We all have in our heads an idea of what a leader should look like. We've seen and heard enough successful leaders that we understand what a great politician or coach will be like. Once that image is in our heads, it can be hard for us to support someone who doesn't fit the image -- it's harder to imagine that person as successful.
Peter had been following Jesus for long enough that he surely understood that Jesus was unusual, but he still had an idea of a successful Messiah in his head, and that image didn't include the Messiah suffering and dying on a cross. Nobody thought the Messiah would be killed, because that seems like it ought to be a failure, and it would be if the Messiah was only concerned about power in this world. However, if the Messiah were conquering things bigger than this world, then perhaps the problem is not with the Messiah but rather with our image of what the Messiah ought to be like. In other words, our internal image and expectations were too small.
I think we often suffer from having expectations that are too small. We can be guilty of the same problem in our own lives. We want Jesus to make things a little bit better, to marginally improve bits and pieces here and there, when in reality Jesus wants to completely overhaul how we live and be Lord and King of everything.
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