MATTHEW
16
Peter’s
confession signals a turning point. From the moment Jesus hears Peter’s
assertion that he knows who Jesus truly is, Jesus begins to prepare the disciples for
his mission to the cross. It is almost as if a code has been broken, a new
level has been achieved in a computer game or the team’s captain has held up
the trophy that has got them promoted into the next division.
Jesus
had just laid into the Sadducees and Pharisees for their teaching and their
failure to see what he represents. But he also uses code words which confuse
the disciples. He tells them to beware of the ‘yeast’ of the Pharisees and
Sadducees: the disciples think he is just talking about their kind of baking!
But Jesus tells them this saying has nothing to do with bread, but teaching.
Yeast in bread is a small but influential part of the ingredients. Without
yeast there is no rise in the dough; it takes just a small amount a yeast for
it to spread through the dough and create the finished product, bread. And so
it is with the teaching of these two groups which shape a culture hostile to
Jesus’ recipe for a full and loving life. Don’t mix their yeast, their teaching,
with my recipe for dough, says Jesus in effect.
To
get the recipe right, they need to know who the chef is. And so Jesus asks the
disciples the pointed question: who do people say that ‘the Son of Man’ is? The
disciples run through a list: John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah or another
prophet? Then Jesus asks them straight: ‘Who do you say that I am?’ And out
blurts Peter: ‘You are the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.’
This
is the big turning point. Jesus has not said he is the Messiah. But he has
taught with authority, he has confronted the powers that be, he has broken the
laws of physics (with miracles of feeding 5,000 and 4,000 people and walking on
water); he has broken the mores of the religious leaders (by healing on the Sabbath,
eating with disreputable people etc); he has healed hundreds by his touch; he
has gone to the voiceless and powerless and identified with them over the
powerful; he has touched the people with is words and works. All of this has
led Peter to confess Jesus as Lord and Master and Saviour and, now, as the Son
of the Living God.
Immediately,
Jesus says and does something incredible. He tells Peter, now you know who I
am, I am going to tell you who you are. Peter’s true identity is bound up with discovering
Jesus’ identity. And this is the same for us too. Our identity, our calling,
our vocation as Christians becomes something liberating and liberational. We
become who we were created to confess with our lives and our mouths that Jesus
is our Redeeming Lord and Master.
And
yet, and yet, this identity change takes more than a conversion experience. It
takes a lifetime too. Peter, emboldened by his new status in Jesus’ eyes,
thinks he can then tell Jesus what to do. He has cracked the code only to
discover a new and profoundly unsettling new level of discipleship awaits. He
is immediately put in his place by Jesus, who, startlingly, tells Peter he is
now behaving like his arch-enemy Satan by trying to deflect him from the
cross-bound mission.
Jesus
must die. And the disciples must follow him to his point of death. They must
not stop it from happening (Peter, naturally, wants to). The traditional
translations at this point talk about learning to ‘deny ourselves, taking up
our cross’ and walking in the way of Jesus not getting in the way of Jesus. Petersen, in his paraphrased translation,
brings the challenge of discipleship to life in a new way, with: ‘Anyone
who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s
seat; I am. Don’t run
from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no
help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true
self. What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself?
What could you ever trade your soul for?’
We are
not in the driving seat. We never were. We just deceive
ourselves into thinking we are. And it is so much easier to be deceived with
all the tools of control at our disposal - from this keyboard I write on to the
car I drive to the hundred and one decisions I have to make this day... and
yet, for us restless souls the true freedom comes in recognising that our true
selves are found in the liberation challenging and profoundly unsettling
counter-culture of the way of Jesus, the way of the cross and the resurrection.
For this is the way of transformation, as our identity is aligned more with
Jesus. More of this in the next chapter.
‘Go on, prove it!’ The Pharisees and Sadducees are back challenging Jesus to prove who he is and what he says. Jesus is scathing: ‘You can forecast the weather from what you see in the sky, but you can’t see the hand of God in the healing and miracles I perform. You can’t read the word of God in what I preach. You will only get one sign, that of Jonah.’ We have already seen the same challenge before (12, 38) when they had asked for a sign and Jesus had given the same answer. On that occasion he had gone into more detail. It was a sign of three days. Jonah had been three days in the belly of the whale before emerging; Jesus would be three days in the earth before emerging. Jesus was again pointing to his death, burial and resurrection of the true sign of who Jesus was and his authority under God.
ReplyDeleteThe encounter gave Jesus the opportunity to teach the disciples what was going to happen. He does not seem to have taken them to this level of understanding before, and it is quite a shock for the twelve. He first warns them of the danger of being taken in by the stifling teaching of the Pharisees. Beware of their yeast, their teaching, he tells the disciples. It is not good yeast, which causes people and communities to rise up and grow, like well-proved bread; it is stale yeast with a constricting action.
At this point Jesus is leading the disciples to Caesarea Phillipi, thirty miles north of the Sea of Galilee, and about as far from Jerusalem as you could go in Israel at that time. Here Jesus asks who the people say he is, and then, critically, who do the disciples say he is. Peter answers that he is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Whether this was a sudden flash of inspiration, or whether Peter had been pondering about this for some time, is not clear, but Jesus tells him it is a revelation from God. He goes on to tell Peter that he will become the foundation of his church. Matthew is the only evangelist to use the word ‘church’ in his gospel, and he does so here and twice in 18, 17. There is no church at this point, of course, and Jesus is looking to the future. He warns them to keep it a secret that he is the Messiah, the Christ. The people were expecting a very different Messiah, a warrior leader, and the last thing he wanted was for an insurrection against the Romans to be started in his name.
