Matthew's gospel passage today
asks and answers two questions:
"Who is Jesus?" and "Who is Peter?" In answering these questions Matthew points
out who we as Christians are as well.
If I asked you when you came in
the door, "Who are you?" you most likely would give me a rather
strange look. And then if I asked you who I am, you would know for certain I'd
gone over the edge. But the question of
identity is very central to everything, really.
Most of us look at ourselves in the mirror every morning when we brush
our teeth and think, "That's me!"
We start our day affirming our identity, observing our appearance and
pondering the roles we will fill today. We also may have fleeting thoughts
about how we are different than other folks--either in our favor or in theirs.
When Jesus asks his disciples,
"But who do you say that I am?" he appears to be asking his disciples
how they see him versus how he is viewed by others. In claiming he is "the
Messiah, the son of the living God," Jesus' disciples are claiming they
know his identity, which others do not know.
Ian Markham, Dean and President
of Virginia Theological Seminary and speaker at our diocesan convention two
years ago, offered some reflections on today's passage from Matthew: "How do we know what God is like? Here
we are little people on a small planet. So how can we ever work out what God is
like?
“The central Christian claim
about the universe is that it is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus
that tells us what God is like. In this Gospel, Jesus is challenging his
disciples: ‘Who do people say that I am?’ And we have a variety of answers, but
the one Jesus commends is the one from Peter: ‘You are the Christ, the Son of
the Living God.’
“. . . So Jesus is a reflection
of the Creator. The role of the Son in Trinitarian theology is to show us what
God is like. Or to use the language of John, chapter 1 - Jesus is the Logos;
Jesus is the Word; the Eternal Word made flesh. In the same way that words
reveal thoughts, so Jesus is the revealer of the thoughts of God.
“In Christian theology the
primary word of God is a life. It is the life, death, and resurrection of
Jesus. This is the word that we are exhorted to imitate - in words and deeds
(as the author at the start of Luke/Acts puts it). If you ask me what God is
like: I look at the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. So how do I know
that God identifies with the poor and excluded? Because in the ministry of Jesus
I see a life that connected with the poor and excluded. How do I know that God
wants to turn moments of despair into moments of hope? Because in Jesus, I see
a Good Friday followed by Resurrection Sunday. How do I know that God calls us
to live whole, transformed lives? Because in Jesus, I see the touching of
countless lives and making them whole and transformed. The life, death, and
resurrection of Jesus is the Word. It is the life, death, and resurrection that
shows us God. It is the revealing of God to the world. It is the Son disclosing
the Father.
“So as we meditate on his life,
we are being challenged. We are being invited. We are being shown precisely
what the creator expects and requires of us. The God of the cosmos is calling
us to discover love. To discover the capacity to live in conversation with
others. To organize our life priorities so that we live with a focus on what
matters."
And what Matthew tells us about Simon Peter's renaming by
Jesus seems to be a call to him--and by extension to us—to "live with a
focus on what really matters."
Simon is called to be the "rock" on which the strength of the
church will rest, he is to hold the keys to the kingdom, and he will "bind
and loose." His importance to the
community to which Matthew was writing could not be clearer.
Yet, there is a sense in which
Peter stands for all of us. He received
divine revelation in order to understand Jesus' identity. We come to faith through that same divine
gift. And the responsibility live out our faith in the world is indeed the
"rock" on which Christ will be made known to the world. We, too, are given "keys"--which
St. Paul calls "gifts that differ according to the grace given to
us." Those gifts—ministering, teaching, exhortation, generosity in giving,
diligence in leading, cheerful compassion—are to be used to further the
kingdom, God's reign of justice and peace—"binding and loosing," as
it were, until all people know God's love.
So our identity, should we be
asked about it today or any day, is not only or primarily made up of our
appearance, the roles we play, or how we are the same as or different from
others. Our true identity, as Peter's did, comes from our knowing Jesus Christ
as Messiah and from giving our lives in steady faithfulness to our call from
Jesus. And Jesus calls us to be
rock-solid as we share our grace-filled gifts and Christ's love with others.
- "How Do We Know What God Is Like?" The Very Rev. Dr. Ian Markham, Day 1, 2008.
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