NOTES for Luk 9:18-22
Peter's confession is undoubtedly one of the most important moments in the spiritual life of the apostolic community. And precisely at this moment Jesus begins to speak to His disciples about His death on the cross and about His resurrection. Sooner or later this conversation had to take place. But why precisely now? Because spiritually the disciples were ready to hear what the Teacher said to them.
Of course, this does not mean that their reason was ready to receive what they heard. With their minds they could not contain what was said until the Teacher's resurrection itself, and if we speak of its full meaning, not until the day of Pentecost. The point was something else: Peter's confession, with which all the apostles agreed, obliged them to accept certain things without accepting which the apostles could not have remained apostles. Jesus was in no way like the image of the Messiah that was characteristic of popular religiosity and was so close and understandable to the apostles.
Even on the day of the Savior's ascension, the disciples expected from Him that now, at last, He would become a "real," "proper" Messiah, restore an independent Jewish state, and in general finally carry out the religious-political program whose realization the people of those times expected from the Messiah. It is no accident that Jesus forbids them to tell anyone about His messiahship: He, of course, understands perfectly well what appeals will follow from it. The disciples understood everything differently: they decided that the time had not yet come, that the uprising had to be prepared, and that until then they had to keep silent about their Teacher's messiahship.
And yet, despite all the misunderstandings and failures to understand, Jesus tells them what they now had to hear. To hear and to accept. There was no other way: for it was God who had revealed to Peter who stood before him. Now he, like all the other apostles, had to learn everything. And to decide for himself, as each of the apostles had to decide: whether he accepts what the Teacher has said or rejects it. The issue here was not whether what had been said fit into their consciousness or not. The main question was only this: whether the disciples, after everything they had heard, would still be able to trust the Teacher, or would not be able to. "Yes" meant the path into the Kingdom; "no" meant the path of Judas, the path into the outer darkness.