Who Do You Say I Am?

Readings:      Matthew 16:13-20

Introduction

The Tibetan Buddhists believe in the transmigration of souls. When someone dies, they suppose that the soul of that person goes immediately into a different body, the body of a child born at the same instant.

This belief becomes vitally important when their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, dies. A search is made for a boy born at the moment when the great leader died; and that boy is taken away and brought up as the new leader. Everybody, including the person himself, knows from the very beginning that he is the new Dalai Lama. It sounds very strange to modern Western ears. We highly prize the right of every person to freedom of choice about their future. Even Kings and Queens can abdicate. But the Dalai Lama has no choice; and there is no question about who he is.

In Judaism it was very different. Many Jews of Jesus' day believed (and many still do) that God would send an anointed king who would be the spearhead of the movement that would free Israel from oppression and bring justice and peace to the world at last.

Nobody knew when or where this anointed king would be born, though many believed he would be a true descendant of King David. God had made wonderful promises about his future family. Some would have pointed to the prophecy of Micah 5.1-3 (which Matthew quotes in chapter 2) as indicating that the coming king should be born in Bethlehem. And the word for 'anointed king' in the Jewish languages, Hebrew and Aramaic, was the word we normally pronounce as 'Messiah’.

What would the Messiah be like? How would people tell he had arrived? Nobody knew exactly, but there were many theories. Many saw him as a warrior king who would defeat the pagan hordes and establish Israel's freedom. Many saw him as one who would purge the Temple and establish true worship.

Everybody who believed in such a coming king knew that he would fulfil Israel's scriptures, and bring God's kingdom into being at last, on earth as it was in heaven. But nobody had a very clear idea of what all this would look like on the ground. In the first century there were several would-be Messiahs who came and went, attracting followers who were quickly dispersed when their leader was caught by the authorities. One thing was certain. To be known as a would-be Messiah was to attract hostility from the authorities.

So when Jesus wanted to put the question to his followers he took them well away from their normal sphere of activity. Caesarea Philippi is in the far north of the land of Israel, well outside the territory of Herod Antipas, a good two days' walk from the sea of Galilee. Even the form of his question, here in Matthew's gospel at least, is oblique: 'Who do people say the son of man is?', that is, 'Who do people say that I am?' Jesus must have known the answer he would get, but he wanted the disciples to say it out loud.

How do we answer the question?

Peter gives the right answer but how do we answer that question today? There are so many different opinions on who Jesus is.  If you are an atheist than you probably see Jesus as an historical figure whose followers made wild claims. He was a good teacher, had good morals, but that is it.

If you are Jewish you would say that Jesus was not the Messiah. He is not the Messiah because the time was not right for the Messiah to come according to the Hebrew Bible.  If you are a Muslim then you see Jesus as one of the Major Prophets God sent to the world but not God. You would believe that Jesus was not killed or crucified and, by the way, that he didn’t drink wine.

C.S. Lewis in his book, Mere Christianity, says, "A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg - or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us."

If Jesus stood in front of you today and asked you, “Who do you say I am,” how would you answer that question?

Would you call Jesus a liar? If so you would join the many ranks of people that think so. Jesus was really just a person who was saying things to become famous. He wanted and needed a following and so he came up with these claims but really made it all up.

If he wasn’t a liar, would you call him a lunatic? Maybe he was deranged or mentally ill. He was psychotic enough to think he could walk on water and he pulled 12 other deranged people into his web of hysteria. Is that true?

But if he is not a lunatic or a liar then that leaves only one other option, he is Lord.

This is basically what Peter tells Jesus when he is asked, “Who do you say I am? His answer is You are the Messiah - Jesus the Christ, the Lord.  That claim – Jesus Christ is Lord, soon became the watchword of a Christian. But what does this mean to claim Jesus Christ is Lord?

Jesus is Lord?

The phrase Jesus Christ demonstrates who we believe him to be. Jesus is his human name. It points out that he is 100% human. Christ is his divine name, the Christ, as Peter puts it, naming that he is 100% God.

That is what makes us different than any other religion in the world, Judaism, Islam, Hindu, Buddhists, and all the others. What makes us different is that we look at Jesus and we see God incarnate, the person who is both at the same time, 100% God and 100% human. This is best represented by the title Jesus Christ.

The term Christ also speaks to his purpose on this earth. He was the high priest, a King, and a prophet.  He was high priest by offering himself up on the cross. Jesus Christ was also king, bringing in the Kingdom of God, the reign of God in our hearts. He gave us glimpses of this kingdom through his words and actions. He was a prophet because he spoke the very words of God, indeed is The Word of God.

Conclusion

Peter in one moment of pure inspiration sees something of this and declares that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ.

For the moment this must remain a deadly secret. If it were to leak out it could be deadly indeed.

But to those who agree with Peter that Jesus of Nazareth really is God's Messiah, this promise is made: that they will become the people through whom the living God will put the world to rights, bringing heaven and earth into their new state of justice and peace.

Peter, with this declaration of faith, will be the starting point of this new community. Peter has much to learn, and many failures to overcome - including one that we will see next week.

But even this is part of the process – because Jesus' new community, the Church of God, consists simply of forgiven sinners - you and me.