Who do they say I am?
Posted by Fr.Stace on August 23rd, 2008 filed in The Rector's RuminationsProper 16
Matthew 16
One night a man was attending a costume party out in the country and he decided to go for broke and dress like the devil. He found the typical costume, horns and pitchfork, and looked rather frightening. To his chagrin, on the way to the party, out in the middle of nowhere, his car broke down. He panicked and tried to find some signs of life on the country road. Finally, he found himself at a church having an evening potluck. As he walked in, people were terrified. One by one they hurried past him as they thought the apocalypse had come. The parish hall was empty except for one elderly lady. She looked at the devil and hit here cane against the floor and said, ‘look here devil. I’ve been going to this church for 50 years. But it’s OK. I’ve been on your side the whole time!’
Few people in the pews would be this bold, but this is sometimes how things turn out. Interestingly, Jesus asks the question of his identity not in Jerusalem, or on Mt. Sinai, but in Satan’s region, in the land of the Gentiles.
In our gospel reading, Jesus is still on his Gentile tour (Caesarea Philippi)
This was the region Governed by Philip son of Herod, who married Salome (Herod Antipas’ dancing girl).
In this region the population primarily Syrian and Greek who followed the old time religion.
The region had ‘a long bastion of pagan worship to Baal, then to the Greek god Pan, and then to Caesar.’
Pan was the Greek god of shepherds and flocks, of mountain wilds, hunting and rustic music: paein means to pasture. He was also connected to fertility and season of spring.
Pan’s ancient Roman equivalent was Faunus, and they were both Horned God deities. For this reason he is popular among many Neopagans and occultic groups. Satanic imagery comes from Pan–Goat legs, horns, etc.
Baal, another fertility god; beelzebub–lord of the flies, equated with the devil…
Of course Cesar proclaimed himself as king of the world–the god of god and lord of lords.
Here, where all other gods rule, even where Satan ruled; where the most powerful of earthly powers rule, is where Jesus asked his disciples his identity.
Jesus question of his identity is the 95 mph pitch to his disciples. The other disciples whiff, but Peter nails it and knocks it over the fence.
Peter gives the famous answer, ‘you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.’
Peter was saying something like the 1st century document the Psalms of Solomon: “Behold, O Lord, and raise up unto them their king, the son of David, at the time you have forseen, O God, to rule over Israel your servant.”
What Peter said was true. ‘You are the Christ,’ what the Old Testament calls the ‘anointed one’ of God, messiah who is king, priest, prophet…
You are the ‘Son of the living God’—more than Baal, Pan, Cesar or any god…Here is the Son of God with authority. Here is Jesus who is God in the flesh. ‘God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God.’
Peter got it right. The Father himself revealed it to him. Therefore he is called the Rock. While Rome took this too far, Peter was and is the foundation of the church. He is the Rock, he is the ‘first among equals’ among the disciples. He gave the true and first confession, has the keys to the kingdom–remember he was the first to use them on the day of Pentecost. The keys are the message of the gospel–the confession of Jesus as messiah and Lord.
He is the Rock and we are the ‘Church.’ Matthew is the only gospel writer to use this term. It is used in the Greek Old Testament as the ‘Community/assembly of the Lord’—found in Deuteronomy. For us it is the community founded on the prophets and apostles and Peter’s confession of Jesus as both Lord and Christ.
And the Gates of Hades–the power of death–will not prevail against this community. As one writer has said, ‘even though the new community will face martyrdom and persecution, the church will never die. Jesus’ victory over death is living proof that he will continue to build his church against the forces of death.’
But something went wrong with Peter only a few verses later, which is next week’s passage. His understanding was right on, but it was incomplete.
He nailed the messianic prophecies about the son of David, a ruler of rulers, a Lord like no other. A mighty one–the great ‘Son of Man’ from the book of Daniel. But then there was the matter of the cross.
‘I tell you the truth’…says Jesus, then he goes on to explain his betrayal and death. Peter takes him aside, ‘may it never be, Lord!’
And then Jesus says the chilling words, ‘away from me Satan, for you have in mind not the things of God but of man..’
