Who is He, and What is He to You?
Rev. Delwyn Campbell / General / Joining Christ on His Mission / Matthew 16:13–20
My Favorite Illustrations A Child’s Only Knowledge of Jesus
A Child’s Only Knowledge of Jesus
In Vacation Bible School, A teacher asked a little boy who had little church exposure, “Do you know Jesus Christ?” The boy replied, “Is his middle initial ‘H’?” The boy had never heard the name of Jesus except in a profane way.
Blessed Lord, You have caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning. Grant that we may so hear them, read, mark, learn, and take them to heart that, by the patience and comfort of Your holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Matthew 16:13–15 ESV
13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
One weakness of Lectionary preaching is actually not a weakness of the lectionary, but of the preaching: When we forget that the passage for today is not an isolated piece of text, but is the continuation of the ongoing Word from the Lord, we can forget context and connections that would otherwise present themselves.
For example, today’s Gospel text, and the question that is presented, does not occur out of the blue. Jesus didn’t just suddenly throw out a question as a “pop quiz.” To see the full significance of these two questions, you would want to go back to Matt 14:1, where Herod, having ordered the death of John the Baptist, hears about Jesus, and tells his servants, “This is John the Baptist. He has been raised from the dead; that is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.” Jesus hears about this from John’s disciples, and goes out into the wilderness, but the crowds follow him out there. He responds to their need for physical help and heals their sick. He then responds to the disciples’ concerns and feeds the crowd, after which he sends them on a boat to the other side, while he deals with the crowd. Afterwards, Jesus goes, alone, to pray, while the disciples are still in the boat, rowing against a storm. About 3:00 am, Jesus goes to them, walking on the water, where, in response to Peter’s demand, He invites Peter to join Him on the water. When the two of them get back to the boat, after Peter’s attempt to “be like Jesus” fails miserably, the rest of the disciples exclaim that Jesus is “the Son of God.”
The next morning, after they land at Gennesaret, Jesus heals more people, addresses the accusation of the Scribes and Pharisees and the fearful response of His disciples. He then, in the area around Sidon and Tyre, deals with the Canaanite woman’s request concerning her daughter, in which she confesses Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of David. After leaving the area, He heads back to the area of the Sea of Galilee, where the needs of another crowd lead to more healings and a second miraculous feeding, this time of 4000 people.
Next comes another interrogation by the Pharisees and the Sadducees, requesting a sign from heaven, which he rejects, leaving to cross over to the other side. When they get there, the disciples discover that they had forgotten to bring along provisions. Jesus uses this for another teachable moment.
Now, in today’s Gospel text, Jesus asks them two significant questions: the first, what do people in general say about the identity of the Son of Man, and second, but more importantly, what do they themselves say?
› Who is he, and what is he to you?
Now, regarding what other people say, the first thing that I would note is that those whom the people mention have two things in common. Can anyone tell me one of those things?
› (wait 15 seconds)
If you said, “They are all prophets,” that is good. If you said, “They are all dead!” You’ve been paying attention because that is what King Herod said. Everybody was clear on the notion that Jesus was no ordinary Rabbi. No, he was, somehow, unique. Whatever else they thought, they recognized that, for, after all, everyone knows that dead people stay dead unless Someone intervenes, Someone with a lot of power. Now, a search of the Gospels reveals a total of three events regarding the raising of the dead before Christ’s death. The first one, Jairus’ daughter, is recorded in all three of the Synoptic Gospels but not in John. In that one, there is a certain ambiguity about whether she was truly dead, since Jesus says that “she is only sleeping.” The second, the Widow in Nain, is only mentioned in Luke, but it is mentioned before the raising of Jairus’ daughter. The third, the raising of Lazarus, is only mentioned in John.
Given that there is only one reference in the Old Testament to such a miracle, Elisha’s raising of the Shunammite woman’s son (2 Kings 4:8-37), the idea that the raising of the dead should be a sign can pretty much be evidence, not only of a unique person, but of a unique time. While Jesus, in his instructions to the disciples recorded in Matt 10:5-15; Mark 6:7-13; and Luke 9:1-6, only Matthew records the words, “raise the dead,” and none of the 12 return with reports that they raised any dead people. When the disciples of John come to him requesting a confirmation that He is, indeed, “the Coming One,” Jesus responds to their question with a series of miracles, and then tells them to tell John “what you see and hear,” he includes among the signs, “the dead are raised” (Matt 11:5; Luke 7:22, but only Luke reports him actually performing any miracles before He sends them away). So, this is unique to Christ Himself before His death and resurrection.
