Jesus to You: Who Do You Say That I Am? Your Reply Is…?

Sermon delivered on Sunday, Trinity 15B, September 16, 2012, at St. Augustine’s Anglican Church, Columbus, OH.

Lectionary texts: Proverbs 1:20-33; Psalm 19.1-14; James 3.1-12; Mark 8.27-38.

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

In this morning’s gospel lesson, Jesus, ever the master teacher, gives a two-part exam to his disciples. Part one is easy. “Who do people say that I am?” he asks. This, of course, allows for non-committal, theoretical answers. No costs involved and it allowed the disciples to speculate a bit on all the remarkable things that were happening around them. But part two of the exam is much more difficult, much more personal. “But who do you say that I am?” he asks. Uh-oh. Now you are getting personal, Jesus. What’s that all about? But like it or not, every one of us is eventually going to have to give an answer to this question (cf. Philippians 2.5-11).

Peter, of course, always the brash one, jumps right in. “You are the Messiah!” he says. Well done, Peter! At first blush he gets an A on his exam. He has correctly identified Jesus as God’s Messiah, his anointed one. But then Jesus begins to teach his disciples (and us) what kind of Messiah he really is and what that’s going to look like, and we quickly discover that answering Jesus’ question and passing the exam is more than just using the right titles for him. Peter did that and soon found himself being called Satan. What’s going on here?

While Peter correctly identified Jesus as God’s Messiah or anointed one, he clearly did not understand what kind of Messiah Jesus had come to be. Now there certainly wasn’t a unanimous opinion about what the promised Messiah would look like and do. But generally most of Jesus’ contemporaries believed that when the Messiah came he would defeat Israel’s enemies (at that particular time, the Romans), rebuild or cleanse the temple, and establish God’s justice in both Israel and the world by vanquishing evildoers and establishing God’s righteous rule.

But here was Jesus, telling Peter and the rest of his disciples that he wasn’t going to be that kind of Messiah. He wasn’t going to Jerusalem to raise an army to defeat the Romans and thereby reestablish God’s righteous rule over Israel. Neither did Jesus give them any indication he was going to cleanse the temple, although he would eventually do that. Instead, he told them he was going to Jerusalem to be crucified! Whatever it was Peter believed about the promised Messiah, it would not have included the notion of a crucified Messiah because crucified Messiahs were failed Messiahs, i.e., impostors, and surely Peter would not have wanted to believe that about Jesus or see his friend suffer and die like that. In other words, the kind of Messiah Jesus told Peter and the rest of his disciples he had come to be violated Peter’s expectations and Peter took Jesus to task over it. Here we see why simply getting Jesus’ title right does not qualify us to pass the exam. We have to know what the title stands for. In rebuking Jesus, Peter demonstrated that he clearly didn’t understand how God’s true Messiah would accomplish his work and Jesus saw Peter’s rebuke as being satanic in its origin. Surely Peter would have understood James’ observation in today’s epistle that the tongue is a world of evil among the parts of the body because he spoke hastily and without much forethought. Peter doubtless had nothing but the best intents in rebuking Jesus. But in doing so, he demonstrated that he was not yet ready to deny himself, take up his cross and follow Jesus. He in effect wanted Jesus to follow him and many of us have been trying to get Jesus to do likewise ever since!

To make matters worse, Jesus also made it clear to Peter and his disciples (including us) that he expected his followers to imitate him in his costly work. Our Lord came to bring peace and reconciliation between God and humans, to end the alienation that exists between God and his human creatures that our sin has caused. On the cross, God condemned sin in the flesh and brought an end to our exile from God so that we could enjoy real healing and life. We know this to be true because God vindicated Jesus by raising him from the dead to give us a preview of the promised new creation. Our Lord invites us to be living signs of his new creation by giving our lives to him and imitating him in his costly love for us by denying ourselves and taking up our cross. This doesn’t mean we have to engage in some weird practice of self-hatred or self-rejection. It means we put Jesus at the center of our universe instead of ourselves so that we imitate him in all that we do. If we really are going to call Jesus “Christ” and join our voices with the first Christians in calling him “Lord,” it means we are going to have to give him everything we have—our time, our talents, our service, and our money. It means, for example, that we extend mercy instead of exacting revenge. It means we work for healing and reconciliation even when it is personally costly to us. It means we move to alleviate want and need of all kinds where we see it and can do something about it, all in the power of the Spirit. If you want a non-example of what Jesus is talking about, look at what is happening today in the Middle East because what we are witnessing there, the rage and all the malevolence that accompanies it, is antithetical to the way of the cross and no healing and hope can ever come from those kinds of behavior.

In a few minutes our senior warden is going to present to you our vestry’s vision of where we would like to take our parish this next year. We have tried to allocate your generous gifts in ways that are consistent with our Lord’s command to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow him so that we can be real and tangible signs of his healing love and hope that are based on his death, resurrection, and ascension. This ongoing work is reflected in our mission statement, Changed by God to Make a Difference for God. 

The biblical standard for giving, of course, is the tithe because Scripture teaches that all we have comes from the generous heart and hand of God and we are simply stewards of his many gifts. This scares a lot of folks, especially when times are tough as they are now. But this mindset reflects what was going on between Jesus and Peter in today’s gospel lesson. We are convinced that we know better than God how to use his gifts and it is often based on fear. But  with Jesus we have nothing to fear. My beloved and I have tithed since we were married and I can tell you that even in our finances Jesus has demonstrated his Lordship. During that time, we have both lost jobs and we are now both retired, which has resulted in our income being reduced by half. But through it all—and I really can’t explain it, I just know it is true—we have always been blessed with abundance and our testimony is consistent with countless others who have decided to tithe. Of course, some of you cannot tithe right now and so I encourage you to consider what you can do to establish a habit and spirit of giving generously as part of your commitment to following Jesus and calling him Lord. Even if it is a dollar a week, get into the habit of giving and more importantly know how and why your giving reflects your discipleship.

None of this means that we are asking you to give entirely to St. Augustine’s because the Lord’s work is not confined to his church. In fact, Dondra and I give to other charities, which is above and beyond our tithe. So as you listen to the presentation, keep in mind two things. First, does this work seem consistent with our Lord’s command to follow him as well as our mission statement? Second, how does your giving reflect your answer to Jesus’ question to you: Who do you say that I am? However you initially answer his question, when by God’s grace you have been given the courage and faith to take up your cross every day and follow Jesus in all dimensions of your life, you will know what it means to be truly blessed. And you will also know what it means to have Good News, now and for all eternity.

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.