A study of the Gospel of
Matthew
Part 17: Confession and
Commitment
In our
study in the life of Jesus 'According to Matthew'. Chapters 15
through 17 mark a turning point. We hear less about the kingdom and
more about the Cross. In chapter 16 we see how the disciples are
coming to understand not only who Jesus really was but also what the
true demands of discipleship were. In this chapter we see hints of
resurrection and a clear statement that the road Jesus was traveling
would lead to His death. This teaching is given to those who were on
the inside, those who were genuinely seeking to follow.
Matthew
16:1-4 The Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus and tested Him by
asking Him to show them a sign from heaven. He replied, "When
evening comes, you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is
red,' and in the morning, 'Today it will be stormy, for the sky is
red and overcast.' You know how to interpret the appearance of the
sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. A wicked and
adulterous generation looks for a sign, but none will be given it
except the sign of Jonah." Jesus then left them and went away.
The
hostility of the Pharisees and Sadducee's continues to grow. They
are desperate to catch Jesus out. Although in the popular opinion
there was accumulating a body of evidence that pointed to Him as
being the Messiah, how could that be possible? He didn't fit into
their narrow description of how a 'Messiah' should act, particularly
in regard to their laws and traditions. He had to be exposed as the
phony He really was. So they come to Jesus, in the words of Matthew
Henry 'Not
to be taught by Him, but to ensnare Him'.
Jesus
has been healing the sick and casting out demons from among the
common people. Yet still the Pharisees come to Him asking for a 'sign
from heaven'. One can only presume that wonderful things taking place
among the common folk was not that significant in their minds. Again
Matthew Henry comments; 'They
despised those signs which relieved the necessity of the sick and the
sorrowful, and insisted upon some sign which would gratify the
curiosity of the proud'.
Pride seems to be
the root of the problem in the Pharisees understanding. They consider
themselves 'above' such things as the witness of healing and
deliverance. They want something more, something spectacular,
something indisputable.
I
was reading a recent online posting by a guy called Bill Easum,
titled 'Five
Reasons Western Christianity Is In Trouble While Christianity
Florishes In Much Of The World'.
One of the reasons he offers is that in our culture we have become
too proud in our understanding to accept the simple message of the
gospel, particularly when it relates to the miracles of Jesus. He
comments:
'Western
Christians have become too sophisticated to truly believe in miracles
and if you don’t believe in miracles you can’t believe in Jesus
because He IS a miracle. We are too smart to truly believe that God
raised Jesus from the dead and that he now sits at the right hand of
God. So if that isn’t believable nothing else is in the story from
that day forward.'
Jesus
is not so tolerant as to describe them as being 'sophisticated' or
'proud' but describes them as being part of a 'wicked
and adulterous generation'.
He confronts them with the fact that whilst they could interpret the
weather, they were clueless when it came to understanding who He was.
Their hearts were hard. Their minds were closed. And He is done with
playing their games.
The
only thing He offers them is 'the
sign of Jonah'. What
was the sign of Jonah?
Firstly,
there was the power of Jonah's preaching. Through his preaching
mission the people of Nineveh were turned around and taken from
godlessness into the Kingdom. Secondly,
there was Jonah's miraculous deliverance from death after three days
in the belly of a large fish in the depths of the ocean.
The only sign that
the Pharisees are offered from here on is the witness of Jesus words
and the testimony the disciples would later give that 'Jesus died and
was raised on the third day'. To move forward in faith, the Pharisees
need to see that the greatest miracle was not any specific action
Jesus performed, but the miracle of Jesus Himself, His life, His
death, His Resurrection and Ascension.
Jesus conversation
with the Pharisees and Sadducee's is over. Nothing more to say. He
walks away to be with His disciples. We find that they also are
struggling to make sense of the events that are unfolding around
them. Was Jesus the Messiah? They certainly were not ready for the
idea of death and resurrection, and were being stretched in their
understanding beyond anything they had ever experienced before. So...
verses 5 thru 10.
When
they went across the lake, the disciples forgot to take bread. "Be
careful," Jesus said to them. "Be on your guard against the
yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees." They discussed this
among themselves and said, "It is because we didn't bring any
bread." Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked, "You of
little faith, why are you talking among yourselves about having no
bread? Do you still not understand? Don't you remember the five
loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered?
Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many basketfuls
you gathered? How is it you don't understand that I was not talking
to you about bread? But be on your guard against the yeast of the
Pharisees and Sadducees." Then they understood that He was not
telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against
the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
Despite the fact
that they are in the midst of signs and wonders, and receiving
teaching from Jesus that is on a high spiritual plane, the disciples
still function at the most human of levels. They are concerned about
what to eat. They worry about doing the right thing. They want to
make Jesus proud of them!
They'd
just witnessed His confrontation with the Pharisees and Sadducee's.
The comment of Jesus about 'no
sign but the sign of Jonah'
may well have gone right over their heads. But one thing they know.
As they travel across the lake, they had forgotten to bring any thing
for lunch. Verse 5 “
When they went across the lake, the disciples forgot to take bread. “
So
Jesus throws a comment out to them. “Watch
out for the yeast
(which in the original language is a very similar word to bread) of
the Pharisees and Sadducee's.”
Immediately they are on their guard and start talking among
themselves. 'Oh my gosh. We forgot to bring the sandwiches! We should
have brought some bread with us!”
I
like the way “The Message” bible pictures what happens next.
Jesus knows what they are talking about and interrupts their
conversation “Why
all these worried whispers about forgetting bread?” He
describes them as 'fledglings
in the faith, baby-birds in belief'
who still hadn't caught on yet where He was coming from. He reminds
them of what had happened in the events of feeding the 5000 and
feeding the 4000, and how much they had in leftovers.
It
wasn't about food or physical needs. Hadn't they yet come to
understand that He was well able to take care of all that for them?
They didn't need to become all guilt ridden over forgetting their
sandwiches! As again the Message Bible puts it; “Haven't
you realized that bread isn't the problem? The problem is yeast.
Pharisee and Sadducee yeast.'
Then they get it! “He
wasn't concerned about eating, but teaching – the Pharisee-Saduccee
kind of teaching.”
I
feel that there is a message here for those, like ourselves, who
belong to traditional denominations that are in decline. We can
easily become so concerned about our maintenance that we lose sight
of our mission. 'Having bread with them' was a maintenance issue. It
was about them, their needs and their responsibilities. They felt
guilty because they weren't fulfilling them. 'It's
because we didn't bring bread'
they whisper to one another.
Jesus instead turns
their focus to times when they reached out to others in mission.
“Remember the feeding of the 5000 and the 4000. Remember what was
left-over?” It was only as they recaptured that idea that their
reason for being was not themselves, but about meeting the needs of
others, that they suddenly get it. They have been acting like the
Pharisees and Saduccee's. They have been more concerned about being
right than trying to make things right in the wider world. They have
been looking 'in' instead of looking 'out'.
Such was the yeast
of the Pharisees. They were concerned with personal salvation and
survival rather than embracing outsiders with the grace and mercy and
abundance of God's love. And all of that is somehow tied up with who
we believe Jesus was and what we believe His significance to really
be. We move to a passage now where Jesus puts His disciples on the
spot and asks them what they really believe about Him and His
ministry. Verses 13-17
When
Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His
disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" They
replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and
still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets." "But what
about you?" He asked. "Who do you say I am?" Simon
Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living
God." Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah,
for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father
in heaven.
The way we live our
lives, both individually and corporately as a congregation, all
revolves around the question that this passage challenges us with.
Who do we believe Jesus is? It's fascinating to see how Jesus leads
the disciples towards personal confession.
First
of all He asks them a very general question. 'What are people saying
about me?' or actually it's even more general than that, He asks them
"Who
do people say the Son of Man is?". The
question is phrased in the same way as a marketing survey. What's the
word on the streets?
And
the disciples offer some responses. 'Some
say John the Baptist'.
In a previous chapter Matthew speaks of how Herod feared that Jesus
was the ghost of John come back to haunt him, after he had the
Baptist beheaded at a boozy birthday bash. John was one of those
'out-there' characters. A holy man for sure and definitely popular
with the common folk. Still today people will acknowledge Jesus as
being that sort of character. A popular religious figure who
eventually fell foul of the authorities.
