August 21, 2005

Mindekirken, August 21, 2005

Pastor Jens Arne Dale

Matt 16.13-20

In today’s text we read about Jesus and the disciples who came to the district of Caesarea Philippi. If you take a look at the map, you’ll find out that the place is located far north in Israel, on the border with Lebanon. It’s a beautiful place. To the north you’ll see the snowcap of mount Hermon. Here are the sources of the Jordan river, waterfalls and green woods. Once the Greek god Pan was worshiped here. Even today you may see the ruins of that temple. At the time of Jesus, a city was built here in honor of emperor Augustus. It’s as far north as Jesus and the disciples ever came.

Peter’s confession in today’s text is kind of the highlight of the gospel of Matthew. And it’s the turning point. From here on, Jesus was south bound, walking toward Jerusalem. It’s like he has finished a class with his disciples where they had passed the exam: They know he’s the Messiah, Son of God. A new class will begin; the disciples will get to know what kind of Messiah Jesus was; the Son of God who would suffer and die.

Jesus asked his disciples what people said about him, and the answers varied. It’s the same today. Jesus was a great teacher, a good human, a man with divine skills… Newer religious groups always refer to Jesus. The perception is always positive, but never consistent with the NT’s description of him as true God, true man. Islam is a good example. There Jesus is a prophet, but not the Son of God. That was obviously the common view of Jesus among his contemporaries, too.

Jesus was regarded as an Elijah figure, the disciples reported. You may remember the story of Elijah who was taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire. That’s what the Negro spiritual Swing low, sweet chariot is all about. Malachi 4.5 prophesies that Elijah would return before the Messiah to put everything in right order. According to Jesus, John the Baptist fulfilled this role, Matt 11.14. The reason why Jesus was regarded as one of the prophets, was the promise of a new prophet who would come one day, Deut 18.15.

But Jesus would be more than a prophet. None of the contemporary perceptions expressed who he really was. Jesus wasn’t satisfied until Peter answered: You are the Messiah, Son of the living God.

I don’t think Peter fully realized how right he was. At least we may have good reasons for suspecting him to share the common Jewish thought of the Messiah as a national liberator. The expression Son of God doesn’t necessarily mean that he regarded Jesus equal to God the Father. Son of God was an expression which was also used about the king of Israel who was seen as adopted by God. That Peter hardly understood the full meaning of the expressions he used becomes clear in the continuation. The next passage tells that Peter was totally confused about the Messiah, the king, who would suffer and die.

Judaism offers several examples of figures who claimed to be the Messiah. One was Bar Kochba who managed to lead a successful riot against the Romans in 132 AD and governed Israel as an independent nation for three years. But the Romans returned in a gruesome way, ruined city after city, and those who were not slaughtered were expelled from their country. That’s the historical background for the Jews to be spread among the peoples of the world. Those who had believed that Bar Kochba was the Messiah had a crises of faith. The dilemma was solved in this way: The scholars claimed that his name had been mistaken for son of the star and not son of the lie which it should have been. By the new understanding, Bar Kochba and not God had deceived them.

The view of a Jewish national state drawn by the borders of God’s promises to Abraham has become actual this week. Israel has deported 8500 Jewish settlers from Gaza to Israel. We’ve seen TV pictures of families who have moved with all their properties, and some have even demolished their homes before leaving the settlement to the Palestinian self governing authorities. Prime minister Sharon deserved support for his politics. It complies with the UN resolution of 1947 on which the state of Israel is founded, and it complies with the Oslo Accord of 1993 that was supposed to secure a peaceful co-existence between Jews and Palestinians in two independent nations. Israel has occupied Gaza and the West Bank since 1967, or administered the territories as they like to express it in Jerusalem. But the rapidly growing Palestinian population would have made it impossible for Israel to make Gaza and the West Bank a permanent part of their nation. If they had done that, the Jews would have become the minority in their own state within 20 years. Now we’ll hopefully see the same as when Israel almost 30 years ago gave the Sinai peninsula back to Egypt; they’ll trade land for peace.

The problem, however, is that some Jews consider what’s now happening as giving up land granted them by God. But according to the NT there’s no reason to think that the Israelites can claim a divine right to the land. The Jews historical right to the land is another story, but you can’t do whatever you would like claiming that it’s based on God’s will. The common attitude in Israel is also that they have to comply with international law.

Today’s text illustrates this. It shows that Jesus didn’t want to be a national liberator in the political sense. Jesus talks about something far more than an earthly kingdom. No where in the NT will you find that Jesus addressed his people on the basis of the promises of land which was given to Abraham. But that the Jews will be sustained as a people is a thought we find for instance in Rom 9 – 11. There it’s expressed that the Jews will one day repent and believe in Jesus as the Messiah, not in a political sense, but spiritually.

Jesus was satisfied by being called the Messiah, Son of the living God. This has been revealed to you by my Father in heaven, Jesus said, and proclaimed Peter to be the rock on which he would build his church. Jesus didn’t mean Peter as a person, he would deceive and deny later. Jesus would build his church upon the confession of Peter, that the Father had given him. The text doesn’t suggest that Peter would be the first pope, as the Catholics claim. But to the basis of the church will always be to confess the faith in Jesus. This is one of only two texts where Jesus talks about the church. But he says that the church has the greatest task and responsibility: To have the key to the kingdom of heaven. In the church the gospel is preached that can loose people from sin and guilt. The church is our home as long as we are here on this earth. But the time of the church is limited. The kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God is near, but that’s also the kingdom to come. Creation will be renewed. The promise of a land will not be fulfilled in this world. But it points forward to the new heaven and the new earth, the day God will renew everything.

Glory be to God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, one true God, now and for ever. Amen.

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