So what do we do with this? Two things. Jesus is King. We fulfill the mission of kingship by proclaiming him as such. I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times. Our world of multi-culturalism and chaos desperately needs to know that Jesus Christ is Lord. However non-politically correct exclusive claims for Christ may be, we have to proclaim that message. The early church did it in a world that was more pluralistic than our own. Anglican Evangelist Michael Green says, “I find it ironic that people object to the proclamation of the Christian gospel these days because so many other faiths jostle on the doorstep of our global village. What’s new? The variety of faiths in antiquity was even greater than it is today. And the early Christians, making as they did ultimate claims for Jesus, met the problem of other faiths head-on from the very outset. Their approach was interesting…They did not denounce other faiths. They simply proclaimed Jesus with all the power and persuasiveness at their disposal.”
For the ‘spiritual but not religious,’ for those whose God is pleasure, for those who have too much and want even more–the message is the same, “Jesus is Lord.”
And we must take Christ’s Lordship seriously, where it is costly.
But secondly, Jesus not only shows us who is in charge of this world, he shows us what the one in charge thinks of this world.
There seems to be two kinds of Jesus that rise to the surface. There is the meek and mild ‘love your enemies Jesus’ of the gospels, and then there is what Brian McLaren calls the end times ‘Jihad Jesus.’ Those who see this kind of Jesus read the book of Revelation and interpret it as a book of fierce judgment in which Jesus is seeking vengeance. This is the ‘Left Behind’ Jesus who throws the evil people into a pit and they are swallowed up by the earth. Listen to Jenkins and Lahaye in one of the Left Behind books: Jesus merely raised one hand a few inches and a yawning chasm opened in the earth, stretching far and wide enough to swallow all of them. They tumbled in, howling and screeching, but their wailing was soon quashed and all was silent when the earth closed itself again. So which is it, the Sermon on the mount peaceful Jesus or the Jihad Jesus–the Revelation conqueror?
The images of Jesus in Revelation are puzzling to be sure, but there is one that stands out. John is taken to the throne room of God and there he gets a glimpse of a Lamb, on a throne, who ‘looked as though it had been slain…’ You see the ironic imagery. A king ruling as a Lamb who was slain. Pantokrator yes, but also the crucified one. Not anything like a Jihad Jesus.
The King who could crush the world between his fingers is crushed for our transgressions. The King who could fatally bruise his creation for its disobedience is bruised for our iniquities. The King who could permanently wound his people for our rebellion, heals us by his own wounds. The one who is in charge of this world, shows us what the one in charge of the world thinks of it, by his death on the cross.
Jesus is the one who shows us the true nature of Kingship and sovereignty. He shows us what the one in charge really thinks about us. In his gaze to the Father and his words from the cross, ‘Father forgive them, for they know not what they do,’ shows us what the King intends.
Next, the mission of Kingship that Jesus has, he places in the hands of his Church, the representatives of the apostles on earth. That mission belongs to the apostolic descendants of Peter to be sure–that being the clergy, but the mission also extends to the whole Church. He said the gates of hell will not prevail against the church, not just the apostles.
The scary part is the church has misunderstood how this takes place. The Church does not exercise the mission of kingship through power or bureaucracy. The Church does not exercise authority by wielding the sword of domination. The Church does not exercise authority through politics. The Church plays out authority by doing two things: proclaiming who indeed is truly in charge, and by modeling Christ’s way of kingship.
Like the early church, the best way of communicating his Lordship is by modeling his way of kingship. We do this by modeling humility. I read a story in Dan Miller’s book about some Christian college students at a party school who decided to do something very unusual. One Friday night, they dressed up as monks and set up a confessional booth. Only they had a different strategy. Rather than having drunk college students confess their sins, the Christian students actually confessed to the non-Christians. The partyers were shocked–and touched. The Christian students confessed for the way the Church had been abusive over the centuries; more than that they confessed how they had been judgmental and heavy handed on campus. The Christians were met with open arms and created mutual respect. They showed humility.
Of course Jesus did not have sins to confess, but we model his kingship through humility and through self-sacrifice.
Right after Jesus rebukes Peter for trying stop Jesus from going to the cross, Jesus spells it out for all who follow him. ‘Whoever would come after me, must take up their cross and follow me…’
We have a Lord who died a criminal’s death–an outsiders death. That is how he rules. We can only show the world Jesus is Lord when we live by that cross as well. The cross levels us all.
The cross is our starting place and our ending place.
We began with the Devil. The Devil wants power and he wants us to want it as well. But Jesus is King, a king who is a servant. He asks his church to defeat the gates of hell by proclaiming him King and humbly serving others. Remember your king washed his disciples feet. Remember your king hung on a cross. Remember your king is king. Proclaim his Lordship, then model his kingship by taking up your cross and serving those around you.