First Reading: Isaiah 51:1-6
1“Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the Lord: look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. 2Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for he was but one when I called him, that I might bless him and multiply him. 3For the Lord comforts Zion; he comforts all her waste places and makes her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song. 4Give attention to me, my people, and give ear to me, my nation; for a law will go out from me, and I will set my justice for a light to the peoples. 5My righteousness draws near, my salvation has gone out, and my arms will judge the peoples; the coastlands hope for me, and for my arm they wait. 6Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and they who dwell in it will die in like manner; but my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will never be dismayed.”
Psalm 138
1I will give thanks to you, O Lord, with my whole heart; before the gods I will sing your praise. 2I will bow down toward your holy temple and praise your Name, because of your love and faithfulness; 3For you have glorified your name and your word above all things. 4When I called, you answered me; you increased my strength within me. 5All the kings of the earth will praise you, O Lord, when they have heard the words of your mouth. 6They will sing of the ways of the Lord, that great is the glory of the Lord. 7Though the Lord be high, he cares for the lowly; he perceives the haughty from afar. 8Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you keep me safe; you stretch forth your hand against the fury of my enemies; your right hand shall save me. 9The Lord will make good his purpose for me; O Lord, your love endures forever; do not abandon the works of your hands.
Second Reading: Romans 11:33-12:8
33Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 34“For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” 35“Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” 36For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
1I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. 3For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.
Gospel: Matthew 16:13-20
13When 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.
Defining Moments
Significant emotional events, defining moments in life, watershed experiences, these terms define events that occur that seem to change everything. These are the dividing times between what was and what will be. They are the turning points in our life that cause us to change directions. We experience these types of events throughout our lives, and these events seem to change us forever. There is a location on the Ohio Turnpike where a sign has been placed that reads, “Divide Between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River Watersheds.”
You’ve seen similar signs in all sorts of places as you drive around the United States — signs marking continental divides, watersheds, and such. The watershed is that point of demarcation that divides which way the water flows. At that point on the Ohio Turnpike, for example, all the water on the one side flows into the Great Lakes, while all the water on the other side flows into the Mississippi River. A bigger, more significant watershed exists in the Rocky Mountains. Here all the water to the east flows toward the Atlantic Ocean; while all the water to the west flows toward the Pacific.
In our Old Testament reading for today, Isaiah relays God’s words to His people. God is calling the people to refocus, to take their eyes off the world around them and focus on God instead. In verse one of our reading, God tells the people to “Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug.” Now for us today, we have the words of Jesus to compare this statement to. In His parable of the wicked tenants, Jesus reminds the Religious Leaders, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes’” (Matthew 21:42). Jesus was quoting the Psalmist David who said, “I will give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation. The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone” (118:21-22).
God is telling His people to quit looking to the world around them for how to live, instead focus on God and on His Son Jesus: “look to the Rock from which you were hewn, to the quarry from which you were dug.” We know deep down that we cannot trust the message of the world on how we’re to live. Nor can we look to ourselves to determine right and wrong. We must look to God, to read His word, to follow His commands and statutes to determine what is right and just.
Last week during the Children’s sermon, I talked briefly with the kids about the importance of justice and righteousness. In a very rudimentary way, justice addresses how we treat others; righteousness is how we live our lives before God. Without God’s guidance, how could we possibly know, or even understand, what true justice and righteousness are? In our Isaiah reading, God even points us to an example of righteousness: “Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you” (vs. 2).
Now based on my previous statement that we cannot look to others, or to this world, this statement may seem a bit odd, that is until you consider the words of St. Paul in his letter to the Romans. In chapter 4 Paul tells the Christians in Rome, “Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” Without weakening in his faith, he acknowledged the decrepitness of his body (since he was about a hundred years old) and the lifelessness of Sarah’s womb. Yet he did not waver through disbelief in the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God was able to do what He had promised. This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” Now the words “it was credited to him” were written not only for Abraham, but also for us, to whom righteousness will be credited—for us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our trespasses and was raised to life for our justification” (vss. 18-25).
