27 August 2023 Pentecost 13

Exodus 1:8-2:10; Psalm 124; Romans 12:1-8; Matthew 16:13-20

If you found yourself with the disciples that day, walking with Jesus and he asked you that question – who do you say that I am – how easily could you answer it.  I know I would hope that I could immediately answer in words similar to Peter’s, but, in reality I am not sure.  In my head I know exactly who Jesus is, I can answer that question ‘in my head’ every time without question or hesitation, but to say it out loud, to give that answer to the one it speaks of, to use my ‘out-loud voice’ and answer Jesus ‘in person’ might not be as easy as it should be.

Writer Rainer Maria Rilke, when writing to a young protégé, encouraged him to ‘sit with what he doesn’t know’ and trust that the questions themselves have value.  Rilke encouraged him to ‘love the questions themselves’ without seeking their answers.  ‘Live the questions now’ , he said, and gradually, maybe, on some distant day the answer will arrive without you even noticing it.  Jesus asks the disciples the easier question first – who do people say that I am.  And they are all very quick with their answers – John the Baptist, one of the prophets, Elijah, Jeremiah.  You can almost hear them competing to give the next suggestion, their answers roll off the tongue quickly and easily.  And you can also hear their answers reflecting the religious factions that were present in the Hebrew society.  If we put it into our modern context  we might answer– the ‘low’ Anglicans say …; the Roman Catholics …; the Lutherans …; yes but the ‘high Anglicans say …; and the Uniting Church say …; and what about the Baptists; the Churches of Christ; or even the Methodists; the Pentecostals.  The lists could go on.  And it is interesting to note that Jesus at no point denies or refutes any of the suggestions, he just listens and allows his friends to offer what they know, based on the preferences, ideas and expert opinions of other people.  And at some level this is probably where we all started in our faith journeys.  Hearing the opinion of friends, listening to the wisdom of mentors, hearing the certainties of others and repeating them to ourselves and to other people.  These answers are safe.  They don’t cost anything.  There is no personal stake or commitment, there is no danger in them.  We are simply repeating what we have heard from our parents, our peers, our leaders; as ways of commencing our own personal explorations.  But we cannot build our faith on hearsay alone.  At some point, the question needs to become personal.

And it is at this point that Jesus asks the more difficult question – he invites the disciples/ he invites us to live the question. He asks them - where do I stand in this life we are making together, what do I mean to you, who do you say that I am.  Jesus asks the disciples to put aside creedal statements, other people’s theologies; and consider the life they have lived so far, the tears they have shed, the miles they have walked, the burdens they have carried, the laughter they have shared.  He asks them to consider ‘how have you experienced me’. 

Now Matthew does not give us much detail about what happens next, but I can almost hear the deafening silence.  I can see the disciples hanging their heads, eyeing each other off, daring the other to the be the first to speak.  And I can imagine Jesus standing, vulnerable, patient, in the midst of them, waiting to hear what these closest friends have to say about him.  Do they know him?  Have they learned to trust his heart and his words?  How much have they understood of his mission and vision and how much are they willing to confess ‘out loud’.  Can they take the risk and make a claim, can they speak the truths that might cost them.

And then Peter breaks the silence to provide a confident claim – You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.  Perfect answer.  He got A+ on that test.  The whole gospel in a nutshell.  And Jesus commends and blesses Peter for his answer.  He declares that he will ‘build his church’ on this ‘rock’.  And he promises Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

But that is not the end of the story.  It may be where our gospel ends, but almost immediately after this, when Jesus is telling the disciples what being Messiah will mean for him, Peter pulls him aside and tells him to ‘be quiet’, this sort of talk is not worthy of a real Messiah.  Peter desperately tries to put Jesus into his watered-down comprehension of divinity, and Jesus rebukes Peter for ‘setting his mind on human things not divine things’.  As strange as this may seem, this interaction shows us what ‘living the question’ of faith’ looks like.  Peter’s confession “You are the Messiah” signals the beginning of Peter’s exploration of Jesus’ identity, not the end.  Just when Peter thinks he has it all sorted and nailed down, Jesus shuts him up.  Jesus challenges what he knows and nudges Peter back to the starting line.  Yes, I am the Messiah, but you have no idea what ‘Messiah’ means, you can barely tolerate my talking about it, and you are not ready to know what ‘Messiah’ means.  You still have so much more to learn.  There are so many more answers for you to grow into.  Be patient.  Try to love what is unsolved, keep living the question.

There is so much to Peter’s story, there are so many answers Peter must have lived into, answers he could never have articulated in his early days of discipleship.  ‘Who do you say that I am?’  You are the one who found me in a fishing boat and gave me a new vocation.  You are the one who beckoned me to walk on water and then caught me before I drowned.  You are the one who healed my mother-in-law.  You are the one who glowed on a mountaintop while I rabbited on with nonsense.  You are the one who washed my feet while I fidgeted in shame.  You are the one who told me I would be a coward on the very night you needed me to be brave.  You are the one I denied knowing three times just to save my own skin.  You are the one who fed me breakfast on the beach and spoke love and fresh purpose into my humiliation.  You are the one who gave me courage to preach to thousands of people at Pentecost.  You are the one who taught me that I must not call unclean what you have pronounced clean.  You are the one who stayed by my side through the insults, beatings, and imprisonments.  You are the one who I followed into martyrdom.  You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.

So, who do you say that Jesus is?  Who has Jesus been to you in the past.  Who is he now?  Who do you hope he will be in your future?

These are question to ponder for a lifetime.  They are questions that do not need quick answers, they are questions we need to live into.  They are questions we can leave unanswered until, almost unnoticed, we find ourselves living into an answer, only for the question to be asked again, and again.  Peter learns that Jesus is just as powerfully present in the question as he is in the answers.  When we love what is unsolved, we are not denying Jesus his Lordship, we are allowing Jesus to enter more deeply into our hearts than any personal claim about him could ever do.  Is Jesus merely ‘the’ Messiah, or is he yours.  Live the question; that is Jesus’ invitation, and he makes it over and over again to each one of us, in love.