Matthew 16:13-20 Meaning: Did the Messiah Just Yell at Me?
Introduction
Jesus. One hundred years ago James Allan Francis wrote:
"Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another obscure village, where he worked in a carpenter's shop until he was thirty. Then for three years he was an itinerant preacher.
He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never owned a home. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put his foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place where he was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but himself.
While he was still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied him. He was turned over to his enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. While he was dying, his executioners gambled for the only piece of property he had on earth — his coat. When he was dead, he was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.
Nineteen centuries have come and gone, and today he is the central figure of the human race, and the leader of the column of progress.
I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, and all the navies that were ever built, and all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has this one solitary life."
Folks, every generation is faced with the same question: Who is Jesus to you?
It would be tempting to give an answer like the disciples did, not venturing to risk anything. They just report back what's floating around. Some say you are John the Baptist. Some say you are the reincarnation of some of the greatest prophets who ever lived: Elijah, Jeremiah, or someone else.
Notice what those answers have in common. They're borrowed and they are reused. Those are categories that already existed. Let's just fit Jesus into that neat box.
We do the same thing, we just have different categories. Ask around and you'll hear it: Jesus was a teacher of morals. Jesus shows us how to self-actualize; he's essentially a life coach. Jesus was a political revolutionary, a symbol for whatever cause needs a righteous mascot. Jesus is a safe historical figure, someone you can admire from a distance without it costing you much. Jesus is a meme, a punchline, a Halloween costume.
Ask around. You'll hear it. Look around and you'll find it. Right after Thanksgiving this year, you'll be checking out at the grocery store and you'll see a magazine with the tantalizing cover: Was Jesus really born? What's the real truth about Jesus? And in March of every year, "What is the shroud of Turin?" "Did Jesus really live and die?" "Jesus: The Man and the Myth."
None of that is necessarily hostile. Some of it's even respectful. A few of those things, I believe. But it's all still the crowd's answer. It's Jesus filtered through someone else's opinion, biases, or needs. And most of us are walking around with a version of Jesus we never really consciously chose: we inherited it, absorbed it, or picked it up like the common cold. And we hold on to it because of fear, shame, or just because.
Living with the answer someone else gives us: That's where many people live. And it's a comfortable place to live, because it doesn't ask anything of you. For instance, talking about Jesus in the past, a figure of history, keeps us from talking about Jesus' call to us today. And if there anything Jesus would disagree with, it would be that his words have no meaning, no power, no punch for your life today.
Peter's Answer
Then Jesus does something the crowd's questions never required. He turns it personal.
"But who do you say I am?"
That is singular and direct. Not, "Hey, could you guys get a great presbyterian group together, maybe call it "the commission on what the heck is he asking us" and come back with a recommendation we can adopt."
He doesn't ask about consensus. He doesn't care about what's trending. He says, "That's all well and good. People are going to have opinions of all sorts. But my real question is this: At the end of the day, when fear and caution and the opinion of others are not the obstacle, what's your real opinion of me?"
Well, 11 of the 12 disciples kind of look at their feet and move the gravel around, but Peter answers: "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."
Messiah is the Christ. The story of the Bible up to that point is that long ago, we lost our way. We call it sin, but we've also called it bigotry, racism, greed, lust, murder, hate, corruption, impropriety, financial sleaziness, and many other names.
And over time, many great people have been born. But no matter the brevity or length of their lives, humanity resorts back to the status quo, which is typically awful.
The promise of the poets, prophets, and scripture, is that one day, God will do an amazing thing and bring the promised one, the messiah, the Christ, who will show us God's good plan for the world, uniting all people regardless of bloodline, language, skin color, and more, and creating a new kingdom, a kingdom without borders, without a military, without one leader, because his teachings will form their sense of identity and purpose, changing them from the inside out.
All of that, compressed into one word: Messiah.
The Son of the Living God. He is not one among billions. He is one of one. An original. A messiah must be born of a woman. But Jesus, you are also born of God. Fully God. Fully man. Not 50/50. Just flesh woven into a mystery.
Regardless of what you think about that answer, at least Peter was willing to speak it out loud. That's a confession that costs you something. He doesn't hide behind "well, some people say." As I sometimes hear on the basketball court, he said it with his chest.