Some
say 'Elijah'.
Elijah at this time in history was a figure of mythical proportions.
Elijah was the one who would return before the end times or the dawn
of a new-age. Jesus had even spoken of John the baptist as being the
Elijah like figure who had heralded His coming. Still today people
think of Jesus as a mythical hero of the past. Some even look to His
coming again, not as gentle Jesus meek and mild, but warrior Jesus,
riding a white horse, sword in hand, to avenge the martyrs and
establish God's rule forcibly upon all creation.
Some
say 'Jeremiah
or one of the prophets'.
The Koran pictures Jesus as 'one of the prophets'. The greatest
prophet of them all, although only Mohammed is the true interpreter
of His message. People throughout history have described Jesus as
being the 'greatest teacher that ever lived'. Ghandi described the
sermon on the mount as the greatest of all teaching. Many people,
though they may not be members of the church or even believers in any
particular faith, nevertheless acknowledge that Jesus was a great
prophet and radical teacher. Certainly a religious figure comparable
with Elijah or Jeremiah.
But
then Jesus goes and makes it all personal. We do well to recognize
that another persons faith cannot be a substitute for own. That other
peoples opinions are not the equivalent of our own experience. He
challenges them with a straightforward and pointed question. 'But
what about you?" He asked. "Who do you say I am?" '
(verse
17)
I suspect there was
quiet at this point. Maybe their minds were still trying to figure
out how to answer such a question. Maybe some of them were afraid to
say what they really believed or express their thoughts for fear they
may look foolish. What Jesus is seeking from them, is what He seeks
from us all, a personal confession of faith.
As Presbyterians we
often shy away from such personal expression, fearing that it can be
ostentatious or even embarrassing. Other traditions are not so
reticent. Indeed their lack of reticence partly accounts for our own.
Maybe we have heard too many testimonies with words that have not
been backed up by lives that showed evidence of transforming grace
and love. Maybe we become a little cynical when folk offer glowing
testimony of the difference Jesus has made in their lives, because
sometimes their lives don't seem that different and phrases such as
'born again' or 'being saved' have become identified with particular
political views or unspoken expectations.
However
that may be, we still have this passage confronting us. Jesus looks
straight at us and asks 'What
about you. Who do you say I am?”
Simon Peter is the one who gives an answer. Verse 16; 'Simon
Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living
God."' This
was huge! These were outstanding claims for a Jewish fisherman to
make about anyone. To be 'THE' Messiah. To be the “Son of the
living God.” This took Jesus out of the realm of being another John
the Baptist or mystic or prophet or great teacher. This is Peter
saying that Jesus is the real deal, the One in whom all peoples hopes
and faith could be focused.
And
Jesus says “Good job!” Or rather He says "Blessed
are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by
flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.” This
too is a remarkable statement. It suggests that for us to come to a
personal confession requires more than just trying to figure
everything out at an intellectual level, with our 'flesh and blood,'
but requires that we are open to the moving and leading of the Spirit
of God. Staying with verse 17 'this
was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in
heaven.
To belong to the
spiritual 'Kingdom of God' requires some kind of 'Holy Spirit'
encounter that reveals to us the significance of the person of Jesus
Christ. Such an encounter takes place for us as we encounter the Word
of God through Scripture, through worship and through service. As we
seek to practice the presence of God with others then the presence of
God gets to work on our lives.
And we are not all
at the same place at the same time. Peter got it. Some of the others
didn't. Judas never seemed to get it. And even though it seems Peter
got it right, he still had a long way to go. In a few verses time we
see he is just as likely to be influenced by wrong as he is by right.
But for the moment, right here 'according to Matthew', he got it
totally right! And that's something that Jesus can build on. Verses
18 thru 20.
And
I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my
church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind
on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth
will be loosed in heaven." Then He ordered His disciples not to
tell anyone that He was the Messiah.
Though some of my
Roman Catholic colleagues may strongly disagree with me, this passage
does not suggest that Peter was the first pope and that he was given
all authority, through the church to which he held the keys, to admit
people or expel them from the kingdom.