He starts to explain what would happen to him in Jerusalem, that he would be killed, buried and rise again – the real sign for mankind. That was too much for Peter; he was ready to fight for Jesus (as he would start to do at Gethsemane when he cut off the ear of the high priest’s servant). Peter and the disciples had expected to go on preaching and healing for some time; after all, it was a successful mission, just look at the crowds. The coming events at Jerusalem were a real game-changer, and they were not ready for it. Jesus tells Peter off saying, ‘You are thinking like a man, and not yet thinking like God’.
The great thing about Peter, as he emerges from the gospels, is his reaction to events in a very ordinary way, just as we would react. He is the figure of ‘everyman’ in the gospel story, sometimes slow, sometimes inspired; sometimes brave, sometimes cowardly; sometimes impetuous and headstrong. Just like us. Not until he understood the coming events at Jerusalem would he emerge as Peter, ‘the rock’ of the church. Neither will we emerge as true disciples until we share that same understanding and allow it to rule our heads and hearts.
Outwardly, Jesus and the disciples continued to tour the land, and the preaching and healing went on. Inwardly, for the disciples, everything had been thrown up in the air as Jesus gradually revealed more and more of his purpose to them. This was the pivot-point for them, when things veered differently. What had seemed a gentle mission, popular with the people, in spite of the running confrontation with the religious leaders, was about to develop a darker side.
This chapter gave me a few surprises.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, I can't ever remember reading "red sky at night...red sky in the morning.." in the Bible before. I didn't seem to know that that familiar phrase came from the Bible. It's good to keep on learning.
Secondly, Jonah is referred to again. But when was the last time we heard Jonah read in church? It's a good Sunday School story but clearly Matthew sees much deeper significance in it, as Terry explains. Another prompt to return to our reading of the Old Testament.
Thirdly, I was really surprised to read Peter's confession of faith at this point, and felt myself asking "where did that come from?" The disciples don't seem to have been showing much faith, although Peter did have a go at walking on water. To me they seem much more in the background in this Gospel, with the Pharisees and Scribes in the forefront, trying to take centre stage. So I find it surprising that Peter is ready to make such a bold statement of faith now.
However, what was not surprising is Jesus' call to take up the cross and follow him. Suffering is a shared and common experience to all humanity. It is what we wrestle with and long to be free of. Jesus, in his humanity, suffered. The Christian faith faces the reality of our human experience of suffering.
So who do I say Jesus is? Today he is the one who shares my suffering, who stays by me in my suffering. And Jesus is the one who through his own suffering and death and resurrection restores my hope in the inextinguishable life of God.
Does that make taking up the cross any easier? No.
Am I fully obedient to his call to deny myself and follow him? No.
But I have heard the call to follow and looking at the cross ask Jesus to be my constant companion. We cannot avoid the cross, however we much we might like to. But we never journey there alone. Thank God.
I was curious regarding this saying about the sky I had read it in the Bible, but not understood what Jesus meant. I googled it to find out it was a common saying here in England. This is what the met office says about red skies:
ReplyDeleteMetoffice.gov.uk
Why does red sky appear at sunrise and sunset?
The saying is most reliable when weather systems predominantly come from the west as they do in the UK. "Red sky at night, shepherds delight" can often be proven true, since red sky at night means fair weather is generally headed towards you.
A red sky appears when dust and small particles are trapped in the atmosphere by high pressure. This scatters blue light and leaving only red light to give the sky its notable appearance.
A red sky at sunset means high pressure is moving in from the west so therefore the next day will usually be dry and pleasant. "Red sky in the morning, shepherds warning" means a red sky appears due to the high pressure weather system having already moved east meaning the good weather has passed, most likely making way for a wet and windy low pressure system.
I find it frightening that Peter could be so right in one instant , and in the next, so entirely wrong. One minute Jesus tells him he will give him the keys of heaven , and in the next , he calls him Satan. It makes me feel that I can never think that I am on the right track. This situation reminds me of how Solomon was so humble at the start of his career, but had gone in the opposite direction by the end. He starts with asking God for wisdom, but in the end, he has anything but wisdom. What kind of wisdom is it that makes you marry hundreds of women, and worship other gods? I try to keep in mind and heart what Peter said,
" Humble yourself before the Lord, and He will lift you up."
We discussed as a family the significance of Jonah being in the whale for three days , and we concluded that he had been, in a way , the fore runner to Jesus. Just as Jesus had come to call all sinners , including the "gentiles", so God sent Jonah to the Ninevites to tell them to repent. They were not Jews ; a fact I find surprising for the Old Testament. Why did the God of the Old Testament care about non-Jews.
Jonah means "dove". The dove is the sign of the Holy Spirit. Jonah's prayer for mercy is deeply moving. It echoes parts of Psalm 18. Let us make it our prayer.
Jonah Chapter 2 (NIV)
“In my distress I called to the Lord,
and he answered me.
From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help,
and you listened to my cry.
3 You hurled me into the depths,
into the very heart of the seas,
and the currents swirled about me;
all your waves and breakers
swept over me.
4 I said, ‘I have been banished
from your sight;
yet I will look again
toward your holy temple.’
5 The engulfing waters threatened me,[b]
the deep surrounded me;
seaweed was wrapped around my head.
6 To the roots of the mountains I sank down;
the earth beneath barred me in forever.
But you, Lord my God,
brought my life up from the pit.
7 “When my life was ebbing away,
I remembered you, Lord,
and my prayer rose to you,
to your holy temple.
8 “Those who cling to worthless idols
turn away from God’s love for them.
9 But I, with shouts of grateful praise,
will sacrifice to you.
What I have vowed I will make good.
I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’”