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“Who do the crowds say that I am?”
The only reason Jesus asked his disciples about the opinion of the crowds was so that he could ask them to move beyond it. By recognizing that popular opinion only ever got at part of the truth they would be driven to look within, reflecting on their time with Jesus, in order to find answers themselves. They needed to move beyond what other people said, and even, to a certain extent, what appearances indicated. After all, being the son of a carpenter from Nazareth, apparently human in appearance, was a lot of baggage to get past to understand who he truly was. Even the signs and wonders he performed and the words of authority with which he spoke and taught were such that they could only lead one so far. Perhaps such things could also have been done by John, Elijah, or one of the other prophets. On the one hand, they seemed to imply the unique divine identity of Jesus. But on the other, how could that be? There was after all only one God. That was the non-negotiable fundamental basis of the belief of the people of Israel. For reasons like this, people could only be brought to the edge of belief by what they had seen, but were still free to answer in the negative. There was nothing so overwhelming as to force them to acknowledge him if they did not desire to do so.
Then he said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Peter said in reply, “The Christ of God.”
Peter did not make the assertion that Jesus was the messiah merely on the basis of his intellect, or because he had seen something about Jesus everyone else had failed to notice. What made Peter unique was that in that moment his heart was uniquely open to the revelation of the Father about his Son by the Spirit. It did not come from his flesh and blood. It would have been a problem if he insisted on using his flesh and blood to figure it out. Only the Father could reveal the Son (see Matthew 11:27). And Peter, who knew there was more to Jesus than he was qualified to answer himself, was open to that revelation.
Jesus being the messiah meant that he was one uniquely anointed by the Holy Spirit. It was thus that no one could say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit (see First Corinthians 12:3). It was therefore necessary to be open to the movement of the Spirit inside oneself in order to have the fullness of his identity revealed. This, perhaps, is what is meant by "deep calling on deep" (see Psalm 42:7).
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.”
Immediately following the confession of Peter we see why human reason would be insufficient to answer the question of the identity of Jesus. Even if we managed to guess at his exulted status, we would certainly never imagine that the same Jesus would somehow face suffering and death. But this was in fact necessary from the point of view of the divine plan. Similarly, we need the Holy Spirit to help us continue to recognize the messianic identity of Jesus even in a world marked by darkness and suffering. We clearly do not live in a world where all evil is prevented or immediately corrected. But we do live in a world where even death can now lead to new life and resurrection. The spiritual temple in which we now worship may seem shabby from the perspective of earth. But its glory will one day be revealed as magnificent.
Greater will be the future glory of this house
than the former, says the LORD of hosts;
And in this place I will give you peace,
says the LORD of hosts!
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