ISAIAH 51:1-6

PSALM 138

ROMANS 11:33-36

MATTHEW 16:13-20

8:30 a.m. Service

Sermon – August 21, 2005

Who do we say that Jesus is?

By this time in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus has taught profound and radical truths in “The Sermon on the Mount”, and has healed many people (including without even being in the presence of some of them), walked on water, stilled a storm, fed 5,000 people from one family’s lunch and even raised someone from the dead. So it is appropriate that Jesus give his disciples their “mid-semester exam.” The “exam” has one question on it: “Who do you say that I am?”

Jesus’ question about “the word on the street” about him is just a warm-up to this question, which he addressed to all the disciples. As usual, St. Peter-the-impulsive is the first to open his mouth in reply – and this time he gets the answer right. “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

Jesus accurately declares that Peter had this truth revealed to him by God the Father Almighty; it is a basis of biblical teaching that the deepest truths come to us by revelation from God received in faith, not merely by our own intellectual or experimental initiative. Peter didn't look up in a book to find a description which matched that of Jesus' looks, physique or accent to "I.D.” him, nor did some learned scholar point Jesus out to Peter as the Messiah.

Because this deep truth comes by revelation received in faith, the truth that Jesus is the Messiah, the Savior, the Son of God is accessible to all people. We do not have to have walked with Jesus literally as Peter did, nor hike to the same rugged, mountainous area of the Golan Heights in which their conversation took place, or be a person with an exalted title in the community of believers in Jesus to access this truth.

In response to Peter’s “aha” moment, Jesus makes a profound declaration about Peter – and about the not-yet-founded church. Jesus says that Peter – “Kepha” in Jesus’ Palestinian Aramaic language – is the “rock” – also kepha in Aramaic – upon which he will build his (Jesus’) church. (Jesus’ declaration is also a pun in the Greek in which the New Testament was written down, Petros being the name “Peter” and petra, from which we get the English word “petrified”, meaning rock. A pun in two languages – my kind of guy.)

A rock can be either a foundation stone, certainly Jesus’ concept here – or a “stumbling block”, something to trip over, as Jesus calls Peter in the part of this passage we’ll read next Sunday after Peter denies that Jesus’ being the Messiah involves suffering and dying.

Who do WE say that Jesus is? This is our “mid-term exam” question from Jesus, too. (And I think it’s going to be on our “final exams”, too!)

Was Jesus just a good man from long ago whose life we might be interested in like those of other good men or women of the past?

Was Jesus simply a wise teacher with some good ideas, like Buddha or Confucius (or Mahatma Gandhi in the last century), from whom we can select a few concepts which suit our own personal existing views on life?

Was Jesus simply a Jewish prophet like Elijah or Jeremiah, one guide among others to the One True God?

Or is Jesus in fact alive, the crucified and resurrected Savior of the World who offers to draw all parts of our lives towards him?

In the baptismal service, the candidates – or their godparents, in the case of infants or young children, are asked “to renounce evil – spiritual, systemic and personal evils alike – and to turn to Jesus Christ and accept him as your Savior.”

To turn to anyone (or anything) as our Savior means that, based on our own efforts alone, we will not be saved, that there is something essential we can’t have without outside help. Some people may expect their family members to save them from all adversity and bring them into the fullness of joy – which both puts a totally unrealistic load on those family members and shows a limited view of both adversity and joy, unless we’re talking from the perspective of an infant.

Some people, especially in the rich nations of the West, explicitly or implicitly expect their money to “save” them from all adversity and provide all joy. Can’t happen. Others may lay such burdens on their doctors, or even their elected officials! No matter how worthy all of these people or things may be in their limited ways, everyone needs saving from all kinds of adversity – including beyond this life – and for literally unimaginably profound joy – in this life and in the life to come.

This is what Jesus offers. But to accept Jesus’ offer, we have to acknowledge our sins – which otherwise will drag us down – and put Christ first, and secondary centers of our attention second. We need to “let go and let God’, and let God draw all of each of our lives into alignment with God’s will, like a mighty magnet turning us towards God.

This is a life-long – really, a longer than life-long project. But if we even start turning our lives over to God, God will gladly work with us. Just look at Peter! One minute he really gets it right in a way no one else yet has – and a moment later he will deny that Jesus’ messiah-ship will mean suffering and death before his resurrection.

If we say that Jesus is our Savior, the ultimate source of protection from all that is bad in this life and beyond and the ultimate source of all that is best in this life and beyond, we, like Peter, can be foundation stones upon which others can stand and the community of faith which is the church can be built.

But if we treat Jesus as decorative in our lives, or only Lord of one narrow segment of our lives and make no effort to broaden our commitment, we will show others that our faith is eclipsed by our service to “other lords”, and we will become stumbling blocks on which others trip as they seek the true Savior, Jesus Christ.

What does how we live our lives, the principles that guide our decision-making, actions and attitudes, say about who or what we consider to be our Savior? And when each of us has our “final exams”, what will we answer when Jesus asks us “Who do you say that I am?” and then follows by asking us “What difference did your answer make in your life?”

(The Rev.) Francis A. Hubbard

St. Barnabas Episcopal Church