenged the Saviour, defying Him "to work some sign upon high,"—to cause the sun to halt, as Joshua had done, or, like Samuel, bring the thunderbolt crashing down from out the cloudless sky, or encompass Himself about, like Elias in the days of old, with lightnings and flame.
Jesus disdained this provocation, as once before in the Desert He had spurned the demands of Satan. All power was given to Him in Heaven and upon the earth,—this the poor and the suffering of Judaea knew well; but to be so conciliatory to His enemies and to triumph over them by a profitless display of His Divine Attributes,—so far as this the Master could not condescend. He was content to turn His face westward, pointing to the sun, whose last rays were bailing the distant mountain peaks in the mantle of gold.
"In the evening," was His answer, "you say: ‘It will be fine tomorrow, for the sun is red.’ And at dawn: ‘There will be a storm today for the sky burns with a lowering glow.’ Hypocrites! You discern what the face of the heavens portends, and yet you know not how to recognise the signs of the times in which you live!"
Indeed what more open and explicit signs could they have than the sceptre now departed from Juda, Daniel's Weeks of Years fulfilled, the message of the Forerunner, the second feeble healed, the dead raised to life?
"What!" He exclaimed, "does this wicked and adulterous generation seek a sign! There shall be given its no other sign but that of Jonas the Prophet." And leaving the Pharisees with this prophecy of His Resurrection, Jesus returned into their little vessel.
Once more He acquitted the shores of Galilee and set sail for the northern part of the lake; and as they drew away from the land, He watched the bank fading away and vanishing in the soft, shadowy haze: Capharnaum, Bethsaïda, Chorozaïn, one after another, had rejected Him, – had abandoned Him to His enemies! Now as it happened, in the haste of their departure, the Apostles had forgotten to renew their store of provision; but one loaf of bread remained, and they made the discovery only when their bark was far out from land. As they were grieving over their neglect, Jesus spoke to them in words which were meant to turn their minds from these material cares:—
"Take good heed," He said, "and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees."
The disciples, thinking that the Master shared their anxiety about their daily food, enquired of each other what He would have them understand by the speech. Was He reproaching them for coming on board without stores, or did He mean to forbid them to partake of any food along with Sadducees and Pharisees? Not one of them was reminded of that unseen leaven which, fermenting in the human heart, sours and corrupts its life; although Jesus had employed a metaphor often used by the Jews to describe the effects of sin, still they understood Him not.
"Men of little faith," He exclaimed, "why do you think that you are without bread? So, then, are you too devoid of either sense or reason? Are your hearts blinded? Have your eyes only that you may not see, and ears that you may not hear? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand men, how many baskets of fragments did you take up?"
"Twelve," they said.
"And when I broke the seven loaves for four thousand men, how many full hampers did you gather up?"
"Seven," they replied.
"Then how is it that you do not understand that it was not of bread I spoke, when I told you to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees?"
From this rebuke the Apostles began to see how they had wounded the Heart of the Master by so disregarding His loving care, ay, even His power. There higher thoughts aroused once more they finally glimpsed His hidden meaning: it was not of the leaven which is put into bread whereof He told them to beware, but of the doctrine of His enemies.
The morning of the next day they made land in the kingdom of Philip, and Jesus wandered along the Jordan until they were not far from Bethsaïda-Julias, whereupon some people brought a blind man for Him to lay His hands upon him. Studious as ever to refrain from manifesting any striking proofs of His power outside the land of Israel, the Lord took the poor sufferer by the hand and led him away from the busy town in order to perform the cure unnoticed. But He did not accomplish this prodigy (as He had done many others, which we have witnessed so often in Galilee) easily and without effort, with a word or by the mere movement of His will; for it was part of the hidden counsels of the Godhead that the effects of His supernatural power should be proportioned to the faith of those who implore His aid. Just as the unbelief of the Nazarenes had stood in the way of His working any miracle for them, so here at Caesarea-Philippi the faith of the blind man was still so weak as to hinder his being cured at once, and accordingly we see Jesus gently opening the eyes of his body, little by little, in proportion as He dispelled the darkness from his soul. For this reason now He multiplied the exterior acts, as though he wished to quicken the suppliant's desire for salvation,—the firm hands laid over his eyes, the spittle of the Christ moistening them like a heavenly balm.
