IMHO

Delivered August 7, 2011

Matthew 16:13-20

The area of Caesarea Philippi is one of my favorite places in the Holy Land. It is also one of the favorite spots of Israeli tourists. They call it Banias today. It is in the northernmost part of the country in the Golan Heights at the foot of Mount Hermon, which is a 9000 foot mountain that is often topped with snow. Banias is a beautiful wooded area with a spring, which is one of the headwaters of the Jordan River. It is has been a sacred spot for millennia. The name Banias comes from the ancient name of the place Paneas named after the Greek god Pan – the nature god. In Jesus’ day there was also a temple there built upon the rock in honor of Caesar, hence the name Caesarea Philippi. A spring flows forth from the mouth of a cave in the rock face of this mountain, which was considered one of the entrances to the underworld. In ages past the spring used to gush forth powerfully from this cave entrance. Now it is much weaker. It was at this site that Jesus chose to have one of the most important discussions that he ever had with his disciples. When Peter professed his faith in Jesus as the Son of God, and Jesus replied, “On this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it,” he was alluding to the temple of Caesar who was considered the Son of God and to the local tradition about this cave being the gate to Hades. Those are just a couple of the interesting facets of this story, which we are looking at today.

This passage is a turning point in Jesus’ ministry. Up to this point Jesus had been walking around the country teaching about the Kingdom of God. From this point on Jesus started teaching about his upcoming suffering and death in Jerusalem. His teaching shifts from being about the Kingdom of God to being about himself - who he is, and his role in the Kingdom of God. Verse 21, which comes immediately after our Gospel lesson today says, “From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.” The teaching goes from being the gospel of Jesus to the gospel about Jesus. It is popular in some circles to say that the real historical Jesus preached the Kingdom of God, and later the early church changed the message to be about Jesus. But I think that Jesus preached both, and the two are two aspects of the same message. We are going to look at this passage in three sections

I. First is is the Opinion of the Crowd, found in verses 13-14. ^“When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” Luke’s gospel frames Jesus question in these words: “Who do the crowds say that I am?”  The apostles’ answer was this: “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”  People were trying to figure out who this powerful preacher, teacher and miracle-worker was. They came up with a lot of different possibilities. One was that he was John the Baptist. John had already been executed by this time. People were suggesting that John had come back from the dead, that God had resurrected John the Baptist. Others were saying that Jesus was Elijah returned to earth. Elijah was an Old Testament prophet who is one of only two people in the Old Testament (the other being Enoch) whom the Scriptures say did not die. The Hebrew Bible says that Elijah was taken up to heaven in a fiery chariot. Furthermore, it was believed that one day he would return, and his return would be a precursor to the coming of the Kingdom of God. Some people thought Jesus might be Elijah. Others thought Jesus might be one of the other OT prophets – perhaps Jeremiah. Some today see a reference here to reincarnation, as if Jesus was one of the OT prophets reincarnated. But reincarnation is an Indian concept, not a Hebrew one. The Jews believed in resurrection not reincarnation. Luke makes that clear when he records the disciples answer this way: “¹⁹ So they answered and said, “John the Baptist, but some say Elijah; and others say that one of the old prophets has risen again.” The crowds had a lot of different ideas about who Jesus might be.

The crowds have many different opinions today. Some say Jesus is a myth, that he never really existed, that he is a fictional figure invented by the church, a fantasy concocted from various ancient mythologies. Others say that Jesus was a real historical figure, but that is about it - that he was a wandering rabbi, a teacher, and a preacher. Judaism admits that Jesus he was a real person, but not a rabbi in the strict sense of that word. There are many biblical scholars who give varied answers to the question of who the historical Jesus was. There are as many answers as there are scholars. Some see Jesus as a political figure, or a revolutionary figure or an apocalyptic figure. But all say he was an important figure. H.G. Wells wrote: “I am an historian, I am not a believer, but I must confess as a historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history."

Some religious people today say Jesus was a great spiritual teacher. Islam teaches that Jesus was a prophet. Hindus say that Jesus was an avatar, one of many earthly incarnations of the Hindu god Krishna; the Hare Krishna movement teaches this. Some Buddhists would say that Jesus was a bodhisattva, an enlightened human being. The Dalai Lama has said that Jesus was a bodhisattva. The Baha’is says that Jesus was a Manifestation of God. There are lots of variations of these ideas. There are lots of opinions about who Jesus was – both in Jesus’ day and in our own. And we could spend this whole service exploring these.

II. But Jesus moves the conversation beyond speculation. Jesus asks a follow-up question. Verse 15 “He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” This goes from a theoretical question to a personal question. What is your opinion? Every thinking person, who has heard about Jesus, has to answer this question for himself or herself. Some people take this question seriously and do a lot of thinking and research about it. Others just parrot what they have heard others say, or they give an “off the top of their head” answer without much thought. Some try to avoid a direct answer, and say that it is all a matter of personal opinion and there is no one correct answer.

