Morning Prayer: Shannon Cook Choral Amen Hymn of Reconciliation *Lord, I Want to Be a Christian* Witness of Scripture: Matthew 16: 13-20 Anthem *Jesu, the very thought of thee* Edward C. Bairstow. FCC Chancel Choir Sermon *The Best Question Jesus Asks* David Spain
Recorded on August 27, 2023
A couple of months ago on a trip to the high country in Colorado, we sat outside enjoying an ensemble of classical music while eating a light supper. It was cool as the wind came off the mountains that still had some snow on them even though it was late June. It was good to step back, get a break, enjoy a different pace. Who knows if anyone else thought this but, sitting there brought to mind another resort kind of place—it was Caesaria Philippi and Matthew’s gospel says Jesus and his disciples took a trip there. We might not typically think of Jesus and his disciples being in a place like that, a place where the well-heeled could gather in their weekend homes to enjoy the cool winds coming down off the snow caps of Mount Hermon.For whatever reason they are there—maybe they just needed a little break, and who doesn’t?
While they are in Caesaria Philippi, a place with statues to Greek gods and many other things people might be inclined to worship, Jesus and his disciples are just batting it around as good friends will do. We can imagine they talk about the cool winds coming off the mountains, or maybe they wonder how their families are doing, or perhaps they talk about their jobs before discipling became their calling, or how sometimes they get footsore and tired. Surely Jesus enjoyed casual conversations that Matthew did not record. There is a pause in the conversation, and as they enjoy listening to the sounds of water babbling through town as it makes its way down from Mount Hermon, Jesus fills the quiet with a question. “What are people saying about me,” Jesus asked? It is an interesting place to ask that kind of question, where there is so much that competes for peoples’ loyalties and devotions, but we know you don’t have to be in a resort to know about competing voices wanting to claim us. “What’s the buzz on the street,” Jesus asks in a rather informal poll. The disciples are ready with a response as they provide information from the court of public opinion. “Most people think you are in the line of the great prophets. We have heard people use your name in the same sentence with John the Baptizer; some have said you are even like Isaiah or Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.” No one dared say anything else in that moment, but there were other opinions out there. Some thought Jesus was a great teacher and a fine example; others were a bit more extreme, claiming Jesus was a naïve idealist on the one hand or a dangerous revolutionary on the other. There were even a few who thought Jesus’ sanity was suspect.
Matthew does not say how Jesus responded to the latest poll numbers, but we can imagine he was not surprised. Had the conversation stopped there, they might have returned to talking about the weather. Instead, Jesus had one more question and because he asked this question, the course of human history and perhaps our individual histories have never been the same.“Who do you say that I am,” Jesus asks all the disciples? That is a much harder question, it is a much more intimate, personal question. Jesus moves from opinion to relationship. We know about that kind of question—people want to see beyond the role or the title. “Who are you, really?”
Jesus gets personal, gets close and now the disciples have to answer for themselves and not just give other people’s answers. “Who do you say that I am?” It is not the first hard question Jesus asked, nor would it be the last.In fact, one of the great gifts of the gospels is their recording some of Jesus’ questions. “Why are you worried about the speck in your neighbor’s eye when you have a 2 X 4 in your own eye…If you only love those who love you, what is so special about that…What does it profit you to gain the whole world and lose your soul…Are you not of more value than the birds of the air and the flowers of the field…Who proved to be neighbor to the man who had been robbed…Are you envious because I am generous?” Jesus asked penetrating questions, which hearing ourselves try to answer them may say as much about us as about Jesus. It is an interesting framework for faith—to build it not around doctrinal certainties and dogmatic statements but as a life-long responding to the questions Jesus asks. “Who do you say that I am?”
There are some billboards along Interstate 35 that make a faith statement or two. “Got Jesus?” riffing on, “Got Milk?” The most frequent sign reads “Jesus is the Answer,” sometimes including a number to call for more information: 1 (800) 77-TRUTH or something like that. It’s tempting to call that number; however, Jesus instructs us to resist temptation.So far, so good at least on that one.Advertising is meant to grab our attention and so the billboards work; but the problem is Jesus did not walk around with a sandwich board that says, “I am the answer.” To be sure he made some “I am” statements but they are so creative and evocative that they fire the imagination rather than close a conversation. Jesus asks us who we think he is? He is asking us about Messiah. He is asking us what we most value, what shapes us most. He is asking “Who or what is our God?” We are not talking about the weather anymore.
