"Who do YOU say that I am?"  | Matthew 16: 13-20
 
Our Gospel story this week is recorded in all three Synoptics. Jesus asks a two-fold question, "Who do the people say that I am," and then the harder one of the two: "Who do YOU say that I am?"  Peter answers for the group by recognizing Jesus as the Messiah, but only in Matthew’s rendition of the story do we see Peter receive a new name, become the rock upon which Jesus will build his church, and receive the keys to the kingdom.
 
The setting of our story is in the northeastern corner of Palestine. This was not Jesus' usual territory. Caesarea Philippi was filled with worship centers and temples, with altars erected to the gods of Greece and Rome. In the middle of the city was a great white temple built by Herod and dedicated to the “divinity” of Caesar (hence the name of the city). Oddly, it is in this marketplace of pagan gods and temples that Jesus first teaches his plans and hopes for his new church.
 
The question Jesus poses to his disciples is asked of us every minute of every day, and every decision we make is ultimately a response to that question. Our faith is not just a matter of knowing about Jesus; it is one of knowing Jesus, knowing the answer to the question, “Who do YOU say that I am?” Our love for family and friends, our dedication to the cause of justice, our commitment to the highest moral and ethical standards, our taking the first step toward reconciliation and forgiveness, our simplest acts of kindness and charity, proclaim for all the world to see just who we believe Jesus is and what his Gospel means to us.
 
Peter is the first of the disciples to grasp Christ's divinity. Jesus blesses him with the new name of “rock” (Petros in Greek), indicating that his faith will become the first stone in the foundation of the new church that will form in the months to come. And all who are baptized into this new church become living stones, adding to that foundation through the faith we live and share with others in Jesus’ name. It is the light and hope of the empty tomb, and the joy of our Risen Lord.
 
The “keys of the kingdom of heaven” are entrusted by Christ not just to Peter and the institutional church, but to each one of us because we are the church. Christ has given each of us a key to the kingdom: the means to unlock God's presence in our world by sharing the gifts we have been given, no matter how small we may think they are, and spreading God’s love in our broken world. Our keys may be patience and understanding, a talent or skill we possess, a listening ear, a gentle voice; gifts we can use to unlock a door or open a pathway, enabling those we love to realize that the kingdom of heaven is upon us, right here and right now.
 
This is what Christ calls us to become as disciples and as a church: a family of brothers and sisters who put aside their own needs and hurts to bring healing and hope to others in Jesus’ name. We cannot belong to that family, that community of believers unless we embrace the spirit of selfless servanthood; we cannot stand with Jesus unless we unconditionally and completely love and forgive others as he did; we cannot hope to share in his victory over death unless we can put aside the fears, self-consciousness and prejudices that blind us from seeing Jesus in the faces of every human being.
 
To each of us, Jesus still leans close and asks, “Who do YOU say that I am?” That question does not fade with time, and no one else can answer it for us. When Paul wrote to Timothy (2 Timothy 1:12), he didn’t say, “I know what I believed.” He declared, “I know whom I have believed.” His faith was not an idea; it was a relationship, a living confession shaped by truly knowing a living Savior.
 
So here is the question that stands before every one of us today: When the story of our life is told, will our choices, our character, our courage proclaim the same truth? Will it reveal not just what we believed, but whom we followed? May the life we live and the faith we share answer Jesus’ question long after our voices fall silent.
 
Amen? Amen!