Sorry, I don’t buy it. At some point we have to personally make a choice. Jesus said to his disciples, “But who do you say that I am?” Forget what other people think for a moment. What do you think is true? What is your opinion? Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” What does Peter mean by these words? The word Christ means literally “anointed one.” Priests were anointed and kings were anointed in ancient times. In fact lots of people were anointed with oil for all types of reasons. But in Peter’s time the title “the Anointed One” or Christ meant the long-expected Jewish Messiah, a figure prophesied in the Hebrew Scriptures.  People had different opinions about what the Messiah would be like and what he would do, but they all agreed that he would be sent by God to the Jewish people.

Peter went beyond this general understanding of the Jewish Messiah to take a specific interpretation of who the Christ would be. Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” There was no doubt what Peter meant by these words. He believed that Jesus was divine. There was no other way of interpreting the title Son of God. The official title of Augustus Caesar in ancient documents was “Emperor Caesar Augustus, son of god.” The image of Caesar and the phrase “Son of God” was on Roman coins that all people of the empire carried with them. Biblical scholar John Dominic Crossan writes, “You cannot understand Jesus without knowing that every silver coin in the world he lived in said that Caesar was the Son of God.” The term communicated divinity and authority. Everyone understood that. This title is what got Jesus in so much trouble with both the Roman governor Pilate and the Jewish high priest, Caiaphas. The Romans saw the title “Son of God” as treason, challenging the status of Caesar. The priests saw it as blasphemy, challenging the authority of God. They described it this way, “he said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.” Regardless of what your opinion is, it was Peter’s opinion that Jesus was the Son of God, which was a radical thing to say.

III. This is why Jesus responds to Peter the way he does, which is the third point. We have looked at the Crowd’s opinion and Peter’s opinion. This is Jesus’ Opinion. Verse 17 says, “Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.” Jesus was saying that this statement by Peter went beyond one man’s personal opinion. Jesus said that this statement was a revelation from God. Jesus goes on to say that he was going to build his church on this revelation. Verse 18 “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”

This truth seen by Peter - “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” - is the foundation of the Christian faith. It was revealed to Peter that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the living God. For Christians this is not an opinion. This is the scandal of the gospel. We live in an age where everything is considered a matter of personal opinion rules; everyone’s opinion is considered equally valid in our egalitarian religious culture. “In my humble opinion” is watchword of our age. It is so common that we have an abbreviation for it – IMHO. But the gospel is not a matter of opinion, no matter how humble. Jesus says it is a matter of revelation. He says, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you….” That means that it is not of human origin or interpretation. He goes on, “but My Father who is in heaven [has revealed this to you].”

How do we know that this is revealed by God and not just an opinion – Peter’s opinion or my opinion? I am just a human being standing up here in a pulpit saying this. How do you know that what I say is true and not just my personal opinion? In spiritual matters how do we discern that anything is ultimately? The brief answer is you don’t – unless it is revealed to you. If you just take my word for it then, in Jesus’ words, “flesh and blood has revealed this to you.” If you only take my word for it, then it is second-hand knowledge. Do not take my word for it. Do not believe it because I say it, or Christianity says it. Jesus did not want people to believe this second-hand. This is why Jesus told his disciples not to go around telling everyone this. In Mark and Luke’s accounts of this story, they add “Then He strictly warned them that they should tell no one about Him.” Biblical scholars refer to this as the Messianic secret. Jesus repeatedly warned his apostles not to go around telling people that he was the Son of God. Why? Because it would just be another religious idea in the marketplace of religious ideas. Then it would just be a doctrine to be believed, a point of theology to be accepted or rejected. That is exactly what this is not and must not become.

This story is not trying to get us to accept Peter’s theology. It is not about accepting as true what someone else saw. It is trying to lead us to see for ourselves what Peter saw. At that moment Peter saw something he had not seen before. He awoke to a reality that he had not recognized before. Jesus tells Peter that it was revealed to him by God. The words “reveal” and “revelation” literally mean unveiling. It describes something that is covered by a veil and is suddenly uncovered. At that moment Peter looked at Jesus and it was as if a veil had been removed from his eyes. He looked at Jesus and saw Jesus as he really was. He could see that Jesus was not just a man – a teacher, a rabbi, a healer - but he was the Christ, the Son of the living God. It was as if Peter looked at Jesus and could see through the man to his true nature as the Son of God. Jesus became for him a window to the Divine, a doorway to Heaven, an opening in time and space that led into eternity. This is what Jesus meant when he says, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father but by Me.” As Jesus says elsewhere: he is the door; he is the stairway to heaven. The Christian faith is not believing all the right things and doing all the right things. It is seeing God in Christ and entering the Kingdom of God through Christ.

This is what this story invites us to. Peter’s words must not be reduced to a religious doctrine that we accept based on religious authority. If it is only that, then it is no better or truer than any other spiritual teaching or religious doctrine. We should accept nothing just because a church, a religious leader or religion, or a preacher like me says it is true. That is just flesh and blood speaking.  We should profess only what we know, only what we see, only that which has been revealed to us. The Christian faith is based on revelation. It is not based on doctrines or creeds or ecclesiastical authority. It is based on seeing what is true, knowing what is true. And that truth is Jesus Christ. This is the foundation. Jesus said he is building his church on what Peter saw: “On this rock I will build my church.” This is bedrock; you can’t go any deeper than this. This is the key to the kingdom. This is what it means to enter the kingdom of God. This is the solid rock that the church of Christ is built upon, and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it.