While the language of “ecclesia” is used seldom, the message of the Church is implicit throughout the teachings of Jesus. Jesus was building the Church ultimately on the foundation of his own death and resurrection…and until that was clear in the minds of the disciples and as a fact of history, it could not be clear to them exactly what he meant by building his ecclesia. There is in Peter’s mind an illumination into the mind of Jesus, but an inability to understand what Jesus meant… they didn’t understand that the church of Jesus Christ was going to be built on the cross… and cross-bearing. There is a genuine messianic secret and an ecclesial secret that goes hand in hand until the nature of Jesus is revealed. He has not come simply to save isolated individuals, but to bring about community.
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