Who Do You Say That I Am?

Today’s gospel reading offers us one of the most profound questions in all scripture, asked by Jesus to his disciples: “Who do you say that I am?” This is a basic question that I believe all followers of Jesus must answer – and not just once, but at various times in our lives: Who do we say that Jesus is? For us and for our world?

When you think about it, every person on this planet believes something about God. But it can vary a great deal. Even we Christians can believe different things about the one God whom we all worship. Not only that, but our understanding of God – our theology – can change over our lifetime. In fact, it should change as we grow in our faith. But the reason why this question is so very important, I think, is because how we answer this question directly affects how we live out our faith and how we live out our lives.

Jesus begins this passage by asking, “What do the crowds say?” So, what I want you to notice today are three opinions of Christ. Matthew 16:13: “Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’” And now, they begin to delineate three different opinions with a possible fourth.

Well, some say John the Baptist, they answered, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. It’s an easy question because they are just sharing what they hear rather than what they believe. This wouldn’t be a difficult question for any of us to answer. Or anyone else, for that matter.

The disciples report the general reaction—which tells us a good deal about the way the people at large perceived Jesus. Not ‘gentle Jesus, meek and mild’; not the cozy, comforting friend of little children; rather, like one of the wild prophets of recent or ancient times, who had stood up and spoken God’s word fearlessly against wicked and rebellious kings. Jesus was acting as a prophet: not simply ‘one who foretells the future,’ but one who was God’s mouthpiece against injustice and wickedness in high places.

I want you to know today that the world has no better understanding of Christ than the ancient world and those who lived during the time of Jesus. But I also want you to know that those people who have a twisted or wrong view of Jesus are really the product of some willful rebellion. It is a product of willful turning away from the facts, and we’ll see that in just a moment.

First, you have the opinions of the crowds. Secondly, you have the opinion of Peter, who speaks for all the other disciples. Verse 15: “He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’” Simon Peter answered and said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

What he said was that in the Old Testament, there were predictions that there would be a man who would come who would be a prophet. He would be into truth. He would be a priest. He would make a sacrifice for sins as a high priest to abolish the Old Testament priesthood, which would no longer be necessary because there would now be a priest who could bear the sins of the world. And He would be the king. He would be the ruler. He would be a man of truth, a prophet. He would be a priest, a man to put an end to all false religion, and Himself being the one to give people to God, and He would also be king. Church and state would be united in His person – king, prophet, and priest.

Peter is saying you are the fulfillment of all of the prophecies that were made in the Old Testament. He was not just God’s mouthpiece. He was God’s Messiah. He was not just speaking God’s word against the wicked rulers of the time. He was God’s king, who would supplant them.

That was indeed the conclusion they had reached, and Peter took on the role of spokesman: ‘You are the Messiah,’ he says, ‘the son of the living God.’

It’s important to be clear that at this stage, the phrase ‘son of God’ did not mean ‘the second person of the Trinity.’ There was no thought yet that the coming king would himself be divine—though some of the things Jesus was doing and saying must already have made the disciples very puzzled, with a perplexity that would only be resolved when, after his resurrection, they came to believe that he had all along been even more intimately associated with Israel’s one God than they had ever imagined. No, the phrase ‘son of God’ was a biblical phrase, indicating that the king stood in relation to God, adopted to be his special representative.

Very soon after Jesus’ resurrection, his followers came to believe that the same phrase had a whole other layer of meaning that nobody had hitherto imagined. But it’s important, if we are to understand the present passage, that we don’t read into it more than is there. What Peter and the others were saying was, You are the true king. You’re the one Israel has been waiting for. You are God’s adopted son, the one of whom the Psalms and prophets had spoken.

They knew it was risky. With this, they were not only signing on to be part of a prophetic movement that challenged existing authorities in God’s name; they were signing on for a royal challenge. Jesus was the true king! That meant that Herod—and even faraway Caesar—had better look out.

Let me ask you, do you stand today with Peter and say, “My heart is filled with praise and gratitude to God because I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God?” You say, “Yes, Pastor, that’s exactly what is in my heart.” I want you to know today that that is the result of a miracle. It is a result of the same miracle that God did in the life of Peter to show you that truth because apart from that, you will argue against it. You will be blind to it. You will give alternatives to it. You will stand against it with all that is within you no matter what the facts are because the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God. They are spiritually understood, and because of that, unless God shows it to us, we will not see it.

But there is one last piece of this whole question that is vitally important. Go back to Peter’s answer to Jesus’ question again. After Peter answered that question, Jesus blessed him and told him that he would build his church on Peter, on the rock, and that the gates of Hades would not prevail against it.

This is the very first time that Jesus uses the word “church” in the gospels. Don’t you think that is significant? Peter’s answer becomes the foundation of the church. Jesus promises to build his church on the rock foundation of Peter’s faith. Jesus connects Peter’s answer about who he believes Jesus is to his promise to build his church. And that connection is significant. I think Jesus is trying to remind us here that we will never get our theology right outside of the church community.

We need the community of faith that Jesus founded. Among other things, it is why we have a Bible. But more generally, Jesus knows that we won’t be able to confess our faith in him, correctly and consistently, if we are not active in a church. Believing all of this is too difficult to do alone, especially when the storms hit. We need each other. We need our fellow believers. And Jesus knows it. Which is why he spends so much of his ministry building community. And why he founded the church.

The church may not be perfect. No congregation is. But it is Jesus’ plan for the world. He began the church to share the gospel with all the world. And to bring healing and hope and peace and justice and love, in his name, to the ends of the earth. And he promises that as we do this, nothing will prevail against his church. The gates of Hades will not prevail against his church. Nothing will separate us from the love of God in Jesus, and nothing will prevail against the church that Jesus founded. That is a theology that offers us a sure foundation. One that we can build a life of hope and meaning. One that can survive the storms and trials this life inevitably throws at us.

Closing

What we believe about God matters—more than anything else in this world. And there is no more important time to wrestle with this than right now. Amid all that we are going through in our world today, we confess once again our faith and trust in Jesus, believing, with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, that he is the Savior of our world, the son of the living God. Who promises to calm our every storm, who offers us a peace that surpasses understanding, who is eager to hear our every prayer, and who assures us that he will be with us always, even to the end of age.

That is who Jesus is. Thanks be to God. Amen