Glimpse of Spirituality 靈修一瞥75 (Mark 8:27-33)              Fr. Abraham Chiu趙必成神父

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Jesus asked two questions about his identity. The first question: “Who do people say that I am?” The second is “Who do you say that I am?” It is a journey from blindness to full sight, from misunderstanding to understanding. What did open the eyes of the disciples? It is the cross of Jesus. In other words, following Jesus is no way but the Stations of the Cross.

Peter, speaking for the other disciples, publicly declared: “You are the Christ.” To say that Jesus was the anointed one of God, was to say that he was the Salvation of God, a God who is for humans! It is evident that Jesus was well pleased with Peter’s answer and confirmed his insight as a special revelation from God. In order to give a more advanced formation for his disciples, Jesus explained to them that he was not a political messiah who would reestablish the Davidic kingdom after overthrowing the Roman Empire. Instead, he was the messiah who would redeem humankind by his suffering, death, and resurrection.

In fact, the disciples were still blinded by their ignorance of God’s mission and their lack of faith. They still put on the lens of a political image of messiah and moreover, they just desired to avoid any suffering and death in their lives. When Peter heard from Jesus with respect to his being rejected and killed, he was not willing to follow Jesus that way. Who will like being rejected? The passive verb “rejected” (apodokimasthēnai) denotes a life of being disapproved and repudiated. Peter’s mind was filled with political fantasy. Thus, he was unable to accept the fact that following Jesus was a way of carrying a cross. Jesus rebuked Peter and called him Satan because the so-called smooth way of him was actually the real rejection of Jesus’ acceptance of God’s mission. Ironically, the smooth way of humans is not smooth enough to enter God’s kingdom.

What does Jesus mean to us? What difference does Jesus make in my life? Is the peace that we find in Jesus reflected in the way we live our lives and live our deaths?

 

耶穌向門徒問了兩個關於他身份的問題；第一個：“人們說我是誰？” 第二個是“你們說我是誰？”這是從盲目到明晰，從誤解到理解的過程。什麼打開門徒眼睛？是耶穌的十字架；換言之，跟隨耶穌就是苦路一條。

伯多祿代表其他門徒公開宣告：“你是默西亞。”說耶穌是天主的受傅者，就是說明他是天主的救恩，是一位為人操心的主。顯然，耶穌對伯多祿的回答很滿意，並證實他的洞察力來自天主的特別啟示。為了給門徒一個更加高級的培育，耶穌向他們解釋，他不是推翻羅馬帝國重建達味王朝的政治默西亞，反之，是通過受難、死亡和復活來救贖人類的默西亞。

事實上，門徒因對天主使命的無知，以及缺乏信德而蒙蔽心靈眼睛；仍然帶著政治默西亞的假相，只想通過耶穌來逃避生活中的痛苦與死亡。當伯多祿從耶穌聽到他將被虛假宗教領導拒絕和殺害時，他真不願那樣跟隨耶穌；誰會喜歡被拒絕？

被動動詞“棄絕”（apodokimasthēnai）表示不被認可和拒絕。伯多祿腦子裡充滿政治幻想，因此，他無法接受跟隨耶穌就是背十字架的事實。耶穌斥責他是撒殫，因為他所謂跟隨耶穌等同一帆風順，其實是對耶穌接受天主使命的真正棄絕。諷刺的，是人的所謂順風順水無能讓人進入天國。

耶穌為基督徒是什麼？耶穌進入我們生命之後有什麼轉化？我們心中的耶穌平安，能活出永生，或活出死亡？