Identity is a gift from God given in Christ Jesus that forms our life as God’s people, that is, His Church.
This week’s text can be quite an overwhelming one to preach, and not just because there is enough content here for a month of sermons! But, these are among the most debated verses in the Church since the time of the Reformation. Roman Catholics argue these verses establish the office of the Papacy in the person of Peter, upon whom the Church will be built. Many protestants argue that Jesus is going to build His Church on the confession of Peter. If the preacher is not careful, this week’s sermon could quickly spiral into a history of interpretation and/or Roman Catholic verses Protestant polemics. Though there may be some place for this (however brief) in the sermon, these topics would be better for your Bible Study hour. Besides, such a sermon would distract from the main focus of our passage: The identity of Jesus and what He promises.
This week, outline your sermon by addressing two major questions:
1) Who do you say Jesus is?
2) Who does Jesus say you are?
Open the sermon by talking about the importance of identity in our day and age. Where does one’s identity come from? We are obsessed with creating our own identities based on things like politics, religion, gender, nationality, and skin color. Identity politics is the air we breathe. But who actually gets to identify us? As we will see in the text today, identity is a gift from God given in Christ Jesus that forms our life as God’s people, that is, His Church.
1) Identifying Jesus: Who Do You Say that I Am?
In the first section, discuss the mistaken identity of Jesus in His day as well as in our own. Jesus asks (16:13), “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” A variety of answers are given from the apostles. Jesus has been performing miracles, teaching in powerful ways, and undermining the religious authorities. There is all sorts of buzz around who He might be. “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets” (16:4). The question of Jesus’ identity confronts us, like it did Jesus’ apostles, in a world where all sorts of confusion reigns over the identity of Jesus. In The American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon, Stephen Prothero exposes our plight:
“The American Jesus has been something of a chameleon. Christians have depicted him as black and white, male and female, straight and gay, a socialist and a capitalist, a pacifist and a warrior, a Ku Klux Klansman and a civil rights agitator... This American Jesus has not been solely a Christian concern... he has become an athlete and an aesthete, a polygamist and a celibate, an advertising man and a mountaineer, Hindu deity and a Buddha to be.”[1]
Jesus, it seems, can be pretty much whatever you want Him to be. He is a mascot who cheers for my side, a wax nose to fit my face. At best, this all comes from a sincere misunderstanding of who Jesus is. At worst, it comes from a desire to use Jesus to gain power over others.
But the Church says something else about Jesus. As He questions His disciples, He wants to know, first, what the world says about Him. But, more importantly, what they themselves say about Him. In Matthew 16:15, Jesus confronts them with the most important question He can ask: “Who do you say that I am?” Peter stands up as the representative of the twelve apostles and gives voice to the Church’s faithful response to Jesus’ question, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (16:16).
Peter identifies Jesus as the Christ, or Messiah. He is the one God has sent to bring salvation to the world. But, Peter does not GIVE this identity to Jesus. He CONFESSES what has been given to him. “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in Heaven” (16:17).
What we say and know about God is a gift revealed from Heaven through the pages of the scriptures! And, God has given that gift to you!
At this point, talk about the nature of confession. When we say the Creed, for example, we are merely saying back to God and before the world who God has revealed Himself to be. At His baptism, the Father announced to the world that Jesus was His beloved Son. Simon simply repeated what God said, and believed it! Our conversation and talk of Jesus are always derivative. We only confess (literally, say-back) what has been given us to say. We speak what has been given to us in the scriptures, written by the apostles and prophets, through whom God has chosen to reveal Christ to us. What we say and know about God is a gift revealed from Heaven through the pages of the scriptures! And, God has given that gift to you!
2) Identifying You: Who Does Jesus Say You Are?
At this point, pivot to what Jesus says back to Peter. This is a beautiful back-and-forth between Peter and Jesus. Peter says, “You are this!” and Jesus says, “And, you are that!” God’s Christ, His beloved Son, now responds by giving Simon His identity and attaching promises to that identity.
Jesus calls Simon “Peter.” The word in Greek, as you may know, means “rock.” According to Jeffrey Gibbs, there is no real record of this as a name for anyone in the Jewish world prior to Jesus giving it to Simon.[2] He has received a new identity in Christ.
At this point, preach baptism. Tell your hearers that they have been named as God’s children in the waters of Holy Baptism. There, Jesus put the name of the triune God upon them and called them His disciples (Matthew 28:19-20). Then, note how when Jesus gives you name it comes with marvelous promises.
Jesus makes three promises to Peter and to the disciples for whom Peter speaks. First, He says, “...on this rock I will build My Church...” (16:18). Do not get too bogged down into the history of the papacy at this point, though given the preponderance of online Catholic apologetics, it may be worth saying something about how this is not about Jesus establishing the first pope. But, neither does Jesus say the Church will be built only on the confession of Peter. Rather, He promises Peter that the Church will be built upon Peter and the other apostles as those who confess what has been given them from Heaven. Gibbs writes, “In his role as one to whom the Father has revealed the true identity of Jesus, God’s Son and Christ, Simon Peter will, in actual fact, come to serve with the other apostles as the solid foundation and rock upon which Christ will build His Church.”[3] Think of Saint Paul’s letter to the Ephesians where he tells them that they are members of God’s household, “Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone” (Ephesians 2:20). That is to say, God sends forth His apostles and prophets to preach, teach, and confess Christ in order to build His Church. You and I who are baptized are beneficiaries of their work, even as we continue to spread it through our own preaching and teaching.
Second, Jesus promises that the gates of Hell will not prevail against this Church. We are reminded that the Church, like her Lord, will be assaulted and attacked in this world. Persecution, temptation, accusation, doubts, and struggles will all flow from the gates of Hell to undermine the preaching of Christ’s salvation. But, they will not prevail. For Christ has identified you as His own and nothing in all creation can separate you from His love (refer to Romans 8:38-39). When Christ names you, He vows to protect you with His promises.
Third, Jesus promises to hand over the keys to the Kingdom in order to welcome all into His Kingdom, while binding those who reject the confession of His name. He says, “I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and whatever you bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven, and whatever you loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven” (16:19). Jesus is not saying that whatever Peter and the apostles decide about someone’s salvation is binding on God’s decisions. Rather, He is saying Peter and the apostles and, ultimately, all preachers in the Church will open the Kingdom of Heaven to all who believe, while at the same time binding those who reject Christ. Through preaching, baptism, confession, absolution, and faithful teaching, the Church continues the work given the apostles of releasing Christ’s gifts to the world and rejecting all teaching that counters God’s will being done on Earth as it is in Heaven.
As those who have been baptized, your hearers have received their identity as Christ’s forgiven, blood-bought Church. This means they have been given the Word of the apostles and prophets, they have been promised divine protection from the evil one, and they have had the Kingdom of Heaven opened to them. This identity and these promises are certain because they have been given by the One the Father has identified as the Christ, the Son of the living God, who has come to save us.
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Additional Resources:
Craft of Preaching-Check out 1517’s resources on Matthew 16:13-20.
Concordia Theology-Various helps from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO to assist you in preaching Matthew 16:13-20.
Lectionary Kick-Start-Check out this fantastic podcast from Craft of Preaching authors Peter Nafzger and David Schmitt as they dig into the texts for this Sunday!
The Pastor’s Workshop-Check out all the great preaching resources from our friends at the Pastor’s Workshop!
[1] Prothero, Stephen. The American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003. 8-9.
[2] Gibbs, Jeffrey A. Concordia Commentary: Matthew 11:2-20:34. Concordia, St. Louis, 2010. 814.
[3] Gibbs. Concordia Commentary. 819.