When we look to the Rock, that is Christ our Lord, from which we were hewn, and to the quarry, that is God who created all things visible and invisible, from which we were dug, we will know how to treat others, (that is to keep justice) and how to live our lives, (that is to live righteously) before God. But this also implies that we know and understand who God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, are. This was the question that Jesus was posing to the disciples in our Gospel lesson for today.
One could say that our Matthew text for today is a kind of watershed moment for the disciples. Everything that happened prior to that moment flowed in one direction. Everything that happened after that moment flowed in a different direction. Between the time of His baptism in the Jordan River and His crucifixion in Jerusalem, Jesus had a public ministry that lasted about three years. Most of those years were spent on and around the Sea of Galilee. It was there that Jesus went about preaching and teaching, healing the sick, and casting out demons. The evidence suggests that Jesus was growing in popularity with news about Him was spreading for miles. People were coming from all over the region to see Him, to hear Him, and in many cases to be healed by Him. But, into the midst of this growing ministry, Jesus issues a word of warning. For the first time, Jesus tells His disciples why He was sent and what that mission would include.
Jesus tells them that He must go to Jerusalem, and that there He would be arrested and handed over to be tortured and killed. From that moment on, everything began to flow toward Jerusalem. Everything began to point toward the cross. It was there, at that pivotal event, that Jesus asked His disciples a question, an all-important question, “but who do YOU say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15). Jesus was asking not only a personal question, but also a defining moment question. This was truly a watershed moment for the disciples.
Throughout the Bible we see that this was a recurring pattern. Starting in the Garden of Eden, God has been continually asking questions of His people. But these were not the sort of questions that a person asks out of ignorance — God already knows the answer; He asks because we need to know the answer. We not only need to know the answer, we also need to say the answer. In a way, the Lord’s questions are like the sort of questions that both parents and teachers ask of children.
It’s not the parent who needs to know what to say in a certain circumstance, it’s the child. Yet the parent asks, “Now what do you say?” as a prompt so that the child will know and will say the correct answer. Likewise, the teacher doesn’t need the student to tell them in what year the Declaration of Independence was signed. The teacher asks the question to guarantee the student knows the answer. And the student repeats the answer in order to reinforce the knowledge. So it was, there at Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asked His disciples two questions, first, “who do people say the Son of Man is?”
As we read the story, we get the feeling that the disciples didn’t hesitate to answer this first question. Obviously, they had heard the talk, the rumors and speculation about Jesus. And more than just hearing the speculation of the crowds, the disciples must have talked about it amongst themselves, as well. They had seen the evidence of His power and authority, but as we learn, there’s more than what we see and hear. God, through His Spirit, must reveal the truth to us: “Blessed are you Simon Bar-Jonah! Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven” (vs. 17).
When Jesus asked the question, the disciples knew what others were saying. We’ve heard some say that they thought you were John the Baptist come back to life!” Others say that you’re Elijah, or Jeremiah, or one of the prophets of old. The disciples had no doubt heard a great deal of speculation about who Jesus was, but that wasn’t what Jesus really wanted to know. So, Jesus asks the more important question: Jesus wanted to know, “What about you? Who do YOU say that I am?”
As we consider this all-important question, there are at least two possible risks. First, there’s the risk of simply being wrong. We need to consider this because in our relativistic culture, the secular world has so bought into the notion that each individual can believe whatever they want to about Jesus, that we no longer consider the risk of being wrong. For example, those who practice Islam believe in Jesus, but He is only seen as a prophet, He is not God. The Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that Jesus is a distinct, created being, specifically the archangel Michael, who existed before his human life on earth but is not co-equal with God the Father. So, you see, how we answer this all-important question is critical, and we run the risk of being completely wrong.
The second risk that the disciples felt was the risk of being radical. There is, in almost every group, a certain paralysis that comes from wondering what the others will think. What if what I say is stupid or outlandish? What if it’s laughable or ridiculous? I can picture the look on the disciple’s faces as Jesus asks this foundational question. And this is a question you and I must wrestle with today. Who do WE say Jesus is? Is He God almighty, creator of the universe? Is He our Ruler and King? Do we see Him as the One we look to for our daily bread, or is He simply the One we call on in times of distress? Who do you say Jesus is? The answer to this one defining question can and will determine where we spend eternity. It’s that important a question.
