One of the most iconic Australian TV game shows would have to be the 1980s program Sale of the Century hosted by Tony Barber and Delvene Delaney. The aim for contestants was to win the most prizemoney by correctly answering more questions than their competitors. The winner of each show earned the right to return the next evening as the ‘carry-over champion’, progressing further towards major prizes like the cash jackpot and BMW sports car.
A feature of the gameshow was the “Who am I?” round in which contestants tried to identify a hidden celebrity. Host Tony Barber asked the question: “Who am I?” before giving successive clues which gradually unveiled the person’s identity.
Let’s pretend that we’re on the Sale of the Century studio set right now and you’re the contestants. Get ready with your hands on your buzzers. Are you ready to play? It’s a “Who am I?” round.
“Who am I? I was born during the reign of Quirinius, governor of Syria. My family became refugees fleeing to Egypt soon after my birth. Although the man my mother married was not my biological father, he took good care of my mother and me, working as a carpenter in our hometown. For a time I was a tradie too, although my passion centred on theological teaching and training, even from a young age. I tirelessly volunteered in community service by helping ill, disadvantaged and marginalised people. Controversy was never far from me. As I grew I became a polarising figure. I gained popularity after supplying wine at a wedding in Cana, but I struggled to find acceptance with the religious community and opposition to me increased. In my early thirties I was unjustly tried and executed by the torturous method of crucifixion. I have many notable achievements during my life…but my greatest is rising from death. Although many people don’t know it, I am the reason for Christmas and Easter holidays and celebrations…[feel free to buzz in any time now with the correct answer].
If Sale of the Century ever did a ‘Who am I?’ round with Jesus as the hidden identity, it might have looked like that. But notice that this doesn’t reveal Jesus’ fullest identity, because it is all historical data—details from the past. When Jesus asks a similar question about his own identity in today’s text, notice that he says: “Who do the people say I am.”
Who people say Jesus is, and who he actually is, do not often align. As Jesus preached, healed and performed many miracles throughout Israel, many rejected him, because he didn’t fit into their legalistic framework with his welcome of sinners. The religious leaders had sought to set boundaries between holy and unholy people and saw Jesus as violating these. They were so caught up in their pursuit of pleasing God through their traditions and rituals that they had lost sight of God himself, and how he had sent Jesus as the fulfilment of the Old Testament law and promises. The irony was that those whom the religious leaders judged as unclean saw Jesus most clearly, and the life and freedom he brings.
The setting of today’s text is far away from the holy city of Jerusalem with its Temple.
Jesus and his disciples have come to Caesarea Philippi, the region at the extreme northern borders of Israel, an area viewed with suspicion and distaste by the ‘holy ones’ in Jerusalem. Caesarea Philippi had been a centre for pagan worship, particularly of the Greek God Pan—the half man, half-goat mythological figure. 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.
It is against this backdrop of pagan spirituality and Caesar worship that 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 common to them all was that Jesus was nothing more than a human being, with human parents, just like John, Elijah and Jeremiah.
Jesus gives his disciples the opportunity to answer for themselves: “But who do you say I am?”
Simon Peter confessed Jesus’ identity not by using his name (Jesus) but his title (Christ): “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Peter identifies Jesus as the One anointed by his Father to be King, who comes to rule with saving help from heaven. This might remind us of the crowd’s cheers as Jesus rode in to city: “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Luke 19:38).
But unlike the Palm Sunday crowd (who saw in Jesus a king who would bring them political freedom) Peter says: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Peter confesses that Jesus’ origin is not one on earth but from heaven—he is the Son of the living God. Whereas the people of Caesarea Philippi worshipped Pan, or Caesar who are not gods, Jesus is the Son of the living God, who brings saving help from above; the kingdom of heaven. His rule brings freedom to his people not politically but spiritually, from the powers of sin and death and the kingdom of darkness.
Jesus responds to Peter: “Blessed are you Simon son of Jonah, because flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.” It’s the Father above who reveals Jesus as the Christ. There really is no such thing as being brainwashed into the church. Only someone who has been blessed from above can believe Jesus is the King who comes with salvation from heaven.
In recent weeks Matthew has taken us progressively further from the holy capital of Jerusalem where people from different walks of life have shown faith in Jesus as the Son of God: the disciples in the boat after even the winds and waves obeyed Jesus’ command to be still, the Canaanite woman in the region of Tyre and Sidon, who knelt before Jesus, addressing him as ‘Lord’, pleading for his mercy for her daughter who was suffering terribly from demon possession, and in today’s text, Peter’s confession of faith in the pagan place of Caesarea Phillipi: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Who do you say Jesus is? Matthew is showing us that the place where God dwells on earth with saving help from heaven is now no longer in the temple made with marble and gold in Israel’s capital. God dwells among us in the Person of Jesus, the Christ anointed by his Father and sent from above.
