First Lutheran Church
August 27, 2023 + Pentecost 13A
Matthew 16:13-2013Now 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.
Sermon
“But Who Do You Say That I Am?”
Pastor Greg Ronning
In today’s appointed Gospel, Jesus asks the disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” Jesus asks, “Who do people say that I am?”
Jesus is known for asking tough questions, but this one is actually pretty easy! The disciples effortlessly begin spouting out the various names, opinions, and ideas - thatthey have heard on the streets. The scriptures tell us they begin listing all the different things that they’ve heard, “John the Baptist,” “Elijah,” “Jeremiah,” “a prophet.” I can’t help but think the list continued as they took advantage of this simple question. Everyone getting in on the answering. I remember doing that in college. I would be sure to raise my hand and speak out early in the lecture, and then quietly disappear later in the lecture when the questions got more difficult. And I imagine some of the disciples even included some of their own theories about Jesus, safely testing them out under the guise of someone else’s ideas. It was a great question, easy to participate.
And I suppose that’s what we do when people ask us about Jesus. We fall back on what we’ve heard, the religious language that we have inherited, the traditions we learned from our families, the proclamations we’ve heard on Sunday morning, the facts we’ve read or heard on TV, and most likely the teachings we memorized in confirmation.
How many of you remember Luther’s Small Catechism? The Second Article of the Apostles Creed … “What does this mean?” “I believe that Jesus Christ is true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary; and that He is my Lord, Who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature, purchased and won me from all sins, from death and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood, and with His innocent suffering and death; in order that I might be His own, live under Him in His kingdom, and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness; even as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity.” “This is most certainly true.”
“Who do people say that I am?” That’s the easy question, but that is not the ultimate question that Jesus asks his disciples in today’s gospel, nor the ultimate question he asks each of us this morning. Jesus listens patiently to the lists of things the disciples come up with, and then hits them with the harder question, Ok, “But who do you say that I am?”
This time he doesn’t want them to express the thoughts and ideas of others, he does not want them to “parrot” back what he has taught them, he does not want them to make a well thought out theological statement, he does not want them to recite a creed.Instead, he wants to know who they think he is, what they are experiencing with him, what the relationship means, what is happening, and where things might be going. Jesus wants a dynamic answer, not a static one.
And now,Jesus presses us with the same question, “But who do you say that I am?” It’s OK to begin with the “facts”we know about Jesus. It’s not a bad place to begin, with the history and the tradition, the various teachings that we’ve been taught, the things we have heard proclaimed in the faith community.But at some point, the question of Jesus must become personal, our response, our beliefs must flow from a deeper place –from the heart and from our own experience.Theologian Debie Thomas reminds us, “We cannot build our faith lives on hearsay alone.”
In today’s Gospel Peter boldly attempts to answer the question, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” While Jesus commends Peter’s answer, we also know that in just a few more verses,in Matthew 16:22, when Jesus tells him that the Messiah must suffer and die, Peter actually rebukes Jesus, “God forbid it Lord!” Peter’s simple answer, “You are the Messiah,”seemingly does not hold up to the reality of what Jesus is about to face. His confession does not come from a place deep enough to hold such a moment. Accordingly, Jesus quickly rebukes Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
So it is that Jesus presses us with the harder question, “But who do you say that I am?” Because following Jesus, being a disciple, living out and experiencing the promises of Jesus, takes something more than just remembering your confirmation lessons, memorizing the scriptures, and unconsciously confessing the creeds.
This past week I had a wonderful conversation with a pastor friend of mine from Texas. We were talking about the creeds of the church. At one point he asked me, “Do you know what’s missing from ‘The Apostle’s Creed’ and ‘The Nicene Creed?’” He paused while I reflected, and then said, “LOVE.” “Wow!” None of the creeds, none of those inspired and well developed theological attempts to name and proclaim the identity and nature of God, of Christ, and of the Spirit, - use the word LOVE! How did we miss that? That seems pretty important.How can we begin to describe our understanding of Jesus without using the word love?
In the fourth chapter of First John, we are reminded of this core identity and characteristic of God, “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.”… “God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.” (1 John 4)Once again,how can we begin to describe our understanding of Jesus without using the word love?
So it is that when we are asked, when we consider, when we need to know, - who is Jesus; Let us first remember the most important thing -“God is love.” - the love of God that we have experienced in Jesus. For it is “this love” that not only informs us, but more importantly - has transformed us. It is the story of this love, the relationship that was created out of this love, that creates faith, that reveals grace, that gives life hope and meaning. The creeds, as valuable as they are in their context, can never replace the living witness of Christ’s love that we have experienced in our life. It is from this love, in this love, because of this love - that we know and understand Jesus.
“But who do you say that I am?” Debie Thomas reflects on how Peter might have “better answered” Jesus’ question, perhaps later in his life, recounting the relationship and the experience of love that he shared with Jesus. “Who do you say that I am?” “You are the one who found me in a fishing boat and gave me a new vocation. You’re the one who healed my mother-in-law. You’re the one who said, “Yes, walk on water." You’re the one who caught me before I drowned. You’re the one who glowed on a mountaintop while I babbled nonsense. You’re the one who washed my feet while I squirmed in shame. … You’re the one I denied three times to save my skin. … You’re the one who fed me breakfast on a beach and spoke love and fresh purpose into my humiliation. You’re the one who gave me the courage to preach to three thousand people on Pentecost. You’re the one who taught me that I must not call unclean what you have pronounced clean. You are the one who stayed by my side through insults, beatings, and imprisonments. You are the one I followed into martyrdom. You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
“But who do you say that I am?” Hear the good news this morning, you don’t need to be a theologian to answer this question, you don’t need to recall those things you memorized in confirmation, you don’t need to stand up and perfectly recite and understand the creeds, you don’t need to look to anyone else. Instead,simply remember your experience, the presence of love in your life. Simply remember this, “God is love.”
Remember the times in which you were loved. Remember the times you shared love with another. “Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.” (1 John 4)
Remember that here in this place you are loved; loved in the breaking of bread, loved in serving those in need, loved in the waters of baptism, and loved in the sharing of the bread and wine of holy community.“God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.” (1 John 4)
In this love you know God, in this love God knows you. “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” (1 John 4)
“But who do you say that I am?” May the question remind you of the presence of God’s love in your life, and may it inspire you to bear witness to that story of love with all those you encounter. Amen.