Jesus the Messiah – sermon on August 27, 2017
Matthew 16: 13-20 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, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” And 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. And 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. I 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.” Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
Sermon: Jesus the Messiah by Rev. Doreen Oughton
Who do you say that Jesus is, and what difference does it make in your life? These are the questions we will consider today. I will share my thoughts, but I hope you will let the questions rest in your heart, and that you will try to form an answer. If you do, and would like to share it with me, maybe at coffee hour, maybe later in the week – at the concert or at B-laws or even in an e-mail, well that would make my day. The passage begins with Jesus and his disciples arriving in Caesarea Philippi, and he asks them what people are saying about him. They answer, reporting that they’ve heard him referred to as some long-ago prophets, or even as the recently departed John the Baptist. Then he asks them what they have been saying about him, what they have been telling people about who he is.
Have you ever wondered what people say about you or think about you? There is some wisdom out there that says people’s opinions of you are none of your business, and it can be freeing to let go of worry over that. But there is also something uplifting, something meaningful, in receiving confirmation that others recognize the parts of you that you think are important. Or in contrast, it may be helpful to learn that you are not coming across to people in the way you think or the way you wish. I have been part of groups charged with calling out each others’ gifts, or to share affirmations about each other, and it has been really powerful to take in such feedback. I still have posted over my desk the worksheet done on the Confirmation retreat on the gifts the kids saw in me. I hold onto cards that validate an important part of myself, or that lift up something I hadn’t even seen. So I can relate to Jesus’ excitement over Simon Peter’s response, how it so perfectly affirms Jesus’ dawning understanding of who he is and why he came.
It was a rich gospel passage we heard today, and I have preached two previous sermons on it. They are on the church website if you are interested in reviewing them. But for today, I want to talk about the question Jesus asks – “who do you say that I am.” When Simon Peter answers as he does – “you are the Messiah, the Son of the living God,” Jesus blesses him. He says that this revelation was not the product of Simon’s sharp thinking and perception, not the product of his study of scripture, but a gift from God. Jesus then gives Simon a new name – Peter, or “rock,” and says that his church will be built upon this rock. Now, there is some debate about what Jesus means when he says this. Is he is building the church upon Simon Peter? Is this an ordination of sorts, identifying Peter as the first bishop of this new ekklesia? Or will he build his church upon this confession of Simon’s, that Jesus is the Messiah, the son of the living God? Maybe both? Anyway, the understanding of others about who Jesus is matters to Jesus.
Does anyone know what Messiah means? It means “the anointed one.” Does anyone know the Greek word for that? Christos. So Jesus Christ means Jesus the Messiah, or Jesus the Anointed. It was a fundamental belief of Judaism that God would send someone to be the king of God’s kingdom, uniting all the world to worship and proclaim the name of God. It was not believed that this person would be divine, but rather a great political leader from the house of David, someone committed to Jewish law, who build a Holy Temple in a place where all the dispersed Israelites would gather. And here Simon Peter declares that the ancient biblical prophecies about such a messiah have been fulfilled in Jesus, who, he says, is also the Son of the living God.
Yes! Jesus is thrilled with Simon’s insight, but as we’ll hear next week, the insight is incomplete, still tied to a more worldly understanding of what it means to be a king. And it is a mistake so many continue to make today. Such a vision is too limiting. Simon and the other apostles were still thinking Jesus would somehow lead a conquest of the Romans and restore the promised land to Jewish sovereignty. Then, once God’s anointed one is in power, the Temple will be strengthened. Jews would come pouring back to the homeland, and other nations would fall in step to worship the one true God. Jesus’ understanding is different. He realizes that being the messiah does not mean a rise to power, but suffering and death. The coming of God’s kindom will not be hailed by a grand display of might and celebration, but by a humble march on the back of a donkey, by the tearing of the Temple curtain, by mourning and weeping, followed by a slow but steady increase of God’s light and love in the world. Jesus is the new Temple, the new covenant, the place of communion and proclamation of God’s holy name.
What I want to say about Jesus is that he is the beginning of a new beginning for God’s people. This whole kingship thing was never what God had in mind, and God only went along with it because the people pushed it so. Through Jesus, God began to work around the whole worldly power system. The Temple built by human hands would not last as the central place of worship. Pilgrimages and sacrifices would not last as the means of pleasing God, and that had been declared by prophets long before Jesus. By the time Matthew wrote his gospel, the Temple had been destroyed, but this new community of Jesus-followers had been prepared to keep going, to keep working through the Spirit that was within, between and among them to usher in a new age. In Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection was the conception of this new age, this new way of relating to God. The time after his ascension, when his followers were themselves anointed with the Holy Spirit, this was a time of gestation. The new age was not yet birthed, and the old system of priesthood, sacrifices and the central holy city and temple continued. But there were decades of struggle and persecution for the people of the Way, what might be considered the labor pains of a new thing about to be born. And when Rome squashed the rebellion of the Jewish zealots, destroying the Temple, disbanding the priesthood and sacrificial systems, the old way comes to an end.
The coming of God’s kingdom continued and continues. It happens through the Spirit of the anointed one at work in all the baptized. Jesus didn’t want us to wait around for a time to come, to just follow some rule book while we live so we could be taken to the kingdom when he returned someday. Jesus is our invitation, our summons actually, to participate in bringing the kindom about, and to anticipate its full maturity. We participate by doing the things he did. What are some of the things he did? He gathered a community around him. He showed compassion to people. He healed people when they wanted healing. He fed people and empowered others to heal and feed. He spent time with outcasts and so-called sinners, saying these were the ones he came for. He also spent time with the elite, challenging some of their ideas, encouraging them to put relationships before rules. He took time away to pray and just be with his Abba. He told his followers to love one another and to serve as he has served them. He eschewed possession and glamour. He lived simply and encouraged sharing.
For me, he is not the king of the kingdom, but the way to the kindom, or the way the kindom grows and spreads. He is my teacher, my brother, my light. He is my savior in that it is through him I find protection from and an alternative to the lies the world tells me. This matters to me, because I know that as I matter to him, so do you, each one of you, no. matter. what. Even when I ignore or decline the invitation to participate in kindom living, and in the times when I feel dismayed, even hopeless about the way things are going, Christ does not abandon me. I can lean on the faith and hope of others baptized into the way. I believe that we, the body of Christ, are the second coming of Christ. He doesn’t have to return in a particular human body as he was previously incarnated. He returns through the Spirit in everyone who chooses his way, every time someone is merciful, compassionate, generous, selfless, every time someone spreads joy, or works for the liberation of all, Jesus returns.
I can’t really even imagine what my life would be like had I not found my way to him. I have compassion for the lost young woman I was before I did, but I suspect in my brokenness I would have gotten so much worse, and I would be full of self-loathing. Our statement of faith says that Jesus saves us from aimlessness and sin, and I see them as one and the same – missing the mark, separation from God, from each other, from our highest selves. Instead of such aimlessness, I have this dream to pursue, this promise to invest in, this good news to share. Truly, he is my Savior. I don’t know if this confession would please Jesus as much as Simon Peter’s confession did, but it is a truth that I believe was revealed as a gift from God. What has God revealed about Jesus to you? Who do you say that he is?
