“Storming the Gates” – Sermon on Aug 21, 2011
August 21, 2011
Scripture: 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: Storming the Gates
by Rev. Doreen Oughton
I was so struck by the travels of Jesus noted in the gospel of Matthew between the reading two weeks ago when he walked on water, through the reading for today, when he and the disciples land in Caesarea Philippi. I thought you might be interested also. The map says it tracks the later ministry of Jesus, and I added stars next to the places mentioned between the walking on water and today’s reading. After joining the disciples in the boat in the middle of the Sea of Galilee, they all landed in Gennesaret. They may have stayed on there awhile, or perhaps travelled back to Capernaum, generally considered to be Jesus’ home base. Wherever he was, some Pharisees and scribes all the way from Jerusalem came to see him to challenge him on his failure to keep the traditions. He then goes up to the regions of Tyre and Sidon, where he cures the daughter of the Canaanite woman. He then passes along the sea of Galilee, going up a mountain again to preach and feed a crowd of 4000. He then goes on to Magadan, and is again challenged by the Pharisees, who ask him for a sign from heaven. He answers them that there will be no sign except the sign of Jonah, Jonah who was in the belly of the whale for three days before being spit back up on the land. They then cross the sea again, and Jesus leads the way up to Caesarea Philippi.
I wonder why Jesus went to the places he went. I wonder what it is that moved him? Was it the Spirit guiding him? Did his followers make requests? Did he go to places where there was great need, or to places where the odds were good that people would hear his message? Were they places he just wanted to see? I wonder…
When I was in seminary I learned that this passage is very important in the gospels, a pivotal point. I didn’t quite understand why. It is called the Confession of Peter, the moment when Simon Peter acknowledges the divinity of Jesus. He is praised greatly by Jesus in this passage for getting it right. But really, it is not the first time in the gospel that Jesus’ divinity is acknowledged. His disciples say he is truly the son of God when he wakes up from a nap on the boat and stills the storm. They say it again after he walks to them on the water, and saves Simon Peter from falling in. So I’m not sure now that it is the confession of Peter that makes this passage special. I wonder if it is, rather, what Jesus does after this that makes the passage special. Jesus may have heard the disciples acknowledge who he was before, but in this passage he makes a confession about Simon, and ultimately all the disciples.
First he blesses Simon for his words, and calls him son of Jonah. But elsewhere in the bible, Simon and his brother are identified as sons of John. My guess is it was not just a slip up. Jesus didn’t just say it wrong or get it wrong, but was instead trying to say something about Simon’s revelation. He continues on, saying that Simon didn’t come up with this on his own, it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to him, but was something revealed to Simon by God. I wonder if the revelation from God was directed more to Jesus than to Simon Peter. Perhaps between the confessions of Jesus’ Messiah-ship on the waters of the Galilee, and this point Jesus became more clear about what it meant for him to be the son of God. Perhaps the revelation had only recently come to Jesus what his fate would be. Perhaps it was through his own new knowledge of his death and resurrection to come that he heard and understood fully Simon’s confession. And now he has to start helping his disciples understand what would come, and what they must do, their importance in continuing Jesus’ ministry and mission.
And so as Jesus is a son of the resurrection, like Jonah gone for three days before returning, so is Simon. And Jesus gives him a new name, just like God gave new names to Abraham, Sarah, and Jacob. But in those days “Petros”, or Peter, was not generally used as a name. It was used as the word for this (rock). Jesus told Simon that he was the rock that the church would be built on. The word “ecclesia,” translated as church, means the “called- out gathering.” Jesus didn’t mean church the way we often mean it today – the building, the institution. He meant it as the people who were following him, the ones who would continue his ministry and his mission – those “called out” by him. They would build up their movement from this rock, from this man who confessed through divine revelation that Jesus is the Messiah.
Jesus says that this rock, Simon Peter will be given the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever is bound on earth is bound in heaven, whatever is loosed on earth is loosed on heaven. What this is, is the granting of authority to this ecclesia, this called-out gathering, to discern what traditions are important, and how the laws passed down through the millennia may apply in varying situations. Remember that he had just been challenged by the Pharisees and scribes about his lapse in traditions, and he taught over and over again that the law was meant to free people, not bind them. He understood that his community of followers would continue to be challenged by various sects if they continued with his ministry and mission. He wanted to give them this rock to lean on, to know they had the authority because they understood who he was. They were given divine revelation that would help them discern the core values of mercy, compassion and love that were taught – nay, embodied by their Savior.
I want to talk about another phrase that Jesus uses in this passage. He says that the gates of Hades will not prevail against the church built on his rock. It is this phrase that makes me wonder if Jesus had a special reason for bringing his disciples to Caesarea Philippi to ask them about who they think he is, to start teaching them more about who they are called to be. Caesarea Philippi was given its name after being taken over by Philip, son of Herod the Great and brother of Herod Antipas. Before that it was a city named Banias. It was a center for cultic worship, worship of the Roman god Pan, Pan the goat-god. The worship was, and I quote, “highly orgiastic, and involved goats.” It was believed that Pan had been born in a cave there, a cave that was called, guess what, the gate of Hades. Have people here heard of the combat zone in Boston? So it might be like Jesus taking his followers into Boston, to a sleazy, dirty, crime-filled area, and saying, the combat zone will not prevail against my church.
So perhaps Jesus had a reason for bringing them there to Caesarea Philippi. Perhaps he wanted them to see the mission field, to know that they were not to stay in the synagogue studying the Torah. They were not to get caught up in intellectual and theological debates about what would be loosed and what would be bound. They were to get out into the world, all the parts of it, the unclean areas, the dangerous areas.
In the words of Rick Morley, “gates are used in military strategy. But, gates aren’t offensive weapons. No one ever won a battle by breaking out a great gate. Gates are defensive in nature. So when Jesus talks about his church struggling with the forces of evil, Jesus just assumes that the church will be on the offensive.” So you see, Jesus is telling his rock, his community of followers, that they can bring their authority right up to and into those gates that want to keep out his light and love. And those gates will NOT prevail. Morley says, “The forces of wickedness and evil should tremble when we approach. When they try and starve our brothers and sisters in Haiti and Kenya, we boldly come with food. When they try and enslave our young sisters in south Asia and eastern Europe, we come and set them free. When they try and put machine guns and machetes in the hands of our young brothers, we come with Peace. When they come with Malaria, we come with nets. When they come with addiction and depression, we bring hope and comfort. When evil comes with the dark, we bring light. When they come with despair, we bring hope. When they cower behind the gates of death we tear them down with the Resurrection of our Lord. Because the Light always shines in the darkness. And the darkness does not overcome it. It will not prevail.”
I ask you not only who do you say that Jesus is, but who do you say that we are, as his church, his called-out people? What gates do we need to march right up to and through to bring his light and his good news? Can we claim our authority as children of the resurrection? Will we?
