Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost, August 23, 2020 | a Sermon based on Matthew 16: 13-20 (RCL) | by David Zersen |

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.” ¹⁷And 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.

Choosing a Story Line

 

My favorite TV genre is drama. When I used to enjoy wandering in Blockbusters like some people wander in grocery or hardware stores, I always headed for the drama section. I like presentations with a story line, something that pulls me along, like a mystery, romance or even biography. In watching TV dramas today, however, it can be a complex experience. In a Blue Bloods episode, there are usually three or four subplots that need to get resolved before the program ends. That’s no mean task, to try to involve Danny, Jamie, Erin, the Commissioner or even the grandfather in 60 minutes, minus commercials!

 

One of the reasons I like the biblical literature so much is that it’s also filled with drama or very compelling story lines. In today’s text, for instance, there are at least three concerns being addressed. Theoretically, the preacher could make any one of them the focus for a sermon. I was taught in the seminary that if you read the text and context carefully, there’s only one focus that should be pursued, and it needs to be examined in terms of law and gospel. In this text, that may seem too simplistic.

 

I read at least three subplots in these seven verses of Matthew’s fifteenth chapter. There is the question of Jesus’ identity. Who is this man—really? Given the challenging messages, the miracles, the compelling arguments—who is he? Precocious Peter ventures an answer, but surely the others have an opinion. And so, perhaps, do you? We could create a story exploring Jesus identity for us.

 

Then there is Jesus’ response to Peter’s bold confession. Peter says that Jesus is the Messiah and Jesus affirms that confident faith, asserting that a community of believers could be built on it. Of course, some denominational sermons may preach about apostolic succession and the founding of the church to which Peter was given the keys. And that sermon can be a long and controversial one!

 

Thirdly, Jesus discourages anyone from saying that he is the Messiah. Mark’s Gospel repeats that insistence so often that the concern has been named the “Marcan Secret”. In any case, it’s a fascinating question as to why there should have been reticence in anyone learning the answer to the question that Jesus himself posed! That’s worth a drama in itself.

 

So which subplot shall we choose as our focus? At one point in our married life, my wife and I attended a Bible Class each Wednesday noon at which the lessons for the coming Sunday were discussed. The members of the class came up with all kinds of insights from the lessons, but the preacher, who always participated, never used any of them! He always had his own take on the text. Following that experience, I’m going to encourage you to choose the focus that has the most importance for you personally in this text. Let me, however, give you some more background to help you choose your focus.

 

Options for a focus

 

Let’s begin by noting where Jesus and his disciples were gathered. I’ve actually been to the place a number of times. The setting for this possible focus in the story is Caesarea Philippi, named after Julius Caesar, although not the Caesarea by the same name on the Mediterranean Sea. This one was in the north, below Mt. Hermon and famous because it boasted a spring that fed

the Jordan River. Additionally, there was a grotto with niches in a cliff that contained statues of the various manifestations of the god, Pan. This is now great drama! Jesus gathers his disciples before the images of the pagan gods of the gentile world and asks, “Who do you think that I am?” He could have asked that question at his baptism at the other end of the Jordan River, or at the Feeding of the Five Thousand, or from the cross? But he takes them to a pagan sanctuary in Gentile territory to ask what he means to them?

 

Could I ask you for a moment to think about your own pagan grotto? It would be the place where Jesus might ask what he really means to you. Could it be in some place or with some people that would make you uncomfortable if you knew that Jesus was watching? Or even asking what he meant to you at that moment?

