Introduction
This morning/evening I’d like to focus on one verse from our reading
16Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
I want to ask two questions:
1. What did Peter mean – and
2. What does this mean to us today.
1. What did Peter mean when he said “ You are the Christ the Son of the living God”
The word Christ is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word Messiah – which simply means God’s anointed One
There were three types of people who would be anointed:
Prophets
Priests and
Kings
And in Jesus we find all three.
The Jews were expecting a Messiah who “would exercise God’s rule over God’s people” (The Message of Matthew – Michael Green p, 178)
But Jesus wasn’t the all conquering hero that the Jews were expecting – similar to Judas Maccabeus who had chased the occupying powers out in BC 167
Rather he was the suffering servant of Isaiah 53.
The last prophet in the Old Testament Malachi prophesied three hundred years before Jesus was born and said this:
1 "See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come," says the LORD Almighty. (Mal 3:1)
Peter recognised Jesus as the Messiah – the one sent by God.
But he recognised more. That Jesus wasn’t just human – but that he was divine too.
For a Jew like St Peter was – this was a seismic shift in his thinking – to call Jesus the Son of God.
All his life Peter had been taught that there is one God and never to worship a man as God.
It was one of the reasons which caused both the Jewish and Christian faiths to clash with Roman authority – because emperor worship was the touchstone of loyalty to the regime.
And the city where Jesus asked the disciples the question was not insignificant either. For he asked them the question in Caesarea Philippi, a city about 25 miles northeast of Nazareth, Jesus’ hometown.
Caesarea Philippi was know for its plurality of religions. In that city alone there were 14 temples dedicated to the worship of Ba’al.
And high up on a prominent mountain peak you could see the ultimate blasphemy for a Jew – a temple dedicated to the worship of Caesar.
The famous Bible commentator William Barclay put it all in perspective:
Here indeed is a dramatic picture. Here is a homeless, penniless Galilean carpenter, with twelve very ordinary men around him.
At the moment the orthodox are actually plotting and planning to destroy him as a dangerous heretic.
He stands in an area littered with the temples of Syrian gods; in a place where the ancient Greek gods looked down; in a place where the history of Israel crowded upon the minds of men; where the white marble splendour of the home of Caesar-worship dominated the landscape and compelled the eye.
And there – of all places – this amazing carpenter stands and asks men who they believe him to be, and expects the answer, the Son of God.
William Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew vol. 2 from The Daily Bible Study Series, p. 135
2. So what does that mean for us today?
If Jesus is God’s anointed One and he is divine – then we need to take what he says seriously
Jesus made some startling and very exclusive claims.
For example he said: “I am the Way the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn 14:6)
I often hear people say that “All religions are basically the same – they all worship the same God”.
But I DON’T agree. Because Jesus doesn’t leave us that option.
If Christianity is all about following Christ – rather than the common misconception that a Christain is simply someone who is nice and good - then universalism (that is the belief that all religions will bring us to God) is not a Christian option.
Why – because of WHO Jesus is.
In today’s Gospel reading the question is asked:
Who do YOU think Jesus is?.
There were a number of answers
1. We have the crowd’s answer in our Bible passage today.
The disciples in answering the question replied:
Some say; John the Baptist, other Elijah and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets (Mt 16:14) .
Why Elijah. The Jews steeped in the Old Testament knew the Malachian prophecy (Mal 4:5) that Elijah must come before the Messiah would return.
Why John the Baptist? Many thought John the Baptist was the return of Elijah – indeed Jesus himself confirmed this. (Mt 11:14)
Why Jeremiah: Because Jesus, like Jeremiah “was a prophet of judgement, declaring God’s impending destruction on his own nation and therefore opposed and persecuted by its leaders” (RT France - Matthew p.252)
2. But let us also look at some other answers given over the centuries
2. 1. ALBERT SCHWEITZER the famous liberal theologian and one of the 113 Swiss Nobel Prize winners:
“He was a deluded fanatic who futilely threw away his life in blind devotion to a mad dream. There is nothing more negative than the critical study of the life of Christ.”
Hardly a Christian answer!
2. 2. GEORGE BERNARD SHAW – the famous atheist and writer who said
“Jesus was a man who was sane until Peter hailed him as the Christ and who then became a monomaniac…his delusion is a very common delusion among the insane…”
2. 3. Ask the question to a practising MUSLIM and you will get the answer that Jesus was simply a great prophet , second only to Mohammed and that he was not divine.
But there have been other answers.
3 George W Bush - President of the United States
As God’s only Son, Jesus came to Earth and gave His life so that we may live.
4. CS Lewis
And in his book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis made this poignant statement,
"A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.
He would either be a lunatic--on the level with a
man who says he is a poached egg--or he would be
the devil of hell.
You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse.
You can shut him up for a fool or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us."(my thanks to the Campus Crusade website)
Being a Christian is not simply about being a “good” person.
It is indeed not about who the follower IS
Rather it is all about Him who we follow.
A Christian is a person who has recognised WHO Jesus is and has then decided to FOLLOW HIM.
As St Peter put it: You are
The Christ – the Son of the living God (Mt 15:16).
Malcolm Muggeridge, in his book Jesus Rediscovered, put the matter like this,
” There is something about Jesus. And the question to the disciples comes again: "Who do YOU say that I am?" You must answer. And you. And you. And you and you.
I would not expect your response to say anything about "proleptic" or "salvific" or "eschatological."
No, my prayer is that, with Simon Peter, you would simply say with every fibre of your being, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
The question I’d like to leave you with today is this: Who DO YOU THINK is Jesus.
BECAUSE your answer will affect the way you LIVE your life. Amen
