“Who Do You Say that I Am?” (Matt. 16.13-20) Proper 16, Series A, Aug. 2011
1. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. “To know [the Almighty God] is everlasting life,” so we’ve prayed in today’s Collect. But how can we know God? “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! ‘Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?’ ” These words from today’s Epistle readings in Romans 11 would lead us from any attempts to discover God through our own efforts to our utter dependency on the revelation God the Father should choose to give of himself. The fullness of that revelation of God wasn’t given all at once. It accumulated through Old Testament history, at the times and places of God’s choosing. The patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob received this revelation of God, but they had less knowledge about Him than did Moses. And, Moses received less of it than we have through the confession of the Apostle Peter and the other disciples in today’s Gospel lesson from Matthew 16. In Christ, we’ve received the fullness of his self-revelation and that revelation shows us a God whose power is put at the service of his mercy and love towards you. In Jesus God has revealed to you his saving, merciful name, and you, like Peter, are blessed beyond imagination! The message is entitled, “Who Do You Say that I am?” and it’s taken from Matt. 16.13-20, dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. Back in the 1960s there was a popular song by the Doors in which Jim Morrison sang about how he loved a girl but needed her to tell him her name. Maybe you can remember that song from your youth and your parents saying to you in response to hearing it, “How can you love someone when you don’t know anything about them?” Today’s Gospel reading suggests that God has a way to improve and correct those faulty lyrics, and it would go something like this: “Hello. I love you. Let me tell you my name.” You see, when God revealed his name to us, he gave us a whole lot more than just a combination of sounds to utter. He gave us his love. He gave us his Son. He gave us a Savior. He is the Lord, and to know him is to be loved by him. In fact, we can never really know God—except through the love He has revealed in Jesus, the Savior.
3. Matthew 16:13–20 says, “13Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” 20Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.”
4. Notice here in Matthew 16 how Jesus asks his disciples what others are saying about Him. Their voices create a certain picture of Jesus. He could be John the Baptist or Elijah or Jeremiah. But the voice of Peter offers a confession of faith that enables all who follow to see the true picture of Jesus: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mt 16:16). Faith comes by hearing. What we hear about God and the promises of His work changes what we see in the world around us. Voices lead to visions, visions of God’s grace.
5. This text from Matthew’s Gospel poses a question for us. Who is Jesus? Our Lord Himself asks us that every question in our text. The fact that Jesus asks it twice suggests that it’s an important question, one we must answer correctly. Not only blasphemous answers are ruled out, such as those given by Jesus’ enemies that He’s a lunatic, a glutton, a drunkard, or a tool of Satan. And Jesus isn’t John the Baptist or one of the famous prophets come back from the dead. Nor is Jesus a mere humanitarian, wise teacher, or charismatic leader. He’s in the clear words of Peter in Matthew 16:16, “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” This answer is important not only because it’s the truth, but also because of its connection with the information that Jesus supplies in the verse following out text. The suffering, death, and resurrection of a merely great man have little value to us. But if Jesus is God, then His suffering, death and resurrection are of infinite value, because it offers to you the forgiveness of all of your sins.
6. How is it then that we find out who Jesus is? It’s not through our own wisdom or strength. It’s only from God Himself. We can make no improvement on finding out who Jesus is than by the answers of Simon Peter or Martin Luther. Luther states in his explanation of the 2nd Article to the Apostle’s Creed of our Small Catechism, “I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord, who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, previous blood and with His innocent suffering and death, that I may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity. This is most certainly true.” Other Scripture passages inform us that revealing Jesus’ identity and role to us is the specialty of the Holy Spirit. He does it through God’s Word and Sacrament. God gives us not only salvation but also the means by which to tap into that salvation. This is the Good News of the Gospel!
7. And what do we do with what we find out about Jesus? We build the church with it through the Office of the Keys. Christ stood in for us in His suffering and punishment for our sins. Now we stand in for Him in pronouncing to one another the forgiveness of our sins. In Matthew 16:19 we find Jesus promising Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Keys serve two purposes to unlock and lock. Here Jesus speaks of binding and loosing. There’s really only one key and that key is the gospel of Christ. This is the only power that fees people from their sins and opens the gates of heaven for them. The Gospel does that for all repentant sinners. For all unbelievers the gospel does no loosing or opening. In other words, it only binds and locks them in their sins because they do not believe Jesus to be their Savior. Here Jesus gives Peter the authority to proclaim the saving gospel, and as a result of his preaching the gospel, some will be saved for eternal life, while others will be left without excuse.
8. The Office of the Keys is that special authority that Christ has given to his church on earth the forgive the sins of those who repent and to retain the sins of those who do not repent of their sins as long as they do not repent. Any Christian who assures a penitent sinner that Jesus died for all his sins and freely forgives him or her is properly exercising this ministry. And any Christian who warns an unrepentant sinner that he or she is rejecting Christ’s forgiveness is also exercising this ministry. When we as Christians do and say what Jesus tells us to do and say we speak for him, and our words and actions are just as valid in haven as if Christ our Lord were acting directly.
9. On Jesus the Church itself is built. That’s why Paul says to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 3:11, “For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” Again in Ephesians 2:19-20 Paul writes, “the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone.” As long as the Church adheres to this truth and makes Christ its foundation, head and founder the gates of hell can’t prevail against it.
10. This Jesus, the head of the Church, gave His life as a ransom for all, and our response it is to teacher, preach and believe. If anyone comes with ANY OTHER DOCTRINE OR CLAIM than this—that Jesus sacrificed Himself for you and shed His blood for your redemption—you must say, “Get behind me, Satan, for such teachings do not come from God.”
11. Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Messiah and Son of God was a key event in Jesus’ ministry. To confess Jesus as Savior and Lord is also essential in every believer’s life. Some of us may remember the very moment this first happened. While many of us, who were baptized as infants, have made this confession again and again in worship and daily life. Like Peter, none of us can by our own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ. But, the Holy Spirit has called us by the Gospel. As royal priests of God, we “proclaim the excellencies of Him who called [us] out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1Pt 2:9). Grant us grace, heavenly Father, to confess Jesus and so remain on the unshakable rock of our salvation. Amen.
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