Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist but others Elijah and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. 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. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
Matthew 16:13-20 (NRSVue)
My sermon from the 12th Sunday after Pentecost Sunday (August 23, 2020) on Matthew 14:13-21.
What was the last thing you day dreamed about where everything happened in slow motion?
Now, if I’m honest, it’s probably been a while since I imagined anything happening in slow motion. But when I was younger, my overactive imagination was very good at creating vivid worlds in my mind. I, of course, was the hero of every story. I was always the Jedi fighting Darth Vader, the superhero saving my hometown from Doctor Doom, and was the star quarterback playing in the Super Bowl with my team down by 5 and with 3 seconds left on the clock. As I lived into those new identities I picked for myself, I made sure that when great things were about to happen, the world slowed down. Slow motion is meant for those moments that make or break the story. It’s why every sport highlight is broadcast in slow motion a million times because we want to see how it happened. We rarely, if ever, use slow motion to focus on the mundane or usual parts of the game. Instead, we’re excited to get a zoomed in look at the action – that moves so slowly, we can see sweat as it forms on the forehead. Slow motion is how we highlight the drama of the moment so that we can linger in it for a little while. Slow motion helps make transformational moments simmer in hearts, our minds, and our souls. And going slow motion through our Biblical stories – is one of the ways we can discover what the good news is all about.
So let’s do that. Let’s go through this passage from the gospel according to Matthew in slow motion. And we’ll start at the very beginning. Jesus and his small band of followers have arrived in the district of Caesarea Philippi. Now that name might jump out at you because it doesn’t sound like the names of other cities in the ancient near east. Instead, it sounds a bit like Caesar – which was the title for the Roman Emperor. Roughly 20 years before Jesus’ birth, King Herod renamed an existing town in ancient Israel to Caesarea in honor of the Roman Emperor Augustus. Near the town was a small mountain filled with religious shrines. Herod, as a way to gain favor with the empire that occupied the land, built a temple there and dedicated it to the Emperors. In that space and on that mountain, the leaders of Rome were venerated like gods. People made sacrifices to them, laid gifts of gold and precious items on their altars, and turned to them in their times of need. The city and its temples turned the area into a place where different beliefs, cultures, political affiliations, and ways of life swirled around each other. And it’s there when Jesus turned to his disciples and asked them what people had to say about him.
This moment, then, is filled with a kind of tension. Jesus had already made a name for himself as a bit of a healer, prophet, and rabble rouser. He stood there in the presence of the Romans and their enablers who said that they were the true masters of the world. And it must have felt weird to talk about Jesus in that space. The disciples began by sharing that some though Jesus was John the Baptist reincarnated. John was recently killed because he refused to stay quiet when he saw political power abused. Many of these leaders, including one of King Herod’s sons, saw Jesus in this way. Others, however, imagined Jesus to be Elijah – a prophet who, according to scripture, never died but was taken up to heaven by God. As Christians, we describe John the Baptist’s ministry as being Elijah returned. But non-followers of Jesus were hoping for Elijah to come in a rather potent – and powerful – kind of way. And along the same lines as Elijah, some thought Jesus was a prophet – an heir to the long line of men and women who were God’s mouthpieces on earth. They regularly challenged those in power to trust God and to make a difference in the lives of the marginalized and poor. It wasn’t only the city of Caesarea Philippi that was viewed as a swirling focal point of beliefs and points of view. Jesus, himself, was defined in the very same way. The physical space – and its statues – was how the community elevated the status and symbols of everything Rome stood for. And the words people used to describe Jesus – showed how everyone was using their personal stories and the stories of their people to try and identify who exactly Jesus was. The swirling experience of Jesus and the city exemplified just how much our lives and our world are made up of conflicting identities and views. And so, after his disciples spoke, Jesus butted in. He asked – point blank – “but who do you say that I am?”
That question is worthy of a slow motion moment. And we should use our imagination to imagine what that moment felt like. I can see the disciples, clustered together, and maybe walking with Jesus on the way. In the distance is the city, its temples, and all the possibilities of political might. They noticed the city and they turned to look at one another. Some probably made eye contact with who they thought should speak up while others just kept their heads down. They had experienced so much since Jesus called them by name yet there was something about him that words couldn’t adequately explain. As the slow motion silence lingered, they finally looked at the One who had the audacity to feed thousands of people with a few bits of bread and fish, who walked on water during a storm, and who proclaimed that mercy, love, and forgiveness as what encountering God was all about. If the disciples were anything like me, this slow motion moment would have left their minds feeling blank and kept their mouths silent. But one of them finally spoke. And Peter, with a word, not only summed up what his experience of Jesus was but also imagined what a future with Jesus might look like. I wonder if Jesus’ mouth, as Peter spoke, broke into a slight smile. He heard Peter declare what is one of the foundational parts of who we are as Christians. Jesus is more than just a historical person with a story filled with miracles and powerful moral teachings. Rather, Jesus is an encounter of God’s love face-to-face. And it’s through Him where we, the imperfect people that we are, are claimed as God’s own.
It took a slow motion moment for Peter to affirm Jesus’ identity and for Jesus to reaffirm Peter’s identity too. In the words of Paul Roberts, “of the innumerable miracles Jesus performed during his earthly ministry, perhaps none was greater than the miracle of inviting twelve poor, pigeonholed, imprudent persons into community and empowering them to live into a new identity.” Peter’s confession of who Jesus is – was made after Peter had already spent time living and being with his Lord. Peter’s identity as belonging to Christ began the moment when Jesus claimed him as his own – and told him to follow me. When we affirm who Jesus is – and when we, like the disciples, wrestle with who we say Jesus is – we are, together, affirming that Jesus is already part of our lives. In your baptism – and through your faith – Jesus already decided that you are his. And that you, of course, means YOU. It doesn’t mean the person you think you are or the person you want to become. Jesus claimed you – even those who remain silent during all the important slow motion moments. He promised to walk with you; to be present to you; and to always be for you even when you are not for yourself. It’s not always easy to let the identity God gives us be the one that informs everything else about us. We too often look to other things – especially our culture and our concepts of power – as ways to shape our thoughts about Jesus rather than the other way around. But Jesus doesn’t let those thoughts limit what’s possible with his story. Instead, he moves forward – into the otherside of our slow motions moments. Because Peter – and the other disciples – needed to see that God would be willing to go to the Cross. And we, like those first followers, need to discover just how far God will go – to make us into the people God promises we can be.
Amen.