The role of leadership among the people of God is very important. In ancient Israel, those in office had religious as well as political responsibilities. Today’s first reading narrates the transfer of authority from one man to another. This investiture symbolizes the man’s being clothed with authority. Even if this passage does not reflect an actual historical occasion, the picture it sketches is significant. The oracle promises a person who will provide the order and stabil ity that the kingdom of Judah must have needed. If the man being clothed with authority is not himself a messianic figure, he ensures that the kingdom—one that will produce such a figure—will survive.
Paul speaks of the mysterious ways of God in the plan of salvation. Even though human beings cannot grasp God’s plan, it has meaning and purpose, and God’s plan for all creation will unfold in God’s way. Paul extols God the creator, the source of all that is; he acclaims God the sustainer, through whom all creation continues to be; he celebrates God the goal for whom all things were made and to whom all things proceed. Paul is certainly grounded in a very Jewish understanding of God. What is unique, however, is the way he has interpreted this theology. It is here that Christ holds a constitutive place.
Jesus asks the disciples what people are saying about him. Some believe that he is John the Baptist; others, that he is Elijah; still others, that he is one of the other prophets. Simon Peter speaks in the name of the others when he proclaims that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one of God, the Son of the living God. With a play on Greek words, Jesus declares that Peter (Petros) is the rock (petra) upon which Jesus will establish his church. Although the image of a rock suggests stability and endurance, we will soon see that these characteristics are not natural to Peter.