Yet with all the signs that Jesus had done, still, the most that others would say is that he was a resurrected prophet. One could argue that the crowds might not have seen all His miracles, so they could only know what they knew. Then there is the fact that there were times that Jesus would do things and afterwards command that it not be told. So perhaps there is an explanation for the people.
But what about the 12? They had seen, not some of the things that Jesus had said and done, but everything. They were present for every miracle, every sign, every wonder. How do we understand their inability to recognize who Jesus is? Was the evidence not right in front of them?
Matthew 16:16–17 ESV
16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And 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.
The thing about Jesus’ miracles is that, of themselves, they do not lead you to the conclusion of who Jesus is. Natural wisdom, the wisdom of the flesh, looks at those miracles, or any other miracles, and searches its own experience for explanations. No, by nature, signs and wonders do not have the ability to produce faith, because faith does not come by seeing, but “by hearing, “and hearing from the word of Christ.”
That’s why Peter needed more than signs and wonders; he needed a revelation. Peter, as did the rest, needed God to interpret what they had seen. He needed God to reveal it because his eyes and ears could not know it.
As Dr. Luther would later write:
The Book of Concord The Third Article: On Being Made Holy
I believe that by my own understanding or strength I cannot believe in Jesus Christ my LORD or come to him, but instead the Holy Spirit has called me through the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, made me holy and kept me in the true faith, just as he calls, gathers, enlightens, and makes holy the whole Christian church on earth and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one common, true faith.
That’s why we cannot just try to do ministry by words alone, or even by words and deeds. Effective ministry must have the element of prayer to God. The words, “let Your Kingdom come, let Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven,” must go before, go with, and follow after all that we do as the Church, in order that we go in the name of Jesus and by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Matthew 16:18–20 ESV
18 And 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. 19 I 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.” 20 Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.
Jesus said these words first to Peter alone, but later he would say them to all the 12 (Matt 18:18; John 20:23). In our Confessions, we declare:
The Book of Concord Article 7: Concerning the Keys
[1] The keys are an office and authority given to the church by Christ to bind and loose sins—not only the crude and notorious sins but also the subtle, secret ones that only God knows. As it is written [Ps. 19:12*], “But who can detect their errors?” And Paul himself complains in Romans 7[:23*] that with his flesh he served the “law of sin.”
The greatest power that the Church has is that which God has given us to bind and loose sins - to forgive and withhold forgiveness. Outside of the Church, the withholding of forgiveness is under God’s judgment.
Matthew 6:14–15 ESV
14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
It is as the Church, through the power of the Keys, that we are called, not only to forgive, but to withhold forgiveness. The Gospel is the Word of Christ’s forgiveness, but the refusal to repent carries with it the penalty of the binding of sin!
Hebrews 10:26–31 ESV
26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. 28 Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. 29 How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, including yours, because he died for the sins of the entire world, but He is also the One who comes:
Jude 15 ESV
15 to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”
The Holy Spirit uses the Gospel to reveal Him as the Former, while He uses the Law to declare Him as the latter. “Who is He and what is He to you” is determined by whether you hear and respond or shun and doubt the Word of Christ to you. God does not withhold His goodness and mercy from you, for He has commanded us to “preach the Gospel to every creature.” When we pray for sinners, we are praying that they would not do what the writer Hebrews talked about, that they would not outrage the Spirit of grace by rejecting the Gospel, that their hearts would not become so hardened by the deceitfulness of sin that they will not hear, and that they allow Satan free course in their lives to snatch away or choke the Word. That’s why our prayers are so important, like water is to our garden for the fruitful harvest of our plantings.
Thank God for His revelation to you of Who He is, and pray that what he has done for you, He will do for others around you, and beyond you. Pray that the work of mission would be fruitful, that our ministry would bear fruit, not only here, but throughout our community and in every place where the Lord sends us. Pray for those whom you know to be bound in sin, pray for your family, your friends and your enemies, your neighbors and for strangers. Pray that sins would be loosed by the power of the Keys, and pray that our Lord would send repentance, so that the captives can be set free.
And let the peace of God, that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds, through Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
