Tyson Congregational Church (8/21/11)
Matthew 16:13-20
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.
Jesus challenged his followers with an important, a core, question. He challenged them with the central question of life: Who am I?
In response, his disciples gave him several answers: some say you are John the Baptist, but others say you are Elijah, and still others say you are Jeremiah or one of the other prophets. These are all dodges.
(1) John Baptist: A prophet, a self-proclaimed forerunner to the Messiah who had been martyred, and was expected to return before the Messiah’s arrival.
(2) Elijah: An ancient prophet who, like Jesus, did many miracles and whose return was anticipated in some corners of ancient Israel.
(3) Jeremiah: Another ancient prophet who, like Jesus, was seen to weep over the state of the nation, and whom God had set over the kingdoms and the nations (Jer 1:10). The Israelites anticipated the Messiah would conquer the world.
(4) One of the Prophets: Some saw Jesus as another in the long, nearly extinct line of prophetic figures who showed up in Israel’s history to restore the nation to proper worship of God, and who demonstrated his authority by the working of miracles and the exercise of vibrant influence.
Now, what do all these accounts have in common? Taken together, they are an attempt by first-hand observers to make sense of Jesus; to place him in some context to which they could relate.
Immersed in their own faith history, acutely aware of their own political situation and cultural dynamics, they were trying to understand just who and what this man was.
Don’t forget they were also hearing a – um, contrasting – opinion from the Pharisees, Sadducees and governors, who were spinning Jesus’ miracles as evidence of his being in league with Satan. After all, everyone knows that God favors the powerful and wealthy over the weak and poor. And if that’s not enough, nothing good ever comes out of Samaria.
Well, we know all about spinning, don’t we? Today we have a variety of spins delivered to us very efficiently by mass media – which forms, transforms, and even deforms our opinions and thoughts about contemporary events and personalities. It can be difficult to sort out what is true about an occasion, a movement, or an individual. The best we can each do is to try to hear first-hand, then to listen closely to what is being said and left unsaid, and to place what we hear in the context of our prior experiences and perceptions.
That’s how people were approaching Jesus and his message. Each person either heard directly from Jesus, or heard second- and third-hand. And each person, hearing Jesus or hearing a report on Jesus, had to form an opinion based on his or her ability to understand what he was really all about.
What’s really fascinating, in my opinion, is that today – after 2,000 years of hearing Jesus’ story, after all of the historical analysis, critical analysis, textual analysis, form criticism analysis, and on and on – after 2,000 years, we still have as many badly formed opinions about Jesus as there were in his own day!
I am, for example, constantly impressed by the way people want to refashion Jesus in their own image, so that their pet projects, deep beliefs and favorite causes will bear the stamp of holiness. Not too long ago, Al Sharpton was asking what Jesus would do about taxes. His conclusion: Jesus would obviously raise taxes on the rich to give more care to the poor.
That was just the latest in the effort of the political and cultural left to appropriate, to spin, a decades-old Evangelical phrase (turned into bracelets) WWJD: What Would Jesus Do? For the Evangelicals, it began as a short-hand to remind themselves to live a more reflective life; to pause and ask what they ought to do as disciples of Christ, rather than to just act on impulse, prejudices or personal preference.
But even so, it was also short-hand for a particular way of thinking about who Jesus is and what he demands of us: it denotes a certain theological construct; one which the liberal mainstream Protestant churches disagree with; and which the left-leaning more-secular culture definitely opposes.
Spinning is human behavior. But it leaves us with the original question. Who is Jesus?
That’s the question Jesus asked his followers; the same question he asks you and me.
Well, we say, hedging our bets, some say he’s a friend of the poor and an enemy of the rich; that he has a special place in his heart and kingdom for the dispossessed and those who side with them; and some say he’s a champion of those who help themselves, a proponent of individual autonomy and effort and a friend of those who hate governments that try to get between the individual and his/her God.
Some say he is at heart a communitarian, believing we all have a moral duty to help those less fortunate, and a proponent of sharing all things in common; others say that he taught essential self-reliance, everyone working to put bread on his or her own table, and enjoying the fruits of creation that we each pick from the tree of life.