 

Secondly, by way of background to help us choose a focus in the text, let’s think about the man who makes the bold confession that Jesus is “the Messiah, the son of the Living God!” That’s of course astonishing when you consider that this is the same man who just a few days before had left the boat to meet Jesus on the Sea of Galilee and began to sink. Jesus then chose to say “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” (Matt. 14:30). And now to have it suggested that on Peter’s rocklike confession a church community might be established is surprising to us. There are streams of consciousness here on which we might like to build. James Alison in his wonderful book, The Joy of Being Wrong,suggests that the kingdom that Jesus is building is established with people like Peter, like you and me, who have often been wrong. We have failed, we have deceived, and we have lied. But with God, there is forgiveness for those who repent. There is a new tomorrow even when today is a loss. I think of John Newton, the famous slave trader who discovered how wrong he had been, and then wrote, “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound; I once was lost, but now I’m found.”  Jesus is building a new world filled with tomorrows upon sinners like Peter, John Newton and you and me. This is a theme we might like to follow.

 

Let me share some additional background information that could take you in another direction.

Peter’s confession about Jesus being the Messiah needs to be seen in its historical and theological context. Peter carried his sword, for example, because like many in his day he was waiting for the moment when the Messiah would spring up among them, give the word and the attack against the hated Roman authority would begin. In caves in Judea there were repositories of weapons maintained by the Zealots and the Sicarii who plotted insurgences. Some historians have placed Judas and Peter in such groups.

 

Even in our own country today there are many who feel that the real solution to a world community is a strong defense made by one, hopefully, democratic leader. That “leader” may think that it plays a kind of messianic role even if other nations think that it acts like a bully. Here in the United States we tend to categorize other nations as enemies or friends. They may not be “your” enemies, per se, but a government can find it useful to declare other nations its enemies. It is considered politically useful to divide nations using militaristic terms and numbering nuclear weapons and amounts budgeted for “defense”. Such talk rallies patriots around leaders who may find it useful to create imaginary scapegoats for the dangers that never begin at home, but are always imagined to have origins elsewhere in the wo

 

Jesus is a problem for such leadership. One may sound religious, quote Bible passages, make friends with religious groups– but if an attempt is being made to rally support for one’s military strength because of presumed dangers, Jesus is a problem for you! Peter believed that the Messiah would come to lead an armed uprising against the Romans—and Jesus said “No.” “Those who take the sword will perish by the sword.” (Mt. 26:52) Violence can’t defeat violence, hate can’t defeat hate, and fear can’t defeat fear! The new world into which Jesus is leading his followers creates leadership through servanthood, strength through weakness, and community through love. Jesus is just another kind of person, and his kingdom is another kind of place!

 

Telling Your Story

 

Now we’ve come to a point at which we need to determine whether any of the subplots in this text or whether any of the background information shared can help you decide where in this story you’d like to find yourself and how you would like to see your story end.

 

Ignatius Loyola had an interesting method of Bible study that invited readers to consider a text, read it through a couple times, enter into the text, decide who or where you are in the text, engage in dialogue with people in the text, and then go back into your world holding your insights like a bouquet of fresh flowers in a troubled world.

 

It’s a useful suggestion for us today as we consider what choices we will make about our own place in this story and what conclusions we will make about our world, given our place in the story. We will want to know, first of all, who Jesus is and what he means to us. What does it mean to know that Jesus is the one who was promised, the one who loved us to the end, and the one who invites us to live in his community of love? Who do you say that Jesus is for you?

 

Then we may consider that Jesus chooses even you, the very you who may have little to commend yourself, to follow him into the world as a repentant sinner who has been forgiven and affirmed. Knowing that nothing can separate you from the bold future that God has prepared for you, do you not feel more confident about making the road by walking into a new kind of living?

 

And finally, although we are surrounded with talk about military solutions to plots from enemies, might we at least remember that Jesus asks us to pray for our enemies and even to love them? If Christ’s light, bright within us, can dispel the darkness in our world, is it not possible that your story, my story, can create a bright and positive ending for the subplot of our choice in the text?

 

Would you be willing to think about how your story is beginning to do that? And which flowers will be in the bouquet that you carry into Christ’s new world?

 

David Zersen, D.Min., Ed.D.

President Emeritus, Concordia University Texas

djzersen@gmail.com