When Jesus asks this question, we can imagine the disciples cutting their eyes at each other, pawing at the dirt with their toes and waiting to see who will venture a response, knowing that impetuous Peter would probably fill the silence. “You are the Messiah, Christ, son of the living God.” Peter got the right answer, according to Jesus, who then made two comments suggesting there is more to faith than having the right answer.First, in what sounds a bit like a veiled insult Jesus says to Peter, “There is no way you came up with that answer on your own…God had to have helped you.” It is difficult to know exactly what to do with that statement, but at the very least it suggests that faith is not easy even if we can state it simply.Jesus also seems to be implying humility when it comes to speaking about God and Christ and faith, because whatever we can say, God knows there may be more to say, more to learn, more room to grow.The other comment Jesus makes is cautionary—don’t go telling a bunch of people that I am the Messiah, which seems the very opposite of many religious approaches to faith. It suggests that when it comes to faith, Jesus does not threaten or demean anybody. Instead, Jesus invites any who would to follow him and learn how he embodies Messiah.
What we know from Matthew’s gospel and 2,000 years of church history is that the question of Messiah has not been settled. In the next conversation Jesus has with Peter, he corrects Peter who misunderstands what Jesus means by Messiah. It does not disqualify Peter as a disciple; instead, it reminds Peter and every disciple since that as the apostle Paul insightfully wrote, “we all only see in part.” It was tempting for Peter then, and it has been tempting ever since for disciples to wrap Jesus in the cloth of our expectations, believing in the God we want who fits our biases rather than the God who comes in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. So, over the course of Christian history, Jesus has been wrapped into a sectarian cloak or a political flag or a denominational banner or a spiritual but not religious fabric.It has been attributed to Fred Craddock that he once said, “it is possible to make an A in Bible and flunk Christianity,” which suggests that faith is more about embodied living than lock step certitude.
“Who do you say that I am,” Jesus asks of his disciples then and his disciples now.We know, as Jessica Grose recently wrote, “Christianity has a branding problem,” and we are familiar with the numerous ways Christianity has been coopted. And yet Jesus has not given us a pass on the question, and in fact it may be more important now than ever to respond. How do we talk about and embody this one called Christ who came from Nazareth, never travelled far from home, was incredibly wise but earned no diploma, ministered briefly, died at the hands of Rome and religion, and was raised unexpectedly so that for those who saw him then and those who hear him now, he is still asking the best question ever. How then do we respond?
It may a good exercise this week to put ourselves alongside those disciples gathered in Caesaria Philippi, although we certainly don’t have to go to a resort in the mountains somewhere to answer Jesus’ question. We can answer it in this sanctuary; we are answering it every time we walk down Main Street. “Who do you say that I am?” Jesus, a man of humility and compassion; who lifted the poor and called the rich to care; who took little ones in his arms and welcomed the outcast; who knelt before others and washed their feet; who taught an ethic of mercy and the practice of forgiveness; who blessed the peacemakers and refused vengeance; who bore a cross though he was abandoned and commissioned his disciples beyond their fears; who broke the bread and shared the cup and said “Love God and love one another.”
It is important to remember that not only do we respond individually; we also respond as a church. Peter proclaimed Messiah and although he did not understand the fullness of what he said, Jesus called him Rock, the foundation of the church. We are the inheritors of that name passed to this generation. Never doubt the importance of this church saying what we say, especially when Christianity gets branded as a religion that hates others, hurts others, belittles others, excludes others. We remember that when this church says all are welcome to communion, no exceptions—we are saying something. When this church gives its resources and time so that hungry neighbors are fed and those without homes can begin to rebuild their lives, we are saying something.When this church says we dedicate ourselves to creating sanctuary and learning courageously from the youngest to the most seasoned in the faith, we are saying something.
“Who do you say that I am?” It’s not an assignment; instead it is an invitation to live our days responding to the best question Jesus asks.