Who am I?
Matthew 16:13-20
10th Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 16A), 2011
Zion Lutheran Church
Mount Pleasant, Michigan
Pastor Jonathon Bakker
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord, Jesus Christ, amen. The Holy Scripture for our consideration this day comes from the Gospel of St. Matthew, which you just heard read.
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 they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, life is full of questions and answers. Some are of minor significance. Did you take out the garbage? What time is it? Where’d I leave my car keys? Others are repetitive. Did you do your homework? What are you going to be when you grow up? What are you going to major in at school? Then there are the big, once in a lifetime questions. Is this the year the (Detroit) Lions make the playoffs? Will you accept this job? Will you move halfway around the world to work for us? Will you marry me?
And then you have the questions posed by Jesus to his disciples in the Gospel. ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is? Who do you say that I am?’ These are not questions you ordinarily hear. Even though most are very interested in what others think of them, hardly any would actually go so far as asking such a question. Hearing the answer could be an unpleasant or deflating experience. Yet Jesus persistently asks what people are saying about who he is. And it isn’t as if he doesn’t already know, or hasn’t been revealing it ever since his Baptism in the Jordan River; the question is whether the disciples have come to understand it from all that they had seen and heard.
Most of them had been there from the beginning. They heard the Sermon on the Mount; they witnessed many healings; they watched him calm the storm while at sea; and they were sent out by him to proclaim the Kingdom. They listened to the parables; they asked him questions about the parables; they distributed bread and fish to feed thousands. They also saw and heard all of the other amazing things that Jesus did and said. All of that formed the background for Jesus’ questions. ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’ People’s perspectives were limited. Some had only heard the parables. Some had only seen him cast out demons. Still others had only experienced a healing. Naturally, the responses varied. Some said John the Baptist, some said Elijah, and still others thought he was Jeremiah or one of the prophets. All of these were tremendously important Biblical figures, and based on a limited exposure to Jesus’ teachings and actions, one could understand why the people would respond this way. Jesus, however, was not satisfied with those answers.
‘But who do you say that I am?’ Who do the disciples who follow me say that I am? Peter, one of the very first disciples Jesus called, and often the first to speak up, said it all. ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ You may appear to be merely a man, but you are most certainly also God. Jesus blesses Peter in response, because it was not flesh and blood that revealed that truth to him, but the Father who is in heaven.
That confession Peter made, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, would be the rock upon which Jesus’ church would be built, and not even the gates of hell could have a chance of triumphing against it. The keys of the kingdom were then given to Peter and the disciples. The keys are the responsibility to bind the sins of the unrepentant as long as they do not repent, and the responsibility to loose, that is, to forgive the sins of the repentant in Jesus’ name. It is this same responsibility that rests like a yoke on the shoulders of every pastor. Each Sunday you gather here, repenting of all sinfulness in thought, word, and deed, and each Sunday your pastors will use the loosing key, proclaiming you forgiven in Jesus’ name.
This is what make’s Peter’s confession so important – without the God-given understanding and trust that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, there is no loosing of sins. When Peter makes that confession, the floodgates of forgiveness open forth and you see that Jesus came not as a great teacher, not as a fantastic miracle worker, but as the Savior of the world who would die on the cross and rise from the dead for each and every one of you.
But Peter’s confession is not his alone – to confess actually means to same-say; to speak as one – Peter’s confession is and must also be the confession of each and every Christian of all times and of all places. This is a very important consideration for all of you, especially for those beginning the semester of classes tomorrow at Central. I pray that you will bear this closely in mind. The world, the devil, and your own sinful flesh will stop at nothing to attack and erode this confession in you. They cannot defeat Jesus or destroy his church, but they can and do wage war with those who follow him by faith, and there are few points in a lifetime that present a greater threat to this confession than the time spent in college. Minds are opening and growing, eyes are wide open, new friends, new teachers, and new ideas are all around you. Pay close attention to what you are hearing, and consider it in light of your confession.
Be aware of who you are, and be even more aware of whose you are; you belong to the Christ, the Son of the living God. It is through him alone that you have the hope of everlasting life, and that confession, given to you through baptism and strengthened in you through his body and blood, binds you to him, and him to you.
Six chapters earlier in the Gospel, while preparing the disciples to preach for the first time, Jesus illustrated the significance of confessing him. ‘Therefore whoever confesses me before men, him I will also confess before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, him I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven.’ Today Peter speaks the content of that confession, even as Jesus himself is preparing for its fulfillment in his death on the cross and in his resurrection from the dead.
To confess Jesus is to be confessed by him before his Father in heaven, which is an amazing biblical concept. You are saved by the faith you confess in Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen Son of the living God. This flies in the face of the common misconception that Christianity, like every other religion in the world, is morally based. Christians care about morality, and our morals are most certainly formed and influenced by our faith in Christ, but moral living is not the goal or hope of Christianity. Eternal living – everlasting life with the Holy Trinity in heaven is what we hope for, and this is not something earned, but something given. Those who confess Jesus in this world are confessed by him before his Father in heaven, and receive eternal life. Even the confession is also a gift – Peter did not speak as he did from his own flesh and blood; his confession was revealed to him from the Father in heaven.
This teaching of forgiveness through Jesus’ death and of receiving eternal life is foreign to human nature, and we are prone to doubt. We will always want to turn our focus inward and look to ourselves for confirmation of that faith or to ensure that we are actually worthy of such a gift. Such doubts are baseless; but they plague us nonetheless because of sin and sinfulness. Do not give the devil room to do his evil work in your head and in your heart. Remember the great confession that you have been given, and remember how our Lord gives it and keeps you in it; you are baptized and forgiven. You hear it in preaching and the Word. You are strengthened in it as you eat and drink Jesus’ Body and Blood in the Sacrament of the Altar. These are the means by which God wages battle against sin and unbelief, and he gives them to you every Sunday. Receive these gracious gifts and confidently live the confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. To believe this, and to confess this, is to have life everlasting.
To Christ alone be all the glory, forever and ever, amen.
The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus, our Lord, amen.
