When I first started in the summer seminary program back in the summer of 1992, I had a professor named Dr. Rodney Roberts, who was a United Methodist preacher from New Mexico. I had him for two different classes.
Both of these classes were interesting, but the most enlightening was a class in Biblical Interpretation. Fairly early in the class Dr. Roberts talked about something he referred to as an “Ah-ha” experience. The ah-ha experience happens when you have been looking and struggling with something like a Biblical text and you just aren’t getting it. You struggle with it and look at it and it is anything but plain and simple. You don’t understand. Then, suddenly, a light goes on in your brain and you say “ah-ha!” It all falls into place and you suddenly understand that which was totally not in your understanding just moments before.
I have had those experiences many times. I feel certain that many of you have had them as well. This morning we continue our series “Who Do You Say He Is,” a look each Sunday this month at Matthew’s version of Jesus’ question, “Who do you say I am?” For the disciples in general but for Peter in particular this lesson is an “ah-ha experience, but the only problem was it wasn’t a Biblical text back then, it was an ah-ha in real life experience. I guess that proves that ah-ha experiences can happen anywhere and any time. It may be Scripture for us, but for the disciples, it was real life. They were living it.
Our lesson finds Jesus and the disciples on the road. That in and of itself is nothing unusual. Much of the time when we read the stories form the Gospels Jesus and the disciples are on the way to or from somewhere. The lesson this morning says, “Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi…” That tells us that this group was on the road and now they had reached this particular location.
As I picture this story in my mind’s eye, they are still walking down the road. As they walk Jesus changes the subject of the conversation. He asks a question, “Who do people say that I am?” They give him a few answers but I don’t really think that this was the question that Jesus really wanted to ask. The disciples respond with John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.
All of their answers are good. After all, Jesus did ask them to tell him what they had heard and that is what they did. If someone were to ask me what color the banner is and you hear me say green. Then later, someone asks you, “What color did Keith say the banner is?” and you answered green that would not be a lie. Your answer to their question would be correct because you answered the question that they had asked you. If, however, you were asked, “what color do you think is the banner?” and you said green, your answer would be as wrong as mine. The disciple’s answers were not wrong, however, because they answered the question that Jesus had asked them.
Next, Jesus turns it around on them and asks the question that I believe was his intent all along. “Who do you say that I am?” What color is the banner to you? See, it is a very different question. That doesn’t mean that to the disciples the answer would be any different, but it is possible to get a different answer.
As I imagine this story unfolding I can hear one of those awkward moments of silence. The disciples know that they are supposed to know the answer yet the answer just isn’t there. The longer the silence goes, the more difficult it is for them to stay quiet, but what do they say? Finally Peter answers the question. “You are the Christ” he says, “The Son of the Living God.”
I have often wondered whether Peter really knew this or if he was just trying to break the awkward silence. It would be very typical of Peter to jump in on an impulse, making a statement, just because it was what he thought the right thing to say at the time, and he actually stumbled across the right answer.
But, the more I have thought about it, the more that I have come to understand that this wasn’t just one of Peter’s impulsive moments. It was Peter’s ah-ha experience. I came to that conclusion because of Jesus’ answer, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father in heaven.” That was the part we talked about last week, but Jesus continues, “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.” Jesus’ words, “Flesh and blood did not reveal this to you but my Father in heaven” were my ah-ha experience to this particular passage. If God revealed it to Peter, then it wasn’t just something to blurt out in order to break a time of awkward silence.
For the rest of the disciples I think it may have taken a little longer for the light to come on. I think that the trouble centers around that part about, “And on this rock I will build my Church.” You see, for the reason that I gave a moment ago about Peter, was he saying Jesus was the Messiah because he knew or because of an impulse, would be the same kind of reason that the disciples would have questioned Peter as being the rock that is the Church’s foundation.
That got me to thinking. What is the rock that Jesus talked about here? Some do say that it is Peter himself. They read this passage as a literal word from Jesus.
But, Jesus said, “You are Petra” rock or rock man, and on this rock I will build my Church…” Peter, who doubted when they walked on the water, a rock? Well, he did start to sink like a rock. Peter who would deny Jesus, who Jesus knew would deny him, a Rock.
