Words of Wisdom

Originally posted 3/12/07

So far on our journey through the life of Jesus we’ve seen:
His birth
His baptism
His temptations
The Sermon on the Mount
Choosing His disciples
His healing miracles
His dealings with the Pharisees
His humanity
The parable of the Good Samaritan
When bad things happen

Today we will look at the well-known, but I think sometimes misunderstood passages from His life – Matt 16:13-20

In our culture we like things in small, concise, easy-to-swallow pieces. We find lists and bullet points and summaries appealing to our short attention spans when it’s hard to find the time to pore over endless volumes of the written word. This short passage of scriptures accomplishes that objective beautifully when it takes the thousands upon thousands of words written about the life and teachings of Jesus and encapsulates all of it in one short sentence.

One day, while on one of their many journeys, Christ and His disciples arrived in the town of Caesarea Phillipi when He turned to them and offered this inquiry that must have seemed rather strange to the men who had been following Him all of this time. He asked, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
I imagine this took His adherants aback and they started tossing out all kinds of answers. One of them called out, “John the Baptist,” another declared, “Elijah,” and someone else, perhaps in a bit of bewilderment, said, “Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.”
Jesus, the Son of God, then raised His head and looked them right in the eyes and asked the question that we are all faced with, “But who do you say that I am?”

Sometimes I think Peter is maligned a bit for his impetuousness by many in the Christian world, but this time his answer, just 10 words in length, was exactly right, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

This confession of faith from a flawed, sinful man to the God of all Creation is perhaps the greatest statement from any mortal man throughout the entire Bible. I imagine that as soon as these words left the lips of this man beloved by Jesus, He turned to Him with a beaming smile and acknowledged him, saying,
“Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”

So, what is this rock that Christ will build His church upon? Is it the apostle Peter, whose name incidently means rock? Is it perhaps on the rock they may have been standing on at that time as some have claimed?

In my mind, the declaration by Jesus goes a bit deeper than that. I believe that the rock is none other than the confession that Simon Peter offered to Jesus, proclaiming that he knew and believed Christ to be God incarnate. His church then is not only built upon the great men who surrounded Him that day, but it is built upon all of those who have consorted with Christ since then and it even includes you and me.

And that is what salvation is all about. It’s about putting off your old self and acknowledging that you can’t live this life on your own – you need Jesus. But the road doesn’t stop with just professing Christ as Savior, no, then we have the responsibility to follow in his glorified example to serve all of those around us. So, when the voice of Christ speaks to you with that question that faced Peter so long ago, with a broken spirit turn to Him and cry out, “You are the Christ.”