We can see the disciples looking at each other as Jesus looks at them. No one wanted to be wrong, or seem to be a radical, so no one wanted to speak up, except Peter. I believe the other disciples knew the answer Jesus was needing to hear, but it took the boldness of Peter to give the answer. On this occasion, while none of the other disciples was saying anything, Peter piped up and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!” To this Jesus said, right answer! Congratulations, “flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but rather my Father in heaven!”
All the earlier answers given were flesh and blood answers: human speculation, popular opinion. But Peter’s personal answer to Jesus’ watershed question didn’t come from other people, it didn’t come from popular opinion, it came from God. Peter might have been a radical, but Peter wasn’t wrong. Think about the scene here, the question came from God, and the answer came from God. I pointed out earlier that throughout human history God has been asking questions of people. He asked questions of Adam and Eve, of Cain, of Sarah, of Jacob, of Moses, of Elijah, of Ezekiel, and on and on. Each question had its own unique circumstance and context, yet it may be that a thoughtful consideration of God’s questions would reveal that they have a timeless quality to them.
We read, for example, that the Lord asked Sarah, “Is anything too difficult for the Lord?” (Genesis 18:14). This question came from over three thousand years ago, yet we recognize that the relevance and impact of that question is not limited to Sarah’s time and situation. This is a question that God continues to ask us in times of difficulty, do we sometimes think something is too hard for Him. Likewise, the question that Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do YOU say that I am?” is still relevant today.
Just like that first group of disciples, we live in a world where we’re surrounded by speculation about Jesus. Some of it may be reverent, some unintentionally trivializing, and some of it deliberately antagonistic. Amid a world of speculators, head-scratchers, and opponents, Jesus turned to the people who knew Him — the ones closest to Him, the ones who followed Him — and He said to them, and to us, “What about you? Who do you say that I am?”
By our words and by our life, who do we say that He is? Do we say that He is ancient history or present reality? Do we say that He’s just one among many in the pages of history and just one among many priorities in our life? Or do our words and life say that He is God’s only Son, our Lord, and the world’s only hope and Savior? Maybe this watershed question would be an easier one if it were phrased differently. If Jesus had asked, “Who do you think that I am” or even “Who do you believe that I am,” the answer might be an easier one. But that’s not what Jesus asked.
Jesus asked, “Who do YOU say…?” That’s the watershed question here. Like the child under the instruction of their parent or the student under the instruction of their teacher, the believer needs to know — and needs to say — the answer. It’s an answer that we must profess to the world. Here’s something else to think about. Three of the four gospel writers tell us about this event, and one of those three gospel writers, Matthew, was probably there at the time. Yet there’s no indication of what the other disciples felt or thought.
We don’t know if the other disciples were thinking the same thing as Peter or if they were thinking along the same lines as the people. We don’t know if they were surprised by Peter’s response or by Jesus’ affirmation of it. Peter was the only one who stuck his neck out and said something — said something about Jesus — while none of the other disciples there did. As a result, this passage has become known as “Peter’s declaration about Christ.” Whether they were right or wrong, the other disciples didn’t speak up, and in the end, Jesus didn’t recognize them as being a foundation of the church.
I wonder if that’s not how all of history will one day be written and remembered. You see, Jesus is the great watershed. He is the line along which everything is divided. His first coming divided history in two — before and after. His second coming will divide all of humanity in two — with Him or without Him, for Him or against Him. We do know one thing is for sure, every knee will bow and every tongue will congress Him as Jesus Christ our Lord. Sadly, for now, the world is content to shine a spotlight on those who are seen as powerful and important, those who make the big impact politically, militarily, economically, scientifically, or even culturally. But in the end, when Jesus returns, heaven’s spotlight, the Light of the world, will outshine everything and everyone else. So, the question Jesus asks is, “Who do you say that I am?” This is the all-important question. We can answer it now, or in eternity.
Amen