“On This Rock…”

They say that one of the things great teachers do especially well is to build confidence in their pupils. If you don’t think you can learn something or master something, you probably won’t. Confidence, self-esteem is a big part of success. Or so the experts say.

Jesus must not listen to the experts. He goes His own way in teaching. Starting off with the questioning, He’s different. “Who do men say that I (the Son of Man!) am?” I mean, nice hint, Mr. Subliminal! You’re practically giving the answer away. That’s not great pedagogy is it?—when You just give the student the answer? So, the safe answer clearly is to respond: “Uh the crowds give lots of foolish answers. They say You are John the Baptist (risen from the dead), or Elijah, Jeremiah or one of the other prophets. But uh, I’m going to go with D) none of the above, and say You are the (Son of) Man!”

I think you’d get full marks for that answer. Remember, in a pinch, just saying back to Jesus what He says to you is always a good idea.

It’s here that Simon Peter doesn’t take the safe route, but blurts out: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!” for his answer. Now, that’s some bold, out of the box thinking. That’s putting some pieces together, knitting together disparate facts into a stunning claim. For 1^st century Jews, to be the Son of Man goes back to Old Testament prophecy, way back to the beginning. You can back-translate the Greek into Hebrew and get Son of Adam out of this, which ties back to the promise that a Son of Adam (and Eve) would crush the devil’s head, liberate the world, and make peace between God and man. The Son of Man would be the Son the whole human race has been awaiting, the One to undo the catastrophe in the Garden.

Jesus calls Himself Son of Man, and this is another way, at that time, of saying “Messiah” or “Christ”. The Anointed One, the One on whom God’s power and promise all rest. In other words, Son of Man, is certainly not a way of saying “some ordinary guy”. But Peter takes the Son of Man tag and puts it together with some other things he’s seen in Jesus. The power to command nature, turn water to wine, walk on water, still storms. The power to heal all sickness and disease. In a flash, when Jesus asks “Who do you say that I am?” Peter puts it all together, confessing: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!”

In that instant, Peter looks at Jesus’ face and sees how it all comes together. Son of Man, the anointed one, the Christ, God Himself—for to be the Son of Man, to save the race, you’d have to be God Himself come in our flesh! So Peter makes the great confession: Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Of course, this is the right answer. Everything Scripture says and everything Jesus has done makes this clear. What He will do on the cross and on Easter Sunday will seal the deal and cast any remaining doubt aside that He is Son of Man and Son of God. Peter is a bit ahead of the curve here.

And a great teacher would praise such a brilliant answer (you would think). A teacher following conventional wisdom would put such a student at the head of the class and make him feel great about being so brilliant.

But Jesus doesn’t do this. He doesn’t even say “Right answer!” No, instead Jesus looks at Peter and says “Blessed are you! (dynamic equivalent translation: “Lucky guy!”) Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but My Father who is in heaven (dynamic equivalent: Wow! That’s way beyond your ability to figure out. My heavenly Father must have given you the answer!)”

In this, Jesus reminds me of my 8^th grade teacher in Lutheran school. She also was of the mindset that instilling self-confidence was not the goal, but rather tearing down pride and arrogance. When you would happen to get a particularly difficult question right (and her questions were always difficult) it was common to be greeted with “You didn’t swipe my answer key again, did you, Kevin Martin?”  Not much self-confidence instilled. But plenty of humility and fear of God. Very biblical, I suppose.

But why would Jesus do this? Would it have hurt so much to tell Peter, “Hey, great job! That is a brilliant answer, absolutely correct, and the sign of some real sharp thinking there, my friend. Good going! Keep it up!” Well, yes, actually that would have hurt a lot. It would have undone everything Jesus was doing with the disciples.

See, it gets back to our root problem as sinners. Our problem is not lack of confidence or self-esteem, but just the opposite—pride and arrogance is our problem. Sin is not a lack of something that knowledge and education must remedy. Sin is an over-abundance of self-confidence and pride. Sin is not a fall. It is an upward over-reach. It is not gods falling from their perch, but it is human creatures striving to be God for themselves, by themselves.

It was thinking for themselves that got Adam and Eve in trouble. It was striking out boldly on their own, following their own original ideas, doing it “my way”. It was the shift from receiving everything from God as adoring children to telling God how it should be as know-it-all teens. That is the original sin. Doing for ourselves. Thinking for ourselves. Being Gods ourselves, by ourselves.

And what did it get us? Glory? Honor? Strength? Long life? Uh, no. It brought shame. Nakedness. Fear. Weakness. And finally, it brought death. And the more we tried to solve the problem by our own cleverness and creativity, the worse it got.

Jesus came to reverse the curse. To knock us out of the God-seat and back into the child seat. To change us from doers to receivers. Because, as St. Augustine well said: “You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless till they rest in Thee.” So Jesus came to kill our pride and self-esteem and replace it with faith in Him. The answer to life’s great question is not found in our clever thinking, but in Christ’s revealing.

So Jesus knocks Peter down in order to lift him up. “That’s not your own answer there, My friend—that came right from the Father!” Which is to say, “Now you’re talking! Now you’re taking your answer off His page again. Good! For there you will find life and peace and joy, forever.”

“Oh, and by the way—don’t tell anyone else!” That’s kind of weird isn’t it? Shouldn’t Peter tell everyone? Uh, no. Lest anyone think this is Peter’s answer, Peter’s genius, rather than divine revelation. No, Jesus will tell the world who He is. He may use Peter’s hands and mouth, but the world will know it is Jesus talking.

This is the Rock on which the church is ever built—not Peter’s word, or mine, but Jesus’. And here, now, you can take a page from Peter’s playbook, take what Jesus gives away. Don’t think for yourself. Don’t be clever or proud. Copy off Jesus’ paper. Take the answers He is giving away.

Because here you find the answer key Peter used—in Gospel Word and Sacrament, by the forgiveness of sins, in His body and blood Jesus gives the answer to all questions. In this answer key are the very keys to heaven, given first to Peter, so now to you. And when you swallow pride and simply take what Jesus gives, you too are built with Peter on the Rock which ever stands. And the Peace that surpasses understanding will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Amen.

 Rev. Kevin Martin