Some time ago my wife and I were watching Biography. It was about the development of the papacy, starting with Peter. Following the ascension Peter went to Rome. He is talked about some in Acts and Paul’s letters so his travel to Rome is taken pretty much at face value. They said, however, that tradition has it he went to Rome to escape persecution of Christians in Jerusalem. During the time that Nero was emperor of Rome, persecution of Christians began there and tradition says that Peter ran again. He only came back when he had a vision of Jesus carrying his cross. Peter asked, “Lord, where are you going?” and Jesus responded saying, “To Rome to be crucified again.” With that the tradition says, Peter returned to Rome where he himself was crucified, upside down by his own choice because, he didn’t deserve to be crucified in the same manner as Jesus. Once again, that leads us to the question, Peter, a rock man?
If the tradition were anywhere close to being true, the Church would have died. Even if it is completely wrong, if the Church were built on the foundation of Peter, it probably would be dead. After all, Peter is dead, but the Church is still here. That would say, that Peter is not indispensable to the life of the Church.
So, if the Church is not built on Peter, what is it built on? How about its people? Are they, are we the rocks?
People are filled with both doubt and belief. People are filled with both pettiness and generosity. People are filled with both jealousy of others and joy for others.
Peter and Paul bickered with each other in the Book of Acts. Yes, they had the same intention. They both wanted to preach and teach others about Jesus Christ. But at the same time, they just could not come to any kind of agreement as to the best way to get the job done. So they argued and bickered among themselves. So do we.
It would seem to me, if we planned to build the church on the foundation of people we are in real trouble before we ever even get started. Yes it would be good when they display those positive emotions of belief, generosity, and joy. But, when we show our human side, and all too often we do, big problems cannot be far behind. TO build the Church with people as the rocks should say to us, all is lost.
So, what is left? What else could this rock be? How about faith? Could faith be the rock on which the Church is built? After all, faith is always there. When Peter said, “You are the Christ,” that was a faith statement. Because of that faith statement Jesus said, “Blessed are you Simon son of Jonah.” Peter was blessed because of his faith statement. Jesus continued, “and on this rock I will build my Church.” On this faith I will build my Church. Remember, for centuries a rock has been a Christian symbol for faith.
That is our ah-ha experience this morning. The rock is really the faith statement. It is a holy rock that makes a holy Church. The Church in every generation is made up of the faith of the people who are its members. Without faith, there is no Church, not now, not ever. A holy rock makes a holy Church.
When I was working on my undergraduate degree I took a couple of classes in geology. Most of the time I was asking myself the age-old question that many students ask as they go through some class that they don’t want to take, “Why do I have to take this class?”
As the class went on we talked about different types of rocks. The first were igneous rocks. These are rocks that come from volcanoes. They enter the world through one great seismic event. The second type were sedimentary rocks. These rocks come into being from other rocks. As the wind and the water erode away a rock, the particles settle and through pressure and natural cementing actions, a new rock is formed. The third type of rocks are metamorphic rocks. These rocks are made from other rocks too. Somehow, I really don’t remember how, these rocks are pulled back into the earth’s crust. Through pressure and heating they are changed in their composition to become a new rock.
As I listened to this in class, it dawned on me one day, another ah-ha experience, that for Christians it is much the same. All f us that are people of faith are rocks of one kind or another. Some of us are igneous rocks. We can remember our conversion experience like it was yesterday, even down to the date and time. It was a great event and we know exactly how and when it happened. For others of us, we grew up in Christian homes, we grew up in the Church, we really can’t remember a time when we weren’t a Christian and as a result we had other Christians rubbing off on us and through the cementing action of the Holy Spirit we became new, we became a person of faith. I like to think of the metamorphic Christians as those of us that God has called into some kind of ministry. We are already rocks, perhaps igneous, perhaps sedimentary, we are already people of faith and God pulled us back in and through our calling gave us a different life than perhaps the one we first had chose for ourselves.
Whatever the case, those rocks are our faith. Those rocks are our response to Jesus’ question, “Who do you say that I am?”
The Church of Jesus Christ is built not around Peter or another of the disciples or any other human being, but on the simple concrete idea that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. It is a Holy statement. It is set apart.
Christ as the Son of the Living God is our biggest ah-ha experience. When we profess that faith in him, we build a relationship with him. When we say that he is the Christ we build a Church and we build a ministry. Thanks be to God for our great ah-ha experience. Thanks be to God that we can have that kind of faith.
