Looking at today's Gospel reading from Mark, we see Jesus asking his disciples who they think he is. It is Peter who boldly proclaims (for the first time for any disciple) “You are the Christ!”. This event is expanded upon in Matthew's Gospel, but in Mark, the narrative immediately turns to Peter's great failure (one of many) when Jesus has to rebuke him and call him “Satan” for objecting to Jesus's plan to suffer and die at the hands of the scribes and the Pharisees.
One thing we can take from this is that God's plan for our lives may be very different from our plan, even for believers. Peter was a great believer in Jesus. But Peter's idea of Jesus as Christ at that time was Jesus as Messiah for the Jews. Peter probably was hoping that Jesus would somehow drive out the Romans and establish a Davidic Monarchy along the lines of what most Jews of the day believed the Messiah would do.
The other thing we can take from this passage is from what is not there – specifically the details in Matthew's account of the same event. In Matthew's account we read Jesus's reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” To understand the omission of these details in Mark's account it may be helpful to remember that Mark's Gospel was probably the first one to be written, and although Mark was not an eyewitness to the events in the Gospel, we was a close companion and scribe for Peter. In other words, the events in Mark's Gospel are likely his relating what Peter had told him.
If Peter were a more prideful person, one might think he would have made a bigger deal about how Jesus made him the leader of his Church, giving him the keys to the kingdom and so on, and downplayed his failure. But by the time Peter was telling his story to Mark, Peter's faith had grown considerably. He was now a much humbler man. Peter (like Paul) preferred to talk about his weaknesses and failures so as to give glory to God alone. However Matthew, being an eyewitness to the events and having more first-generation sources to draw on, was not hampered by Peter's humility and included those verses that cast Peter in a more favorable light (although they still include his failures too.)
Turning to the letter of James, we read:
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?
Can that faith save him?
If a brother or sister has nothing to wear
and has no food for the day,
and one of you says to them,
“Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well, ”
but you do not give them the necessities of the body,
what good is it?
So also faith of itself,
if it does not have works, is dead.
Indeed someone might say,
“You have faith and I have works.”
Demonstrate your faith to me without works,
and I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works.
From this we see that even in the first century there were people who were claiming that all they needed was faith and that works were not important. James corrects them by saying they need to have both. Indeed James demonstrates his faith through his works.
One thing we can take from this is that God's plan for our lives may be very different from our plan, even for believers. Peter was a great believer in Jesus. But Peter's idea of Jesus as Christ at that time was Jesus as Messiah for the Jews. Peter probably was hoping that Jesus would somehow drive out the Romans and establish a Davidic Monarchy along the lines of what most Jews of the day believed the Messiah would do.
The other thing we can take from this passage is from what is not there – specifically the details in Matthew's account of the same event. In Matthew's account we read Jesus's reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” To understand the omission of these details in Mark's account it may be helpful to remember that Mark's Gospel was probably the first one to be written, and although Mark was not an eyewitness to the events in the Gospel, we was a close companion and scribe for Peter. In other words, the events in Mark's Gospel are likely his relating what Peter had told him.
If Peter were a more prideful person, one might think he would have made a bigger deal about how Jesus made him the leader of his Church, giving him the keys to the kingdom and so on, and downplayed his failure. But by the time Peter was telling his story to Mark, Peter's faith had grown considerably. He was now a much humbler man. Peter (like Paul) preferred to talk about his weaknesses and failures so as to give glory to God alone. However Matthew, being an eyewitness to the events and having more first-generation sources to draw on, was not hampered by Peter's humility and included those verses that cast Peter in a more favorable light (although they still include his failures too.)
Turning to the letter of James, we read:
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?
Can that faith save him?
If a brother or sister has nothing to wear
and has no food for the day,
and one of you says to them,
“Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well, ”
but you do not give them the necessities of the body,
what good is it?
So also faith of itself,
if it does not have works, is dead.
Indeed someone might say,
“You have faith and I have works.”
Demonstrate your faith to me without works,
and I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works.
From this we see that even in the first century there were people who were claiming that all they needed was faith and that works were not important. James corrects them by saying they need to have both. Indeed James demonstrates his faith through his works.