After Peter’s confession of faith, Jesus promises: “I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.” Are you anxious about the future of the church? The future of the church has never been more assured! Even though congregations begin and end, nothing can overcome what Jesus builds, not even the powers of hell. For it is not human methods and effort that will build the communion of saints. People might build church buildings, but Jesus’ church is a spiritual building built with spiritual tools, reaching across denominational divides, social status, cultures, nations and eras. Jesus himself will build his church, despite our best efforts and worst failings. There is no prerequisite to reach a benchmark in religious performance, obedience and spiritual capacity, as the disciples in the boat on the stormy lake showed. There is no partiality shown by God based on the person’s geographical origins, as the Canaanite woman showed. As God’s word is preached and taught—proclaiming Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God—the Father in Heaven blesses whom he will, when he will, to hear and believe. The promise from Pentecost is: “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved”—and already in Matthew’s Gospel we see the beginning of God drawing people he has saved from all places to come to know Jesus and have access to divine help in him.
What is the purpose of this one holy Christian church? To provide that which cannot be given and received anywhere else on earth—the forgiveness of sins.
People can educate against harmful behaviours and strive to uphold standards that make for a better society. They can use social media platforms to shred those who they perceive as being out of alignment with their values. People often push guilty feelings deep down, searching for happy experiences to forget their nagging conscience. Those who have been hurt by others often become bitter, wishing bad things to happen to those who hurt them, and can even seek revenge themselves. They can blame others, the devil, and even God to avoid accountability, just like Adam and Eve did in the beginning. People can try different strategies to cover over their own wrongdoing and use all manner of excuses to justify the self. But none of these ways truly deals with personal sin, or the sins committed against us.
Jesus has given to his church the authority to do what the world cannot do—forgive sins. Often,
because of guilt and shame, people feel like they cannot step inside a church, for fear they will be met with even more judgment and condemnation. Perhaps, at times, these perceptions are sadly true, as God’s children forget to remove the log from our own eyes to see clearly to remove the splinter from the eyes of others, treating brothers and sisters as if they were enemies.
But the church is the only place where free forgiveness is available, as it calls people to turn to Christ with their sins to be unbound from them. Instead of heaping more condemnation upon those who repent, people who confess their sins are to be forgiven. Forgiveness is so much more than forgetting; putting out of mind what troubles us, or the well-intentioned warmth and regard for the other: “Don’t worry about it. It’ okay.” The word for forgive in the original language literally means to release from, to dismiss, to send away. A helpful picture would be untying a horse and letting it run free, matching the language that Jesus uses today: “Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
Did you hear that? Whatever is loosed on earth will be loosed in heaven. That is good news for us, because we are all born in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves. But God frees us by his gracious pardon, unlocking the gates of heaven so that we can access all of his divine blessings: “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. Hymn 504 captures this unseen reality so beautifully:
While your ministers proclaim
Peace and pardon in your name
Through their voice, by faith may I
Hear you speaking from on high
And when we have been sinned against, there’s also an unbinding for us too—an unbinding of the need to hang on to hurt and grief, anger and bitterness, and the consequences of revenge. That is a heart gripped by the flesh that we need to be unbound from too.
But in today’s Gospel reading we see our Heavenly Father’s own heart—a heart that desires to forgive, and bless, and bathe and cleanse, and bind up and heal, and reconcile and restore. Moved by compassion, God anointed his only Son as the Christ and sent him into the world to save it, by dying on a Cross, that whoever turns to him for the merciful help they need will have done for them what they believe—they will be loosed from their sins in the heavenly sanctuary, just as from the one on earth. This is what God in Christ has accomplished for you. Blessed are you who believe this—for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by your Father in heaven. Amen.
Pastor Tim Ebbs
St Paul’s Lutheran Church, Glenelg
13th Sunday after Pentecost, 2026
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION
“What is the purpose of this one holy Christian church? To provide that which cannot be given and received anywhere else on earth—the forgiveness of sins.”
- What were some of the different opinions people had about Jesus?
- What does it mean that Jesus is “the Messiah” or “the Christ”?
- Why is the phrase “Son of the living God” significant?
- According to Matthew 16:17, where did Peter’s understanding come from?
- How does Peter’s confession reveal the true identity of Jesus?
- If Jesus asked you today, “Who do you say I am?” how would you answer?
- What challenges do people face today in recognizing Jesus for who He truly is?
- Are there areas in your life where you need to trust Jesus more as Lord and Saviour?
- Why is it important that our faith is based on a personal conviction rather than popular opinion?
- What does the title “living God” teach us about God’s power and presence today?
- How can Peter’s confession encourage us in our own walk with Christ?
