For the first time, Peter said what the disciples had suspected for some time: “You are the Messiah.”
This incident is undoubtedly the central point in the Gospel. Jesus and his disciples were again in the north, in the vicinity of the “new town” of Caesarea Philippi some twenty-five miles from the lake. Here he asked them to sum up their impressions so far. The crowds do not seem to have thought of him as the Messiah, but Peter, speaking for the disciples, made this confession. Four important points now follow.
Jesus accepted the title as true, but he did not wish it to be generally known. An open claim to Messiahship would cause trouble with the authorities and lead to wrong ideas in peoples’ minds.
Jesus revealed a new fact about himself. Referring to himself as the Son of Man (a title which included and transcended that of Messiah), he spoke of a path foretold in Scripture and divinely appointed for himself. As the messianic Son of Man he must undergo the fate of the righteous sufferer in the Psalms and especially of the Servant of Yahweh in Isaiah (Psalm 22; 69; 118; Isaiah 50:4ff.; 52:13–53:12; Zechariah 13:7). But the shock was too great for the disciples. The one who so readily recognized the Christ swiftly assumed the rôle of Satan.
A still bigger shock awaited the disciples, for the third thing that Jesus said was that they must go the same way of suffering and rejection (and resurrection) as himself. The reference to the multitude (8:34) is strange; the circle is silently enlarged and all are addressed who would follow him. A disciple must be ready even for martyrdom like Jesus. He must be prepared to give up his hopes of “life” in this world with all that it has to offer in terms of success, wealth, enjoyment and so on, for none of these things can stand comparison with the value of eternal life. A man’s soul or life is of inestimable value and if he loses it cannot be redeemed from death (Psalm 49:5-9,15). How does a man lose his life? By refusal to follow Jesus, for at the parousia or coming of the Son of man he will be ashamed of all who refused to follow him on earth. In other words, a man’s ultimate destiny depends on whether he accepts discipleship now.
A word of reassurance (9:1). Admittedly it is very enigmatic. At first sight it implies that the coming referred to in 3:38 will come in the lifetime of some of Jesus’ hearers (cf. 13:30). But this is unlikely, for Jesus expected a longer interval than this before the coming. Moreover, the reference is to the coming of the “kingdom of God” (1:15). lt is therefore more satisfactory to see an allusion to the resurrection and exaltation of Jesus and the coming of the Spirit. At the same time, however, the saying seems to bear some relationship to the story of the transfiguration which immediately follows it; an event which in itself prophesies the revelation of God’s kingly power in Jesus.
