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Monday, August 22, 2005
An Honest Answer
Jesus really put his team on the spot. I wonder what I'd say if I were in their sandals. (We're talking Matthew 16:13-20 here.)
His question had two parts.
Part one, easy enough: "Who do people say I am?" All they had to do was report what they'd been hearing. Some good guesses, a couple kind of odd.
Part two, the zinger: "But who do you say I am?" Er, um. uh... (Feet shuffle, eyes shuttle every which way.)
Then Simon Peter pipes up: "You're the Messiah. The Son of the Living God!"
"Right on!" says Jesus. Or words to that effect. Jesus commends him for getting it right, and cautions all of them that it was by divine revelation he'd found his way there.
I'm glad Peter answered the way he did. Not the way we preachers do in handling this story. We unpack his words in two different directions, complicating the matter and drifting past his simple point.
1. He could have said, "Look around this place (Caesarea Philippi, near the Sea of Galilee), see all the Roman statues -- Venus, Mars, Jupiter and all -- shrines to imaginary deities. But you, you're the incarnation of the Real Divine Deal!" (In fact, that's traditional Christology. But I'm glad Peter didn't expound it here.)
2. Or he could have said, "Okay, let's do the divine equation. On one hand, GOD is immortal, invisible, spiritual, eternal, ad infinitum; HUMANITY, on the other hand, is oh so mortal, physical, timebound, fallible, on and on and on. And YOU, you're the perfect blending of the two! Here's the diagram...." (That too is a basic datum of our creed. But, again, thanks be to Peter for not pursuing it here.)
Why be grateful he didn't go there? Good question.
Because the last thing Jesus then, or anyone else now, needs to hear from honest Christians is, "How do you defend your faith in Jesus?"
We do far better to tell in simple terms, "Here's what Jesus means to me."
You might say, "Hold on there, cowboy. Peter says, 'Messiah... Son... Living God.' Pretty theological language, don't you think?"
Well, yeah. But let's think a bit further.
The Messiah would be God's chosen person to fulfill God's promises. Peter's been watching and listening to Jesus a good long while, and -- Bingo! He keeps hearing the ring of truth, seeing miracles of mercy. God at work for his people's good.
The Son of God would embody in flesh and blood God's own character. Peter has recognized in Jesus the divine family resemblance. The guy keeps reminding him of God on a daily basis.
The Son of the Living God would bring the living presence of God's love. Not a God who made things and left them to run for themselves. But God who's alive, well aware of us, actively involved to bless us.
If any of this is what we see when we look at Jesus, then what matters most about our "doctrine of Christ" is stuff like:
The ways we treat each other... The rules we decide to keep or break... The habits we feed or starve... The meditations of our hearts and minds....
Because that's what he's basically all about: What God is like, and what God wants to help us be like. In real time, one day at a time.
posted by Jack Buckley at
10:33 AM
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