This is the move Jesus is always making with us. He's not interested in what your parents believe, though he is interested in what they believe. He doesn't necessarily care what creeds and confessions say, or what your friend group assumes. Now, those things matter, but they are not meant to be substitutes for the question landing on you personally. At some point the question stops being about Jesus in general and it starts being about Jesus and you, up close and personal.
So, who do you say Jesus is?
And Yet, the Twist
Now, here's where the text, the sermon, and the reality of our lives takes a weird turn.
Peter just nailed it. Best answer in the room. And Jesus even blesses him for it: "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven."
And then, after this, Jesus says, "Okay. Peter answered the question. Now let me explain to you what my life as the Messiah means. First, you can't tell anyone quite yet because they'll try to murder me or you. And we don't want that."
Second, a lot of talk has taken place over the years about what the Messiah, the Christ, will be and do. They think the Messiah will journey up to Jerusalem, form a government and a military and push the Roman Gentiles out of our Promised Land. Then we will live a prosperous and flourishing life: a land of milk and honey. That is, even nature will bless us with minimum effort from us.
Well, I am the Messiah, and I am journeying to Jerusalem, and I will undergo great suffering at the hands of these leaders and I will be killed. On the third day, I'll rise.
And Peter interrupted him and said, "Jesus, a word."
And Peter, delusionally high on getting the right answer, rebukes Jesus, tells him he's stupid or wrong or both. "The Jesus I believe in would never act that way, would never say that. It's scandalous, Jesus."
And I imagine that if there is any point in the gospels where Jesus balled up his fists, this might be the one.
"Peter, I'll tell you this once. Be quiet. Shut your mouth. And get out of my way. This conversation with you is as dangerous as walking on stones covered in wet moss. You will never tell me how I am supposed to live."
Jesus, too, can say it with his chest.
Same Peter. Same confession. Still catastrophically wrong about what his answer means.
That should be enormously freeing for every one of us. Getting the confession right doesn't mean you've arrived. Peter said the true thing and then drew the wrong conclusion!
He needed to meet Jesus again, the same Jesus, but in a new way. Jesus is always bigger than any category we can put him in. He's finicky that way.
Call him a spiritual leader, and he says leaders lord their power over people.
Call him a political leader, and he tells you to love and serve your enemies.
Call him a religious leader, and he says God can be worshipped anywhere, by anyone.
Call him a moral teacher, and he says the problem isn't your behavior; it's your heart, and no one's is clean.
Call him one path among many, and you'll hear him say, "No one comes to the Father but through me."
And maybe the whole point is not who do you say I am? But it's coming to a place where we ask, "Jesus, who are you anyway? And how do I not shrink you down to a manageable abstraction?"
I mean, sometimes Jesus answers your questions but many times he questions your answers, and that is what we need. A Messiah who dodges the answers so we can learn the better questions.
The Church
What I have come to appreciate more and more in our church is that this is a place where you are allowed to be mid-journey. Heck, I've been mid-journey for almost 35 years now. You don't have to have the fully-formed, fully correct, airtight answer the moment you walk through these doors, or before you are baptized, or before you join the church, or serve as a deacon or elder, or accept a call into ministry.
Let me explicitly point out the good news here: Jesus didn't revoke his promise to Peter when Peter got it wrong.
"Jesus you are the Messiah, the Son of God."
"Peter, I can build a world-wide church with people like you and an answer like that."
"Dang it, Peter, Now I'm going to have to find someone else."
Nope. History bears it out. The church has always been built through people who get some things right and some things wrong. The church has always been filled with people all over the faith-doubt-and-searching spectrum.
I just think that getting some things right and some things wrong is better than not having an opinion at all. You've got to land somewhere to move forward, right?
This church, this congregation, is a place to explore, to ask questions, to wonder, to sit in comfort or discomfort. Maybe it's not about being correct or being certain, maybe it's about being open.
Isn't this how every healthy relationship works? We allow the other person to be and to become. We see that when we first met them they appeared to be a certain way, and then over the years, we see that there was way more under the surface, some of it deeper and subtle and complex. And there are also parts of their personhood and personality that emerged later. It wasn't that they tricked us or we were blind, it's that time and intention brought it to the surface.
That's what it is like to be in a relationship with someone, instead of just holding an opinion about them.
So, come one and all. Let us be brave in both our beliefs and our doubts, knowing that the Messiah will be who he is, while always being gracious to who we will always be: People wondering who Jesus really is and what it means that we are loved by him.
