Matthew 16: 13-20

 

Do you think we will have a federal election in the fall?  It surely starts to look that way.  If it is the case, who do you think will be the happier?  The Conservatives, the Liberals, the NDP, le Bloc Québécois, the Green Party…  If you want my humble opinion, the ones who really look for an election as soon as possible are the firms measuring public opinion by surveys.  Even if they all say that they do not read them or they are not making decisions according to them, you can bet that every side will order countless polls on every possible subject.  We can be sure that someone will call us around the time of dinner to ask us questions like who would make the best leader or who has the best plan for the economy…  Then the leaders of each party will use the results of those polls to shape up the impression of their candidate in the public opinion.

 

In this morning’s Gospel story, Jesus conducts a survey of his own about who people thought him to be.  For a second week in a row, the lectionary presents us another story where Jesus makes a withdrawal from the crowd that followed him everywhere.  Last week Jesus was tired and tried to rest in the district of Tyre and Sidon, where he might be lesser known.  This week, we find Jesus in the district of Caesarea Philippi, which was located about twenty-five miles northeast of the Sea of Galilee.  It is there, in the midst of an area populated mainly by non-Jews and dedicated to the most powerful man of the Ancient world, Caesar, that Jesus asks his disciples one crucial question.

 

Throughout the gospels, many witnessed Jesus’ ministry and wondered constantly: Who is this homeless and penniless Galilean?  Where does he get the power to conduct miracles?  Where does his authority to teach come from?  Who does he think he is? Jesus did not lose a great amount of time with those questions.  However, the perception of his disciples seemed to matter more.  Assuming that they were aware of what people were saying about him and without giving them any warning, Jesus asks his disciples the question: “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”

 

When people are asked this kind of question, usually they begin to play what I call the comparison game.  Their first reflex is to compare someone to someone else already known and famous.  How many times have we heard about a new singer that he or she is the new Bob Dylan, the new Joni Mitchell or the new Pavarotti?  Usually those comparisons are not bad.  In fact they are often compliments.  My problem with this is that it gives the impression we lack words to express what we think or to describe what we have in face of us.

 

The people in Jesus’ time were not different from us.  Even though there were various opinions about him, many associated Jesus with prophets of the past, famous spokesperson of God to the people of God.  Some believed, like the king Herod Antipas, that Jesus was John the Baptist risen from the dead.  Others compared him to the prophets Elijah and Jeremiah.  These associations were great compliments because people were setting Jesus in the highest category that they could find.  John the Baptist was surely the most charismatic and inspiring figure of his time.  Elijah is a central figure in the Jewish faith because he is the prophet who will precede the coming of the Messiah, as stated by the biblical book of Malachi.  The prophet Jeremiah, who was viewed as the helper of God’s people in the day of trouble, foretold the rejection and suffering of the Messiah while he was himself experiencing rejection and suffering.

 

Even if in answering their master’s question the disciples mention only positive opinions, Jesus pushes the inquiry a little further.  In reality Jesus is not really interested in some generic answers made by the larger population.  He wants to know what his disciples think.  This is why Jesus challenges them to step up to the plate and to articulate their own understanding by saying; “But who do you say that I am?”  I guess this is the real challenge for the disciples and also for us.  Jesus does not seem to be interested in our knowledge of every Christology theories we can learn in Theological College.  Jesus is not interested to know if we can quote every piece of Scriptures by heart.  Our understanding of who Jesus is cannot be based on second hand information.  Our experience and knowledge of Jesus must be based on personal discovery.  Our faith should never primarily consist in knowing about Jesus; it should consist in knowing Jesus.

 

I do not about you, but I am glad I was not there that day with the disciples and expected to answer that difficult question in a snap.  The disciples were probably baffled and looking for their words when Simon Peter, the leader of the other apostles, speaks up and recognizes of the true nature of Jesus by answering: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”  The expressions Messiah and Son of God were messianic titles meaning Anointed One.  In the Old Testament times, only kings and members of the royal family were anointed.  However, these two expressions carry here a richer meaning because they refer to the unique relationship Jesus has with God.  Jesus is declared to be the Messiah, the Christ, the expected One promised in the Hebrew Scriptures.  He is the long awaited Saviour sent by God to save the people of Israel.  Jesus is nothing lest than God’s instrument to usher in the new Kingdom envisioned by the prophets.  Furthermore, by being identified as the Son of the living God, Jesus is inscribed in the same tradition than Abraham, Jacob and king David whose lives were influenced by a personal relationship with a God who is the source and the giver of all life.

 

Many people wonder, “What makes us Christians unique, different from the other groups?”  I believe the beginning of the answer lies in this morning’s confession made by Peter stating that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God.  When we ask ourselves: “Who is Jesus?”,  “What does it mean to be his follower?”, and “What is the one thing that makes Christians, Christian?”, the answer is not found in our pot luck dinners, in our What Would Jesus Do bracelets, or in the money we raise for good causes.  The thing that makes us who we are is our belief that a Jew from the small village of Nazareth named Jesus, or in Hebrew Joshua, is the One sent by God to transform of world for good.  It is our belief that the son of a simple carpenter — who was born, lived briefly, died violently in his thirties, and rose from the dead unexpectedly – is the instrument of God’s salvation offered freely to all humanity.

 

This morning’s passage is all about the identity of Jesus.  After a small survey among his disciples, Jesus tries to teach them, and also us, that faith should not necessarily be based on great theological principles or the ability of getting the titles for Jesus in the right alignment because these are just human constructions and categories, and even the highest human categories or the best comparison are simply inadequate to describe this crucial fact in our lives.  Each of us is called to make their own fresh assessment of who is this Jesus in our lives and how this relationship with him makes us different and makes our faith vital, real, and capable of powerful declaration.  When we take that road, we are able to follow Peter’s example who taught us that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.  Amen.