Fr. Gerard Kelly
A few weeks ago someone gave me a book
called The Face of Jesus. It is a book of just over three hundred pages
and on every page there are images of the face of Jesus. It is a picture book, and it looks at the
face of Jesus in Christian art dating from about the third century right up to
modern times. These images cover every
facet of Jesus’ life: his birth, the beginning of his mission, his miracles,
his Passion and Resurrection. There is
even a chapter with various images of Jesus from different parts of the world
and different cultural settings. Of
course, the gospels never gave us any details about Jesus’ physical appearance,
and all of the images we have were made long enough after his ascension that
they were not done by people who had seen him.
Everyone has to imagine what Jesus is like. There are two basic ways artists have done
this. One way is to use a stylised image
such as we see in icons. They are nothing
like looking at a photograph. Rather
they depict his face using colour and lines.
These sorts of images portray a Jesus who is the divine Son of God. He often sits on a throne of glory. Another way artists depict Jesus is to place
him in the world where they live so that he looks like one of the locals and belongs
in that place. He will look nothing like
a first century Palestinian, but perhaps more like a sixteenth century Italian
or maybe even a twentieth century American.
The face, of course, conveys a lot
about the person. In some images of the
face, Jesus looks strong, as one who has authority. Other images show him as someone who is full
of compassion. Some images show him
suffering and in pain; others show him glorious and risen. Still other images show his face looking
towards us, and questioning us.
Today’s gospel made me think about
these images. Jesus asked the question,
“Who do you say I am?” In St Mark’s
gospel it almost seems as though it was easy for Peter and the disciples to say
who Jesus is. Peter answers for them all
when he says, “You are the Christ.” He
seems confident in saying this. He had
probably been listening for a couple of years as Jesus preached about the
kingdom of God. Peter had certainly seen
his miracles; and he also knew the Scriptures.
He knew that God had promised a Messiah who would come in the future to
set people free and usher in God’s reign.
Peter had an image of the Messiah as someone who would come in glory and
who would be victorious in overcoming all of the forces that enslaved the
people.
Yet we know that Jesus rebukes
him? When Jesus goes on to say that the
Son of Man is destined to suffer grievously, to be rejected by the elders, to
be put to death and to rise on the third day, Peter starts to argue with
Jesus. Peter had missed something in creating
his image of the Messiah. It is as
though he had conveniently forgotten some of what the Scriptures say. He had forgotten what we heard in the first
reading, namely that the Servant of God suffers shame and abuse, that he looks
ugly and deformed, and that he stands there and takes it all. The servant does this because he trusts God
to save him. Here is the image of the
Messiah: the one who trusts God even when there seems no reason to do so. Peter had forgotten this; and now he seems to
be getting in the way of Jesus’ mission.
That is why Jesus says to him, “Get behind me, Satan.” Jesus is saying to Peter: do not stand in my
way; do not stop me from fulfilling what I was sent to do. Jesus is telling Peter that the image he has is
not adequate. Peter doesn’t want to look
at the whole picture of Jesus.
But Jesus doesn’t just reprimand
Peter. When he says, “Get behind me,” he
is also telling Peter to take up a position in readiness to follow Jesus. Let Jesus lead the way. I’m sure Peter would have been a little
afraid of what he heard that day. But he
was being called to trust Jesus – just as Jesus trusted his Father. Peter was being called to trust Jesus to lead
the way to what God was offering. We
should not think too badly of Peter.
After all, he made a profound profession of faith when Jesus questioned
him. What happened after this was that
Jesus took Peter to a deeper level of faith.
Peter’s faith needed to be purified.
All of the images in the picture book I
received are answers to the question, “Who do you say I am?” This is a question that is always before
us. The words and actions of Peter
remind us that it is very easy to create our own image of Jesus, and that it
can be an image that is only partially right.
All of us have a tendency to filter out those parts that we don’t like
or that don’t seem right. After all,
what sort of a God do we worship if this is a God who suffers? Where is the power of this God? We have to face up to that question. In doing so we purify our image of Jesus and
we come to know the truth about God.
During this year of grace we are being
called upon to look at the face of Jesus. As we gaze on him we open our hearts
to the Spirit who purifies our image of Jesus and assists us to join Peter in
making the profession of Faith.
