Who Do You Say?

Word was starting to spread. Everyone wanted to know who Jesus was. There had been large-scale miracles and healings, some say even on the Sabbath. He knew the Bible better than Bible scholars. He spent his time with low-lifes and sinners. Who is Jesus, really?

Jesus and the disciples are in Caesarea Phillipi. Jesus looks around and asks them “who do people say that I am?” What’s the word on the street? But it is interesting that Jesus asks the questions here. This isn’t some private space. This is a town 30 miles north of the Sea of Galilee along the base of Mount Hermon. This is the town that bears Caesar’s name along with Phillip who was the son of Herod. It is the regional capital of the Roman empire. This is a town that is filled with the worship of other gods. In the time of Antiochus the Great, the town was called Panion in reference to the Greek god of nature Pan. Others worshipped Baal. So you have this community that is heavily saturated by political power and idol worship.

It is here that Jesus asks “who do people say that I am. The disciples start to share what others have been saying. Well come have said John the Baptist. Some have said maybe Elijah or another one of the prophets. Still others have said maybe Jeremiah. Everyone wants to know- who is Jesus really?

But then Jesus changes the question asking “but who do you say that I am?” Well this is an altogether different question. Shouldn’t the disciples have known? They had lived and worked and breathed and struggled alongside this man for nearly three years now. The disciples had plenty to say about what everyone else claimed about the identity of Jesus, but now it is personal. “Who do you say that I am?” Jesus was asking this here and now, in a place filled with all sorts of people saying and believing things about all sorts of gods. To claim anyone else as Lord other than Caesar was blasphemy. Jesus might as well have marched them all to Caesar’s palace and had them say it to his face. In the midst of all this- “but who do you say that I am?”

And so there is a silence, a pause perhaps. No one responds, no one except Peter that is. Peter who has his own messy and shaky faith speaks up and says “You are the Messiah, the son of the living God.”

Peter declares this, still not fully aware of the depth of it. Here in Caesarville is Peter’s confession of faith of Jesus as the Messiah, the Lord, the Son of God. And Jesus pronounces a blessing upon Peter saying that the Spirit indeed revealed this to him. Jesus says “and I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”

There is a bit of wordplay here. Jesus is saying you are Cephas (the Aramaic name for Peter which means rock) and on this petra (rock) I will build my church. Why choose the language of a rock? William Barclay talks about how “the rabbis applied the word rock to Abraham. They had a saying: “When the Holy One saw Abraham who was going to arise, he said: “Lo, I have discovered a rock (petra) to found the world upon…Abraham was the rock on which the nation and the purpose of God were founded. Even more, the word rock is again and again applied to God himself.”

What are we to make of Jesus’ question, Peter’s response, and the rock of the church? Who or what is the rock of the church? Is it Peter? There are generations of scholarly debate about this very thing.

But maybe it is less about Peter and more about Peter’s confession and witness. Jim Kim says “the church is not founded on Peter, just as it is not founded on John the Baptist or Elijah, Luther, or Calvin. The rock is not Peter, but Peter’s testimony…Jesus’ question to each of us is, “who do you say that I am? What is your testimony of me? What is your experience of the living God through my witness and presence?” Jesus builds the church not upon Peter as one individual but upon his revelation of Jesus as the Messiah. This is the key point. Brian McLaren wonders in his book Generous Orthodoxy “if we as a church have made JEsus our mascot instead of our Lord.” The church is not built in our image or on a foundation of our own making, but on the bedrock of our faith and confession of Jesus as Lord.

Who do you say that I am? It was a question for the disciples and it still hangs in the air as a question for us. Each week when we gather together as the body of Christ we seek to affirm our faith and proclaim like Peter who we believe God to be. It isn’t being redundant. It isn’t merely repeating ourselves. It is the rock of faith beneath our feet that becomes embedded and embodied in our lives. Diana Butler Bass says that “Who are you, Lord? is the question of a lifetime, to be asked and experienced over and over again.”

Who do you say that I am? How we answer this question underscores how we live as individuals and a community of faith. We bind and we loose based upon who we believe and experience Jesus the Christ to be: friend, rescuer, defender, creator, savior, bread, , healer, teacher, way, presence, promise keeper, truth, and life.

Our response to “who do you say that I am” is revealed in the ebb and flow of our life together. Maybe this question is meant for us to be more aware of the way God is moving and working among us, to the power of God within us helping us to bind and to loose. What do you see around you being bound and loosened lately? The joy on our faces of having a place to worship together? The freedom from things that once held us back? Answered prayers in the form of companions, career aspirations, and recovery. Maybe it is those around you that keep showing up, that are in your life with a persistent and gracious presence. Eric Barreto says “in every thoughtful gesture, in every supportive word, in every meal cooked, in every day of work, we might just catch a glimpse of the power Jesus promised to Peter here. …In the end, a life of faithful service may be the best answer to that awe-inspiring question: Who do you say that I am?”