What's Law Got to Do With It?
Scripture Reading: Matt. 16:13-20
Before I went to seminary I used to teach Bible study in the youth group of a Korean American church in New Jersey. I was persuaded to teach Bible study by Peter, who was my closest friend in the church. Peter was my opposite in many ways: slight of stature but with an outsized personality, mathematically and mechanically gifted, rabidly pro-PC and anti-Apple computers, and a self-described “Korean redneck.”
Anyway, Peter’s relationship with his students had a playful but adversarial quality. He had one student in particular whom he referred to—to me, at least—as an “idiot savant.” An idiot savant refers to a person who is exceptionally gifted in one area, such as music or mathematics, despite having impairment in other areas of intellectual or social functioning.
According to Peter, most of the time this girl showed little interest in, or aptitude for, Bible study. She would spend much of Bible study either daydreaming or nodding off, but every so often she would surprise him and the entire class with a moment of clarity in which she would utter something of such profound wisdom that it would leave him dumbfounded.
Now, I’m not calling the biblical Peter an idiot savant—far from it—but the Bible portrays him as a man known more for his boldness of speech than his great insight. Yet here in this passage Peter has an epiphany so profound that even Jesus seems a bit taken aback by it. Indeed, when Peter identifies Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of the living God, Jesus responds by saying that Peter did not come to this conclusion by himself but that it was revealed to him by God.
Although we read from Matthew 15 last week, and we’re in chapter 16 today, much has happened since Jesus’s encounter with the Canaanite woman that we heard about last week. First, Jesus returned to his home region of Galilee. There he was greeted by crowds flocking to him in order to be healed from various ailments. Then, with just seven loaves and a few fish, he fed a crowd of 4,000 men and many more women and children.
As word of these miracles spread, two sets of religious leaders from Jerusalem—the Pharisees and the Sadducees—came to test Jesus, demanding that he perform a sign from heaven in their sight, which he refused.
It’s clear that Jesus’s reputation is growing. The name of this wandering rabbi from a remote village in Galilee has become known all the way from the holy city of Jerusalem to towns and cities beyond the borders of ancient Israel. People are trying to figure out what exactly he is. Is he a prophet? Or perhaps something more than a prophet? Has he been sent by God? Will he lead Israel to overthrow their Roman occupiers?
People are trying to figure out what exactly he is. Is he a prophet? Or perhaps something more than a prophet? Has he been sent by God? Will he lead Israel to overthrow their Roman occupiers?
Aware of all this speculation, Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” Jesus isn’t speaking in code. “Son of Man” is the title of a messianic figure who’s mentioned in the Book of Daniel. Here in the Gospel of Matthew Jesus has used the title to refer to himself several times already, most recently in his explanation of the Parable of the Weeds. According to that parable, the Son of Man will administer God’s judgment at the end of the age. Given that Jesus has identified himself with the Son of Man, the disciples know that Jesus is asking about his own public perception.
In their response to Jesus, the disciples show that they have overheard the whisperings of the crowds. Some believe that Jesus is the second coming of John the Baptist, an uncompromising, fiery prophet who calls sinners to repentance. John had only recently been murdered by Herod, and even Herod himself feared that Jesus could be John risen from the dead.
Others speculate that Jesus is the new Elijah, the great prophet who spoke truth to the wicked rulers of Israel, King Ahab and his wife Jezebel, and whose return was expected by many Jews. With Herod, another cruel and corrupt ruler occupying the seat of power, the parallel with Ahab, and of Jesus with Elijah, must have seemed readily apparent.
Still others believe that Jesus is the new Jeremiah, the prophet most closely associated with the holy city of Jerusalem. Or perhaps he is yet another one of the prophets of old.
Having asked what others are saying about him, Jesus now pointedly asks the disciples who they say that he is. Then Peter—audacious, impetuous Peter—answers with what can only be described as an otherworldly wisdom: “You are the Messiah,” he says, “the Son of the living God.”
I don’t think that even Peter truly appreciated what he had just said. In fact, as we’ll see next week when he immediately tries to prevent Jesus from fulfilling his role as Messiah, and Jesus calls him a stumbling block, Peter really didn’t know what he was saying. But in this moment, the divine truth that Peter speaks stands on its own as a testimony to the true identity of Jesus.
Jesus is not like one of the prophets of old, not even like John the Baptist, who was his family and forerunner. The word that Peter calls Jesus in the Greek in which Matthew writes is Christos, or the Christ. Peter identifies Jesus as more than a prophet; he is the Messiah, the anointed one of God, the Savior not only of Israel but of humanity.
Jesus is not like one of the prophets of old, not even like John the Baptist, who was his family and forerunner.
You see, if Jesus were merely a prophet, his mission would be that of a prophet. The mission of a prophet was always the same: to call people back to the way of the Lord. God sent prophets whenever the people of Israel had gone astray. When they had diluted their worship of the God of Israel with that of other gods, the Lord sent prophets to call his people back to faithfulness. When the rich exploited the poor, when widows and orphans and foreigners were neglected or taken advantage of, God sent prophets to call for justice. The prophets called on kings and common folk alike to turn from evil and to be faithful to the Lord and to keep the Lord’s commandments.
This is what many of us in the church have been led to believe that Jesus was sent to do. Like an Old Testament prophet, Jesus came to set us straight, and he came to get us to clean up our act so that we get can right with God. Yes, of course, there’s forgiveness of sins and grace for sinners and all that, but don’t think that lets you off the hook. God still wants you to follow the rules. Grace gets you only so far.
For those who lean to the right theologically, following the rules means attending church every week, reading Scripture and praying every day, and never questioning any aspect of your faith. For those whose theology leans to the left, there may be a different set of rules, but there are most certainly still rules. You must at all times work for justice, take up the right causes, and hold loosely all aspects of your faith because there are many ways up the mountain.
Wherever we stand theologically, we so want there to be rules because rules give us a sense of control. Rules let us know what we need to do and what we should avoid doing. In that sense, success is really up to us; it’s solely a matter of whether we follow the rules.
Wherever we stand theologically, we so want there to be rules because rules give us a sense of control.
Rules are also a marker of identity. They let us know who’s with us and who’s not with us. Whoever follows the rules is on our team. Whoever doesn’t is not.
But Jesus did not come to remind us of the rules. He did not come to help us be more obedient to the law. He did not come to make us more faithful disciples. He came to save us. He came because we didn’t need another prophet to call us back to God’s way; we needed a Savior to be God’s way for us.
This is the insight of Peter’s testimony about Jesus, unaware of it though he may be. “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God,” Peter proclaims. Jesus is not John the Baptist. He’s not Elijah, Jeremiah, or one of the other prophets. He is the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior.
As Peter declares that Jesus is the Messiah, so Jesus declares that Peter is the rock upon which Jesus will build his church. What makes Peter the foundation of the church is not Peter the man but rather his testimony. Peter the man has already shown, and will continue to show, that he is a flawed vessel, as we all are.
As I’ve already alluded, having declared Jesus the Messiah, Peter will then seek to prevent Jesus from going to the cross and fulfilling his role as the Messiah. And later, after Jesus is arrested and Peter is accused of being his associate, Peter the rock will run like the wind from any association with Jesus.
But Peter’s testimony that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, speaks the eternal truth on which the church stands and against which all the powers of hell, and of sin and death, cower and tremble. These forces of darkness would be happy to see us throw ourselves back under the law, where we would struggle and fail and ultimately despair. Yet through our blessed Savior Jesus Christ, we are not under the law but under grace. And of grace we can rightly say, “What’s law got to do with it?”