“Who do you say I am?” Jesus asks.
In recent weeks, Matthew’s Gospel has led us to ponder Jesus’ identity. We’ve been drawn into the text to see Jesus’ power and authority over the natural world, sickness, and even death and evil—doing that which is impossible for any ordinary human to do, as Jesus has gone to work in the world with this disciples and people from the towns and villages around them.
So many people followed Jesus the crowd exceeded 5,000. Jesus had compassion on them and healed all their sick, before using just five loaves and a few fish to feed them, even providing enough for 12 baskets of leftovers. Then as his disciples were tossed to and fro in their boat, he walked to them on the water, calming the storm and saving Peter who started sinking beneath the waves. He healed a Canaanite woman’s daughter severely afflicted by a demon.
Parallel to these events there has been a rapid shift in awareness of who Jesus is. Initially the disciples were puzzled by what Jesus said to them as they ponder how to feed the multitudes. There was misunderstanding and fear from the disciples who thought Jesus was a ghost as he walked to them on the water. Then Peter called Jesus “Lord” and cried out to him for help as he started to sink. In the boat the disciples exclaim “Surely you are the Son of God!”
Later, Jesus travelled to the region of Tyre and Sidon, Gentile cities beyond Israel’s border to the north. Places in Israel had been blessed with God’s presence, preaching, and power through Jesus, yet they rejected him. The irony is that those whom the religious leaders judged as unclean had the clearest picture of who Jesus is, and the life and freedom he brings. A Canaanite woman—a pagan foreigner the religious leaders of Israel considered ritually unclean and unworthy of divine favour—addressed Jesus: “Lord, Son of David” showing she understands Jesus to be the Messiah promised from of old, begging him to free her daughter from demonic affliction.
The setting of today’s text is Caesarea Philippi, to the east of Tyre and Sidon and at the extreme northern boundary of Israel, far removed from the nation’s capital and site of the Temple, Jerusalem. Centuries prior to this the area was a centre for pagan worship of the Greek God Pan—the half man, half-goat mythological figure which played the flute. This stylised picture doesn’t give justice to how fearsome Pan looked. He acted randomly and could sometimes cause people to flee in fear. It is from this name we get the English word “panic.” Pan was thought to dwell in a large cave from where a spring flowed, and the place became the centre of pagan worship, with people throwing sacrifices into the cave as offerings to Pan. Later, around 20BC, Herod the Great built a temple in honour of Caesar Augustus. Herod’s son Philip improved the city and renamed it after himself: Caesarea Philippi. Such self-indulgent, idolatrous spirituality could just as much be Adelaide today.
Against this backdrop Jesus asks his disciples: Who do the people say the son of Man is?” They answered: “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, and others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” The people had many different ideas of who Jesus was, but many thought of him as a human, historical character and failed to recognise him as true God, Son of the Father from all eternity, living in the present.
This isn’t really any different to how many people think about Jesus today. Most people believe Jesus existed and even acknowledge historical truths about him. Many think of him as a ‘good bloke’, a role model, great teacher—or even go so far to say a perfect example to follow.
But Jesus is more concerned about what his own people say about him: “Who do you say that I am?”
Jesus’ question is present tense: “Who do you say that I am?” Through today’s Gospel reading Jesus is still asking that same question to you and me. Do we think of him as merely a historical figure like John the Baptist or one of the prophets? Is he simply ‘Gentle Jesus, meek and mild’ as portrayed in our nativity sets and Christmas decorations, before they are boxed up, and packed away out of sight? Is he a lucky charm to go to when we need something? Is he an example for moral living? Is he a right answer and mental thought—Jesus died on the Cross—without the thought that he rose again and ascended to be everywhere present?
Jesus asks: “Who do you say I am? There’s a difference between believing about Jesus, and daily trusting in him as the Son of the living God who is present to us with divine favour and saving help in every moment of our life, just like he was to those people in Matthew’s Gospel.
Jesus asks: “Who do you say I am?” Jesus is the Christ, the Saviour of the world. He is truly the Son of God from all eternity who became fully human. He came to bring help for people helpless to help themselves. It was when, in our natural state, we were not ready for Jesus, spiritually poor, enemies to God and dead to him, that God in his great compassion sent Jesus to bring life and freedom to the world, bleed human yet holy blood on the Cross in the place of undeserving sinners, to redeem the world and reconcile all things to God. His miracles of feeding, healing, saving, casting out demons was the prelude to this once for all overthrow of sin, death and hell on the Cross.
It is not flesh and blood that reveals Jesus’ identity to us. God uses human beings, but it is only by the Spirit of God sent by the Father from heaven who reveals Jesus to us and leads us to him. No one can say “Jesus is Lord”, except by the Holy Spirit.
If you confess Jesus is Lord, that he is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, then you are blessed. Your Father in heaven has revealed this to you. The truth about Jesus and his saving help proclaimed throughout the ages is the way that Jesus builds his church. He promises that even the gates of hell will not overpower us—because nothing is more powerful than his word. When God speaks, what he says happens, just like in the beginning, when God said: “Let there be…” and it was so.
Through the risen Christ, God continues this work in the world. Through Jesus, the Kingdom of heaven still reigns through his powerful word which will not return to him empty but accomplish everything he desires: “I will give to 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.”
This is not just given to Peter but to all bearers of apostolic teaching through whom God brings truth and grace into the world and the lives of the hearers, to accomplish what he desires in their heart. The risen Christ continues to speak today. Whenever you hear those words: “I forgive you all your sins” you are hearing Christ himself speaking, and God delivers the result and blessings of Jesus’ death on the Cross to you personally.
And God delivers these blessings by water and the word in baptism. Baptism is not some kind of magic act or special guarantee in itself, for salvation is by grace through faith. But baptism is the means by which God sends his Holy Spirit from outside of ourselves to go to work and perform a heart transplant which beats with the life the Father gives in Christ, growing faith from the seed that the Holy Spirit sows to blossom and bear fruit, confessing Jesus as the Christ sent from his Father.
Alyssa can’t do that just yet, so by her baptism God demonstrates what grace is. Alyssa hasn’t got the capacity at this point to understand what is happening. She hasn’t decided to be here today, and she can’t do this herself. That is why Jesus says that unless we become like little children, we too cannot enter the Kingdom of God—for none of us, except by the Holy Spirit, can confess faith in Christ, no matter how intelligent, wise, strong, or capable we might think ourselves to be.
That is why it is such good news that Jesus continues to build his church and is still at work today. He is at work in this very building, right now, bringing the same saving help that he did to the people in Matthew’s Gospel. So let’s pray that as the kingdom of God goes to work in Alyssa’s heart, and that as she grows she has the opportunities to gladly hear and learn God’s word, that she may have a strong, vibrant faith that confesses Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God.
And may we ask of God the same for ourselves, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit we confess with Peter: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” each day of our life; the God who loves you today, is with you today, and forgives you today. May we not just know about him, but really know him—as the bread from heaven who came down to give life to the world, as the living water, way, the truth, and the life, the resurrection and the life, the fulness of life, the bread of life, the light of the world, the prince of peace, and our Good Shepherd in each moment of every day. And may we rejoice that through faith in Christ, his words include us: “Blessed are you, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.” Amen!
