You Are the Christ · Fish the Right

When came to , some people brought him a blind man. They begged Jesus to touch the man.

Jesus took hold of the blind man’s hand and brought him out of the village. He spat on the man’s eyes and laid his hands on him. Then he asked him whether he could see anything.

The man looked up. “I see people,” he said, “but they look like walking trees.”

Then Jesus laid his hands on the man’s eyes once more. The man looked hard, and his sight came back, and he saw everyone clearly.

Jesus sent him away to his home. “Don’t go into the village,” he told him, “and don’t tell anyone in the village.”

Jesus went out with his into the villages of . While they were on the road, he asked them, “Who do people say that I am?” In Matthew, he asked, “Who do people say that I, the , am?”

Luke says Jesus was praying by himself, with the disciples close by, and that his question was “Who do the crowds say I am?”

“Some say ,” they told him, “some , and others or one of the .” Mark doesn’t name Jeremiah, and in Luke, others say one of the old prophets has risen again.

He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”

In Mark, answered, “You are the .” In Luke, he answered, “The Christ of God.”

In Matthew, Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. I also tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my assembly, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give to you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven; and whatever you release on earth will have been released in heaven.”

Then Jesus gave the disciples a command: they must not tell anyone that he was Jesus the Christ.

From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he had to go to . The , and would make him suffer a great deal. He would be killed, and he would be raised up on the third day.

Mark says he began to teach them that the Son of Man had to suffer a great deal. The elders, the chief priests and the scribes would reject him. He would be killed, and after three days he would rise again. He told them this openly.

In Luke, Jesus said this as he warned them to tell no one: “The Son of Man has to suffer a great deal. The elders, the chief priests and the scribes will reject him. He will be killed, and he will be raised up on the third day.”

Matthew and Mark tell what Peter did then. He took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him. In Matthew, he said, “No, Lord, never! This is never going to happen to you!”

Jesus turned around. Mark says he saw his disciples and rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, !” Jesus said to Peter. “You are a stumbling block to me, because your mind isn’t on the things of God, but on human things.”

Then Jesus spoke to his disciples. Mark says he called the crowd to him as well as his disciples, and Luke says he spoke to everyone. “If anyone wants to come after me,” he said, “he must say no to himself, take up his , and follow me.

“Anyone who wants to save his life will lose it, and anyone who loses his life for my sake and for the Good News will save it. How is a person better off if he gains the whole world and loses his life? Or what will a person give in exchange for his life?”

“The Son of Man will come in the glory of his Father with his ,” Jesus went on, “and then he will give to everyone according to what each one has done.”

In Mark, he said, “If anyone is ashamed of me and of what I say in this unfaithful and sinful generation, then the Son of Man will be ashamed of him too, when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.” Luke has the same saying without “in this unfaithful and sinful generation,” and there the Son of Man comes “in his glory, and the glory of the Father, and of the holy angels.”

In Matthew, he went on, “I tell you for certain, some of the people standing here won’t die until they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom.”

In Mark, he said to them, “I tell you for certain, some of the people standing here won’t die until they see God’s Kingdom come with power.”

In Luke, he said, “But I tell you the truth: some of the people standing here won’t die until they see God’s Kingdom.”