Then He said to them, ‘Who do you say that I am?’ Peter said in reply, ‘The Messiah of God.’ He rebuked them and directed them not to tell this to anyone. He said, ‘The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.’ (Luke 9:20-22)
As Chapter 9 of the Gospel of Luke opens, the author of the third Gospel reveals to us another dimension of who Jesus is. While He is the ‘Messiah of God’, He must complete His earthly mission as ‘Son of Man’ by taking our sin and death upon Himself to redeem us. The twelve disciples begin to understand the necessity of the Cross in their own lives, and are being converted into Apostles who will lead the Church.
