Matthew 16:13-20
Our confirmation classes continue to study the basic doctrines and senior class members are encouraged to write their own Faith Affirmation. For most of them, in fact, for most of us, it is not an easy task to do. As a way of helping them, I talked about God last Sunday and many told me they enjoyed the sermon and it’s very helpful for them to think about and have a closer relationship with God. Encouraged by these comments, I decided to talk about Jesus today.
In our text today, Jesus asked to his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” The disciples reported that some said Jesus is John the Baptist raised from the dead. Some said Jesus was Elijah the prophet returned as the forerunner of the Messiah. Others said that Jesus was Jeremiah the prophet. This was based on a tradition that had developed that Jeremiah had taken the Ark of the Covenant out of the Temple prior to its looting and destruction by the Babylonians. And prior to the return of the Messiah, Jeremiah would return to restore the Ark in the temple. So, generally speaking, people believed that Jesus was a special man or prophet, but they were not convinced if he was the Messiah.
Now, who DO WE say that Jesus is? There is a video clip, Who Jesus Is (NYC Street Survey). You can find this from YouTube. The followings are some of the answers given by random strangers in Time Squire:
- The guy with beard?
- Jesus was a made up by someone
- Definitely good moral and belief
- He has special gifts
- Kind of Gandhi type of guy
- Hmm… He was Jewish!
- I know he inspired a lot of people. That’s cool to me
Some responders take on the role of skeptic or humanist or New Agers.
But, there are other people who are obviously trying to come up with the “right” answer:
- Son of God
- My Lord and Savior
- He died for us to save us
- (Another person said), Loving and a teacher and a healer and, umm, (turning to her friend…) what else did we learn in Sunday school?
What would YOU say, if you were asked? I was asked that question many years ago. Not just once, but throughout the whole semester. I was 2nd year student at the seminary and a brand new young professor who majored in post-modern theology offered a couple of courses. It was his only 2nd year teaching, but he already gained enormous popularity from the students. So, I decided to take his Christology Class.
I still remember that our professor described Jesus as “the proleptic, salvific, hidden appearance of the eschatological kingdom of God.” Did you get that? “The proleptic, salvific, hidden appearance of the eschatological kingdom of God.”
Don’t worry, my friends, I am not going to use these big theological jargons in my sermon today. NO ONE can address this critical topic in just ONE sermon. But, if the goal is to share MY Lord with you, I think I can try.
First of all, if I am asked the same question, I would say Jesus is my Lord. The name Jesus is the Greek form of Yeshua, a common name in the first century, which means “deliverer,” or “savior.” In Matthew 1:21, the angel told Joseph, “You will call him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
If Jesus came to save us from sin, it is important to consider what is meant by the word sin. Some don’t like this word, because it sounds judgmental or repressive. But, the concept in Scripture is actually a helpful one. The Greek word for sin used in the New Testament is hamartia, and it means “to miss the mark.” This word points to the fact that there is a “mark” we are meant to hit – a path we are meant to follow, a way we are meant to live. We are meant to be loving, compassionate, just, merciful, giving, and honest. As Jesus pointed out, we are created with two overriding aims in life: to love God with all that is within us AND to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. So, sin is anything we do in thought, word, or deed that is inconsistent with loving God and neighbor.
Who wouldn’t agree that most of the world’s pain is because people miss the mark or stray from the right path. Evening news bears witness to the fact that human beings struggle with sin. Many tragic news – war and refugees, hate crimes, terrorist attacks, mass shootings, and so on – tells us that no one is free from this human struggle with sin. It is clear that sin is a fundamental part of the human condition, which is explained as the “original sin” in theology.
In other words, we need to be saved. And Jesus came to be our Savior, to deliver us. He is God’s response to the human condition; God’s answer to the questions we wrestle with and the struggles we face. In his life, death, and resurrection, Jesus revealed who God is and who we are; he revealed our sin and God’s suffering in order to deliver us from it; and he demonstrated and embodied the redemptive love of God and his infinite mercy.
Well, now, you may ask HOW Jesus saves us; how Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection reconcile us to God. The question of HOW Christ’s death “saves” us is perplexing to many people. One of the questions that I was struggled with was: Does God really need Jesus to be tortured to death to forgive sins?
The New Testament offers multiple analogies for the ways in which Jesus’ death on the cross brings about our salvation. Please, notice that I said “analogies” not “explanations.” The meaning of Jesus’ death and how it saves us is understood in the New Testament using various analogies. For example, his death is 1) an expression of his love for others, 2) a sacrificial offering to God, 3) a payment made to purchase a slave’s freedom, 4) a Passover lamb that delivers from death, and 5) an act of penal substitution suffered for the sins of others.
These analogies are not mutually exclusive. For me, Jesus’ death demonstrates (most) the depth of divine love for me and when I see the cross, I am reminded of his call to love one another. But, I don’t reject other analogies, because no one analogy encompasses the entirety of the meaning of Christ’s death.
God did not need Jesus to suffer and die on the cross in order to save us. Rather, we need it so that we could know the depth of human sin, the breadth of God’s graciousness and love, and ultimately God’s triumph over sin and death. Jesus did suffer and die for our sins NOT because God insisted on torturing his son in order to satisfy his wrath, BUT because by this dramatic act God hoped to finally break through to us, to affect and change us, to save us from our sin and alienation from God.
Several years ago, Elizabeth told me that I sounded like an old man. Probably, she said that because I was not doing well and I coughed a lot. My response was “Yea…, I am getting old.” Probably, I said that because the following day was my birthday. The next day, Elizabeth gave me a birthday card she made. I opened the card and read it: “Dad, you are not old. You are a vintage! Happy Birthday, dad! Love…, Liz.” I put this card on my desk for a while because I liked it very much. Every time I looked at it, I was reminded that I am a vintage. And much more than that, I was reminded that I am loved by my daughter.
When God sought to communicate his love for us, he sent Jesus. It was in his Son that God’s message of love came to us. Through Jesus, God was saying: I am God. You matter to me. I love you! In Jesus’ death on the cross, God showed us the depth of his love and the costliness of grace. And in Jesus’ resurrection, God defeated evil, hate, sin and death.
It’s one thing to know that Peter declared that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. It’s a totally different matter to make a personal confession that “Jesus is my Lord, my Savior.” It is a totally different matter to sing with your whole heart (that) Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so.
“Who do YOU say that I am,” asks Jesus. Proleptic? Salvific? Eschatological? Or anything like that? I doubt it. No…, my prayer is that, with Simon Peter, you would simply say, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And then, you would also say with every fiber of your being that “Jesus is my Lord and Savior.” My brothers and sisters in Christ, let us show the world who Jesus really is to us. Amen!
