August 27, 2023 Sermon
Sermon title: "Who Do You Say That I Am?"
Scripture: Matthew 16:13-20
(Other lectionary suggestions include Exodus 1:8 - 2:10, Psalm 124, and Romans 12:1-8.)
Matthew 16:13-20
Peter’s Declaration about Jesus
13Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" 14And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." 15He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" 16Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." 17And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. 18And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. 19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." 20Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
If you ever pick up the Gospel of Matthew, you will discover that it has 28 chapters. Today we are in Chapter 16 - or roughly halfway through the gospel - and it is here that Matthew chooses to record Peter's exclamation that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God. As I have pointed out before, the Gospel according to Matthew (all the Gospels actually) isn't just a story but a piece of literature. Matthew is telling us a story, yes, but he's doing it in his way to make the points that he wants to make. And it is interesting that he takes roughly half the book before the disciples - or Peter, at least - get it: that Jesus isn't just some other prophet, but the Son of the living God.
Roman Catholics and Protestants used to argue over this passage. The Catholic claim was that Jesus was building his church on Peter, the Rock. (And do you get the pun? Peter or Petros in Greek means rock.) But the Protestant position has been that the "Rock" in question is the revelation from God. Jesus says, "For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven." Take your pick: was Jesus building the church on Peter or on the proclamation that GOD has revealed who Jesus is? An argument could be made for both, I suppose, but as a Protestant I prefer to believe in God's revelation. And if you think about it, isn't faith a GIFT, a revelation from God? Not everybody who wants faith gets it, and those of us who have been blessed with it need to realize just how blessed we are.
Something else, too......Please keep in mind that when Matthew wrote his Gospel, it was after the fact. The church believed that God had raised Jesus from the dead, and the young church was already an entity. And it does seem to be true that Peter was a big leader in the Jerusalem church. THEREFORE......Peter was a big cog in the wheel, and the early church KNEW that. So, Matthew, writing AFTER the fact, pretty much had to give Peter a big part in the founding of the church. I am not saying any of this was phonied up by Matthew, but I AM saying that Peter played a big part in the founding of the church at Jerusalem, and Matthew's first readers will be well aware of that fact.
William H. Willimon says that whatever Peter or anyone else says about Jesus being the Messiah "....is all grace, a gift of God, revelation. This is not our possession, not the result of our brilliant deduction. It's a blessing to be able to say, 'You are the Christ....' So, the church must keep giving thanks that we are able, by the grace of God, to look at Jesus and affirm who he really is."
And who is Jesus, really? Says Willimon: "Jesus is the unique, singular, revelation of the truth about God. Because he is revelation, he is a gift. One reason we have been given the gift of Jesus as Messiah and Son of the living God is so we can share that gift with others." And one more Willimon quote: "Christians are those who look at this Jesus of Nazareth and claim him to be as much of God as we ever hope to see in this life." Isn't that a great quote? It reminds me of what my high school minister said one time when I was still in high school. He said, "Do you want to know what God is like? Just look at this guy Jesus of Nazareth. That is what God is like."
Did you notice that today's conversation between Jesus and Peter occurs "On the Road"? Says William H. Willimon, "Most people met Jesus on the road. When John the Baptist introduced Jesus to the world, he quoted the prophet Isaiah {who said} 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley will be filled, and every mountain and hill will be leveled....All humanity will see God's salvation.' In Jesus", says Willimon, "God worked a highway construction project, making a road straight through the desert to enslaved humanity. Just as in the Exodus, when God made a 'way' out of Egyptian slavery to the promised land, so Jesus is the 'way' to God."
And there's more from this South Carolina Methodist....."All the Gospels present Jesus on a continual road trip - God in motion, urgently making a way to us in defeat of the desert in which we wander.....Some of Jesus's best words were spoken on the run....In Mark, probably the earliest of the Gospels, Jesus just shows up out of nowhere, gets baptized by John, and then the Spirit shoos him out into the wilderness. It is as if the Gospels want to say that the action only really gets going when Jesus hits the road." How about you? What do you think? Willimon ends this part of his commentary with the phrase, "If you want to know about Jesus, if you want to know him, you've got to meet him on the road." I don't know. Is he right? What do you think? Amen.
Pastor Skip