"Do you see anything?" Jesus asked.
Glowering about him, the poor man suddenly cried, "I see men walking, yet they look to me like trees!" And in his delight he turned toward the Master again.
A second time the Saviours hands touched his eyes, and at once they saw all things clearly. Jesus imposed strict silence upon the man, bidding him:—
"Return to your home, and if you should come into the town, tell this to no one."
In this instance it would seem as if the Lord were better obeyed than a little while before in the Decapolis, for we see Him shortly afterwards leaving the village accompanied by His disciples alone. In this way He reached the sources of the stream and arrived at the capitol, called by the Tetrarch Caesarea-Phillippi, in honour of Tiberius Caesar, his protector and patron. Built upon the ruins of ancient Dan, Caesarea still preserved Pan’s Grotto, which was so famous in the days of the Greek colonists that for a long time the city bore the name of Panea. But neither these relics of Paganism, nor the more recent splendours of Caesarea attracted the Lord. He did no more than pass through the outskirts of the city, and preferred to seek a resting-place at the foot of Mount Hermon,—in the valleys which the water-springs of the Jordan fill with leavy coverts and the rustling of numberless books.
Among the rest there is one memorable fact which will ever make this forest country illustrious. Here, while Jesus was praying in solitude, all at once, breaking off from the prayer which was His only repose here below, He called to His disciples, who had no drawn aloof from Him, and began to question them.
"Who do they say that I am, I, the Son of Man?"
Sorrowful was the answer. His Apostles confessed that as yet no one in Israel had acknowledged Jesus to be the Messiah. Some, like Herod, overmastered by their guilty fears had taken the Christ for a resurrected John the Baptist; others believed they were listening to Elias; others called Him Jeremy. "It is the Seer," was the popular cry, " who returns are among us to repeat his lamentations." Many imagined He was some new Prophet, but none had seen in Jesus that which He is unto all time. And although certain stupendous marvels had manifestly declared His Messiahship, these were no more than flashes of lightning for instance glittering through the glooms of night; throughout the land of Juda, the Light shone amidst darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.
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| The primacy of Peter. J-J Tissot. |
Put to them at a time when the Master was wandering afar from His native land, this question was nothing less than a decisive trial of His care. Simon stood the test without flinching. Instantly he took up the word, in the name of his brethren, and addressing Jesus in his straightforward fashion said:—
"Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God."
The faith of Peter, quick and living as of old it was, whether amid the howlings of the storm, or in the disapprobation of Capharnaum, now lifted the veil which overhung the Divinity of the Saviour, and, rising above all that which is of man, proclaimed Him Son of God, equal and consubstantial with the Father,—which is to say, God Himself.
Listening to this profession from the lips of His Apostle, Jesus responded:—
"Blessed art thou Simon, son of Jonas, because neither flesh nor blood has revealed that this unto thee, but My Father Who is in Heaven. And now I say to thee: Thou art Peter (a Rock), and upon this Rock I will build My Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against thee. And I will give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and all that thou shalt loose upon earth shall be loosed in Heaven.
These words confirmed the Primacy upon the son of Jonas, and upon him established that Masterwork of the crisis, which is His Church, a name we find here mentioned for the first time. Simon, the week motal of flesh and blood, was become the Foundation-stone, destined to brave all assaults of Hell. In making this Apostle the base of His eternal Church, Jesus assured him the same stability which He gave the Holy Edifice, transmitting the privileges of Peter to his successors. Like him they should all be seated in the Chair of Infallibility and hold in their hands the Keys, symbol of supreme authority. All who were to come after him, even as he, must give laws to the Church, guiding in the paths of salvation Kings and peoples, pastors and their flock; they must judge without appeal, bind and loose upon earth and in Heaven, opening and shutting the gates of the celestial Kingdom. Such powers are Divine, but they are the natural consequences of that promise made to the son of Jonas:—
"Thou art Peter, and upon the sceptre rock I will build My Church."
