That momentous confession of faith showed that the Lord’s ministry had not wholly failed, and it now remained for him to devote himself to the training of the Apostles as the nucleus and future leaders of his Church.

But the first thing he had to do was to teach them what kind of a Messiah he must be.  They accepted the popular idea of a warrior-king in the grand style who would drive the foreign invader from the Holy Land.  The truth was very different.  Not by an earthly throne would the Messiah, the Christ, win over the hearts of men and women and bring them to God, but only by suffering for them on the Cross and rising again from the dead.

“From that time on,” we read, “Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering…and be killed, and on the third day be raised” (NRSV, Matthew 16:21).

Such an idea was unthinkable to the Apostles.  “God forbid it, Lord!” was Peter’s immediate reaction.  “This must never happen to you” (NRSV, Matthew 16:22).