“Who Do You Say That I Am?”

Matthew 16:13-20

Suzanne de Dietrich: It’s a long way from admiration to commitment.

From today’s Prayer of Confession: Father God, you invite us to know Jesus; we are content with knowing about him.

William Barclay: (1) Our knowledge of Jesus must never be second hand. A man might know every verdict ever passed on Jesus; he might know every Christology that the [human mind] had ever thought out; he might be able to give a competent summary of the teaching about Jesus of every great thinker and theologian – and still not be a Christian. Christianity never consists in knowing about Jesus; it always consists in knowing Jesus. Jesus Christ demands a personal verdict. He did not ask only Peter, he asks every [one]: “You – what do you think of me?”

(2)Here indeed is a dramatic picture. Here is a homeless, penniless Galilean carpenter, with twelve very ordinary men around him. At the moment the orthodox are actually planning and plotting to destroy him as a dangerous heretic. He stands in an area littered with the temples of the Syrian gods; in a place where the ancient Greek gods looked down; in a place where the history of Israel crowded in upon the minds of [people]; where the white marble splendour of the home of Caesar-worship dominated the landscape and compelled the eye. And there – of all places – this amazing carpenter stands and asks [his disciples] who they believe him to be, and expects the answer, The Son of God. It is as if Jesus has deliberately set himself against the background of the world’s religions in all their history and their splendor, and demanded to be compared with them and to have the verdict given in his favour. There are few scenes where Jesus’ consciousness of his own divinity shines out with a more dazzling light.

(3)(Barclay’s paraphrase of vv. 18 & 19) Peter, your name means a rock, and your destiny is to be a rock. You are the first… to recognize me for what I am, and therefore you are the first stone in the edifice of the fellowship of those who are mine. Against that fellowship the embattled powers of evil will no more prevail than they will be able to hold me captive to death. And in the days to come, you must be the steward who will unlock the doors of the Kingdom that [others] may come in; and you must be the wise administrator and guide who will solve the problems and direct the work of the infant and growing fellowship.

[prayer]

If all Jesus had sought was an ego boost that day in Caesarea-Philippi, he would have struck gold. His disciples were telling him that some folks thought he was John the Baptist, others thought he was Jeremiah, and still others believed him to be Elijah. Those were some high-powered religious figures, each and every one of them a great prophet. As they say down south, Jesus was walking in some high cotton. He was being listed right up there with the greatest of the great.

Of course, not everybody thought that highly of him. The religious leaders of that time and place considered him a dangerous heretic. They were so threatened by his ministry that they were planning to kill him. That in itself is a backhanded compliment of sorts. Nobody is threatened by a person of little consequence. Jesus was very consequential. He was powerful and popular enough to threaten some very powerful people.

But Jesus wasn’t looking for an ego boost, be it positive or negative. He wanted to know whether or not his disciples had a clue as to his real identity. So he asked them, “Who do you say that I am? Who am I to you? What am I to you? Tell me, who do you think I really am?”

Nobody said anything, but then Simon – impetuous, overly emotional, not always stable Simon – blurts out the amazing truth: “You’re the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” Bingo! He nailed it. Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah who was at the same time the very Son of God. Surrounded by the whispered memories, lingering shadows, and blatant symbols of human history’s idolatry, Simon was able to declare that Jesus was the real thing – not an idol, not a tradition, not a religious or political symbol, but the incarnate revelation of the one true God – the living fulfillment of “the hopes and fears of all the years.” Not the perceived threat to orthodoxy some feared him to be, but the One who would finally fulfill and clarify the Word and will of God.

And how did Jesus respond to the first profession of faith concerning him ever made? He made sure that everyone knew that Simon hadn’t just pulled that profession out of thin air. Nor had it come to him as the result of some intellectual exercise. Said Jesus, “Blessed are you Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.”

Then he gave Simon a new name: Peter. Then in verses 18 and 19 he made some promises to and about Peter, promises summarized very well by William Barclay’s paraphrase that I read earlier, a summary that enunciates the Reformed understanding of Peter’s role as a rock in the life of the early church and all that “keys to the kingdom” business.

We’ll take a deeper look at all that some other day. Right now I want to focus on those words Simon Peter uttered that day: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” As explained above, Peter’s great confession of Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah was made possible only by the power of God. As Paul wrote in the 12^th chapter of I Corinthians, “… no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit.”

Apart from the Holy Spirit we cannot truly know Jesus; we can only know about him. Apart from the Holy Spirit we cannot traverse that great distance between admiring Jesus and being committed to him. Apart from the Holy Spirit we cannot live a life that reflects our deep belief in the Messiahship – the Lordship – of Jesus Christ. Apart from the Holy Spirit we cannot act upon the claim that Jesus really is King of Kings and Lord of Lords in a world in which a host of false gods ask for – and sometimes demand – our worship, adoration, and commitment.

Wealth, power, position, and privilege; patriotism, kinship, denominational loyalty, church traditions; cultural assumptions, church buildings, and sometimes even so-called theological orthodoxy: these are but a few of the false gods that can demand our loyalty. None of these are intrinsically evil. Each of them is a good thing: until it demands a loyalty that belongs to Christ and Christ alone. Jesus himself made it very clear that we are never to render unto Caesar that which belongs only to God. There is only one Messiah. His name is Jesus.

No form of government, no economic system, no political party or politician can be our Messiah. No legal code, no flag or other symbol of national pride, no man or woman can be our Messiah. No narrowly defined, rigidly formulated, or exclusively taught form of theological orthodoxy can be our Messiah. No one particular mode of Baptism, style of Communion, or form of church polity can be our Messiah. No worship format, style of music, historical liturgy, or Biblical translation can be our Messiah. Only Jesus can be our Messiah. Only Jesus can be our Sovereign. Only Jesus can be our Lord.

And in order to be one of his followers we need only to proclaim and live, by the power of the Holy Spirit, one common creed: Jesus is Lord. Theological systems, schools of Biblical interpretation, sacramental theology and practices, and forms of church government can be debated and disagreed with ad infinitum. We’ll be debating and disagreeing about such things until the Lord takes us all home and we no longer have to see God’s truth through a mirror dimly. Of course, by then we won’t really care about such things. We’ll be too caught up in all that wonder, love, and grace.

I consider anyone who is willing to stand with me and profess Jesus Christ as his or her only Lord and Savior – to name him as the Messiah and Son of the Living God - to be my brother or sister in Christ. In that way I am fully ecumenical and inclusive, maybe even liberal. Liberal, by the way, is not a dirty word. And sometimes orthodoxy is overrated. We must never forget that it was the so-called orthodox crowd of the day who wanted Jesus dead.

I am a Presbyterian. My feet are firmly planted in Reformed theology and history. But I am willing to work with and support any Christian who will proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord. That is my test of orthodoxy. And ultimately it is the test of time. All that other stuff is important but not ultimately so.

“Who do you say that I am?” asked Jesus. There is only one correct answer: “You are the Messiah – the Christ – and Son of the Living God.” That is non-debatable. Amen.