Reading Luke 9:18-26. Here, Peter testifies that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, after Jesus asks ‘But whom do you say that I am?’ We know from the account in Matthew that Jesus is happy to hear Peter say this, telling him that he is ‘blessed’ because no person has told him this, but rather he has this testimony through the Holy Spirit. But here in this account in Luke, Jesus goes straight from asking His apostles regarding their testimonies, to then telling them of His impending death and resurrection: ‘The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be slain, and be raised the third day.’ The word ‘rejection’ stands out to me here. It’s as if Jesus is saying, ‘You believe in me as the Messiah, and that is good, blessed are you. But there are going to be many people who will reject me, and will not believe in me as the Messiah, including people who have a lot of power.’
Furthermore, this rejection will play a central part in Jesus’s mission here on earth. One of Jesus’s main messages in the scriptures is this idea of disbelief, this idea of rejection. Blessed are those who believe; those who do not believe are not blessed – at least, not in the same way. But this rejection is going to happen: not everyone in this mortal life will accept Jesus as the Messiah.
The emphasis seems to act both as an invitation and as a warning. First, we are invited to believe in Jesus – it is up to us as individuals to ‘come unto Christ’. No one can force this belief on us; we have to come to it on our own. In the Philosophy of God course that I teach, we look at a piece by the philosopher Anthony Flew called ‘The Presumption of Atheism.’ The argument is that when it comes to the interaction between believers and non-believers, the presumption should be that God does not exist. It is up to the believer to ‘prove’ to the non-believer that God exists, through giving sufficient evidence, which the non-believer will then examine (and probably reject). The argument is that there have to be ‘good grounds’ for believing that God exists, and until the grounds are given, the only reasonable position would be that of atheism. This strikes me as wrong, not because there aren’t good grounds for believing that God exists, but because I think that, ultimately, the individual has to come to understand the existence of God for themselves. ‘Good grounds’ for God’s existence given by other people can be important and helpful and even necessary for a person’s faith, but they will never be sufficient. The grounding has to come from the individual’s personal experience with God, and that indicates that the individual must be at least willing to seek out God for themselves. Seek and ye shall find, etc. The presumption of atheism does not follow God’s pattern for getting a testimony.
Second, we are warned that when we do accept that invitation to believe in Christ, we should expect that not everyone is going to be happy about this. Just as Jesus was rejected by many, so we should expect to be rejected by many for our belief as Christians. It really won’t be easy to be a disciple of Christ. I find it interesting that Christ emphasizes so often the distinction between believers and non-believers. These groups are fluid, of course, but the point is that this mortal existence is never going to be unified. I guess there is a sense in which we always have a choice as to which group we are in. Again, it is a choice which the individual has to make. And also, please note, a choice which one cannot escape. To not make a choice is to make a choice. In this sense, I agree with the Christian existentialist idea that the decision to believe in God, or not believe in God, is a heavy, inescapable burden carried by each individual.
And perhaps this is why in the next set of verses, Jesus tells his followers that ‘whosoever will save his life shall lose it, but he who loses his life’ for Jesus’s sake shall find it. The word ‘life’ here is actually the Greek word psyche, which means ‘soul’. So, blessed are we when we commit our souls to Christ – when we love God with all our heart, might, mind and strength. When we hold things back, or reject Christ in favor of ourselves – our desires, our ambitions, our limited understandings, our disbelief – there is no flourishing, there is no abundance, there is ultimately profound loss. And indeed, this is how Jesus finishes the passage: ‘For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, but lose himself?’
The Light of Christ in the Darkness 
Hi Holly, I enjoyed your insights here on each person seeking God for themselves, but initially someone has to plant in their hearts that there is a possibility of God. Herein comes their exercise of faith. It reminded me of something I read in Lectures on Faith, lecture 2 that it is human testimony, that is the testimony of someone else, that initially sets one on a course to seek God for themselves.
“Adam thus being made acquainted with God, communicated the knowledge which he had unto his posterity; and it was through this means that the thought was first suggested to their minds that there was a God. Which laid the foundation for the exercise of their faith, through which they could obtain a knowledge of his character and also of his glory.
From this we can see that the whole human family, in the early age of their existence, in all their different branches, had this knowledge disseminated among them; so that the existence of God became an object of faith, in the early age of the world. And the evidences which these men had of the existence of a God, was the testimony of their fathers in the first instance.
34 The reason why we have been thus particular on this part of our subject, is, that this class may see by what means it was that God became an object of faith among men after the fall; and what it was that stirred up the faith of multitudes to feel after him; to search after a knowledge of his character, perfections and attributes, until they became extensively acquainted with him; and not only commune with him, and behold his glory, but be partakers of his power, and stand in his presence.
35 Let this class mark particularly that the testimony which these men had of the existence of a God, was the testimony of man; for previous to the time that any of Adam’s posterity had obtained a manifestation of God to themselves, Adam their common father had testified unto them of the existence of God, and of his eternal power and Godhead.
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