But these are surpassing splendours of the Church where only as yet a fair and distant prospect; for Peter and his companions there was still in store the fierce struggle which precedes the victory, and straight before Jesus Himself there stretched a weary way of sorrows. For, with a price set upon His head, harassed and hunted down by spies and informers, hereafter He must needs keep silence as to the unconquerable Kingdom He had come to establish. So, scarcely had He uttered the divine promise to His Apostles, out here alone in the forest, when He commanded them authoritatively to observe the strictest silence so far as concerned what they had just heard from Him. The Confession of Peter, his Primacy in the Church, his privileges and prerogatives were as a sacred confidence, which must not go beyond the Apostolic College; and the reason He gave them for this was that His enemies would shortly put Him to death.
It was the first time that the Master had spoken so openly of His death; hitherto He had only made mysterious allusions to it. And indeed in this instance He did not go so far as to unveil the utter ignominy of the Cross, deeming it enough to declare "that He must go up to Jerusalem, there to suffer many things at the hands of the Ancients, the Pontiffs, Scribes, and to die." As yet He did not add that "He was to be delivered by these men into the hands of the Gentiles," and until the very time of the Passion He forbore to tell them "that He was to be spit upon, whipped, and bound to a Cross." Knowing by experience the weakness of His disciples, he was careful to shield them against despair. So then, that He might reawaken the courage, He now foretold " that after three days He would rise again."
Consoling as his promise was, it could not satisfy the sturdy ardour of Peter. The great praise bestowed upon him, and joy he felt at having confessed, in the other's name, the Divinity of his Master, had now excited all his vanity. In his eager self-sufficiency he took it upon him to withstand the Lord Himself, and to bid Him proceed no further along paths which would lead to death. Grasping His hand, he drew Him to one side and began to chide Him for His words.
"Now, please God, the shall not happen to you, Lord!"
Jesus turned away from him, and looking towards the Apostles He spoke in a tone so loud that those who had listened to His eulogy of Peter should likewise hear this stern rebuke:—
"Get thee behind Me, Satan! Thou art a scandal unto Me, for thy wisdom is not of God but of man."
While Peter stood there, humbled and silent, Jesus recalled their minds to His approaching sacrifice, and drew from the thought a powerful lesson which the Twelve were not the only ones to hear. Meantime many of the country folk had collected together at a short distance from this youthful Rabbi Who was as yet a stranger to them. The Saviour bade them come nearer, then, with that same tone of authority which He was wont to use in Galilee, He began to instruct them; telling them that the great duty of life is to renounce oneself, to sacrifice everything in the pursuit of truth and righteousness, forgetting the body and its cravings, the soul and its most intimate promptings. Once more He repeated what He had already said, that along this rough and grievous pathway they had but to follow in His footsteps, and like Him, bear their cross by mortifying their passions. This was what the Master had called "losing one's soul in order to save it."
"Of what profit is it to a man," He exclaimed, "to gain the universe, if so doing he loses his soul? What will he give in exchange for his soul?"
This saying threw a chilled shadow of foreboding over the Apostles’ spirits. In order to reinvigorate their faith, the Lord forthwith announced His future Advent, surrounded by Angels, so to reward His tried and tested followers; then before their eyes He set forth the splendour of that great Day, when His Church in its triumph would supplant the earthly realm of Israel; and finally He told them of the hour, now near at hand, when three of His Apostles were to be brought face to face with the Divine Being.
"There are those among you," He said, "who shall not taste death until they have seen the Kingdom of God."
Six days later this Prophecy was accomplished in the persons of Peter, James, and John, who fell down at the feet of their transfigured Master. But even in the crowd which listened to these words there stood more than one disciple who was to survive the ruin of Jerusalem, and with the eyes of the flesh would behold the new reign of the Risen Christ.
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam
Ad Jesum per Mariam
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