Some say he is very interested in what happens here on earth; others say he is not interested in the physical, but in the spiritual side of life and human beings.
Some say Jesus loves America and all that we stand for; some say he hates what America has become and yearns for our refashioning.
All of these views, and more, offered by people who love Christ, as well as those who don’t.
Yes, fine, Jesus says. You’ve given me a good run-down of public perception – of the spin of the day – but that was not my question. What I want to know is, who do you say that I am?
Ah. There’s the nub of it. And we are inclined to place Jesus in one of our contemporary categories: Is he more Republican or Democrat? Would he favor the Tea Party, the Sierra Club, the Club for Growth, or the United Auto Workers?
We’d like to think he’d support our favorite causes, approve of our social viewpoints, and champion our political favorites. But the truth is, Jesus can no more be made in your image than I can be. Like you, like me, Jesus was – and is – his own person. The only no-spin answer we can give is the one Peter gave.
It is the right answer; the only one you and I can agree on; the only one that really matters: With Peter, we must say, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”
And Jesus says to us: on that foundation stone, I will build my Church.
On that foundation stone; on the solid rock of that statement of faith, Christ builds his Church. Not on all of our political and social viewpoints; not on our perceptions and misperceptions about life, about each other, about God; but on that single statement: He is the Christ, the only Son of the Living God. On that rock the Church is built.
Well what about all of the other things? All of the efforts we make to understand Jesus, to place him in a context we can relate to? Well, here’s something we don’t care to think about: It is possible to have good thoughts of Christ, and yet not right ones. It is possible to have a high opinion of Jesus, and yet not high enough. It is possible to esteem Jesus, to honor the wisdom of his counsel, to see and even believe his miracles, and yet to not see him as he is: the one and only Christ.
There is a widespread theology today, alive in the mainstream Church, which argues that we are all Christs, if only we knew it and acted upon it. That is a wrong teaching. There is one Christ, without whom we are lost. And there is nothing we can add to his work. There is nothing left for human beings to do but acknowledge He is the Christ, in Him the world is saved, and all that is in it. And that salvation is not dependent upon anything we do or don’t do, or anything we contribute or refrain from contributing. There is nothing for us to add to the world, or to take out of it. Salvation is ours, whether we wish it or not; whether we accept it or not; and whether we deserve it or not. It is done apart from us, over us, and for us, but never by us. It is done without our permission or participation.
Think about that. You are not given a say in the matter. You are not given the power to accept or reject the work of Christ. You are wholly in his debt, whether you want to be or not. Whether you like it or not.
That is the Gospel. And all that is left is for us to acknowledge what has been bestowed upon us; and to bear witness to it. That’s it! We are not called to like it; we are called to bear witness to what God has done in Christ. Of course, it helps if we like it, too; but liking God’s work is not essential. Only God’s work is essential. We and what we think, want, or do is not.
You are saved; you cannot go out and save yourself. You cannot even go out and unsave yourself.
You are given eternal life after this one; so you cannot earn your salvation no matter what you do or what you give up. Nor can you toss it away; it is not ever in your power to control what God does.
Does that mean you might as well go out and “sin it up” as some have done, in history? No, of course not. If you say, “Christ is Lord, my salvation and my Rock,” you are called to bear witness that it is not by your goodness or your effort – but simply by Christ – that you are saved.
Now, since Jesus is the Messiah, and you have been saved; what are you going to do today? And tomorrow? How do you live your life if everything that really matters has already been given to you?
That is the challenge of living as a Christian.
To be a Christian simply means to be one of those who knows and accepts what has been gifted to you. The challenge is to live out – to bear witness every day – to that reality.
Rather than ask “what would Jesus do,” let’s ask a different question. Let’s ask of ourselves the question Jesus asked his disciples: since you have been saved already, by the work Jesus has done on your behalf, dying in your place; since you have already inherited life beyond death, then…today, ask yourself what that means. Ask yourself, about yourself: “Who am I? Who am I really? “
That’s the important question; the one I want to leave you with today; the only one that matters. When you get home, go look in the mirror and ask the person you see there: Who am I? Who am I really? Who am I in God’s eyes?
And then go out and be that person in the world.
Amen.