Neither do I think
this passage is all about the words Peter has just spoken being the
'rock' upon which the true church is founded. It's more personal than
that. Jesus makes a point of naming Peter. There is a play in words
going on here. The name Peter, in both Aramaic and in Greek, meant
“Rock.” And whilst it is true that in Peter's 'rock like'
confession something awesome had happened, it was also the confession
of a particular individual, once named Simon, whose life had been
transformed by the Holy Spirit. I'll turn here, as I am inclined to
do, to the words of William Barclay.
'Peter
himself is the rock, but in a special sense. He is not the rock on
which the church is founded. That rock is God. He is the first stone
of the whole church. Peter was the first man on earth to discover who
Jesus was; he was the first man to make the leap of faith and see in
Him the Son of the living God. In other words, Peter was the first
member of the church, and in that sense, the whole church is built
upon him... and in ages to come everyone who makes the same discovery
as Peter is another stone added to the edifice of the church of
Christ.'
Keys represent
authority. Peter would become a leader in the early church. In the
early chapters of the Book of Acts, the history of the newly birthed
church, the focus is upon the actions of Peter. He is the one who
seeks to explain the events of Pentecost. (Acts 2:14, Acts 4:8). When
Ananias deals dishonorably with the church community, it is Peter who
enacts discipline. (Acts 5:3). It is to Peter that a vision of the
extent of the mission to the Gentiles is revealed through a vision of
clean and unclean animals. (Acts 10:4).
However, Peter does
not become the sole authority. We read of others such as Stephen,
Phillip, Thomas, John, James the brother of Jesus, and of course the
apostle Paul who act with authority in the life of the earliest
church, and as such become 'key-holders'.
The insistence of
Jesus that the disciples keep things quiet is an indication of the
growing opposition to the ministry of Jesus. People were having a
difficult time understanding what He was about. To throw in claims of
being the 'Messiah' and the 'Son of God 'could only muddy the waters
even more deeply.
And this is a
crucial moment in the disciples journey because Jesus is about to
state quite clearly to them that His mission would involve His
arrest, his murder, and His Resurrection. Hardly surprisingly, the
disciples are not exactly thrilled at such a scenario and it is left
to their leader, Peter the Rock, to express their horror and
disbelief. Read 21 thru 23.
From
that time on Jesus began to explain to His disciples that He must go
to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the
chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that He must be killed
and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took Him aside and
began to rebuke Him. "Never, Lord!" he said. "This
shall never happen to you!" Jesus turned and said to Peter,
"Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do
not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns."
Jesus talks less
about the Kingdom and more about His cross and His betrayal. Matthew
is quite deliberate in pointing out that it is those who hold the
keys of religious power that betray Jesus. Sometimes it is said that
the 'Jews killed Jesus.' We can easily forget that it was only Jews
who first became disciples of Jesus and even forget that Jesus
Himself was a Jew.
Anti-Semitism
remains a serious problem in today's world. The death of Jesus came
at the hands of the religious and political elite of His day, both
Jew and Gentile, and whilst the climate of opinion was against Him at
the time of His crucifixion (even those closest to Him deserted Him)
it is not helpful to carelessly throw around phrases such as 'Jesus
was killed by the Jews.' Matthew is careful not to do so, maybe
particularly as he is writing for a Jewish audience!
Peter,
expressing the disciples horror at what Jesus has told them, takes
Jesus aside to have a quiet word with Him. “Listen Lord, we are not
going to let something like this happen to you!' But this was a
matter of destiny. This was why Jesus had come. To offer His life for
the salvation of the world. Matthew uses here the phrase 'He
must
go to Jerusalem”.
The Greek word used here for 'must'
has the meaning 'it is necessary, there is need of, it behooves, it
is right and proper' that He goes to Jerusalem. And Jesus firmly puts
Peter right on this score. "Get
behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me”
It was in the
earlier temptations in the wilderness that Satan sought to persuade
Jesus from taking the road to Jerusalem. The Devil is still up to his
old tricks, this time using the words of Peter, the rock upon whom
the church is going to be founded, to talk Jesus out of doing the
will of His Father.
There
is another play on words here. Jesus uses the phrase
'stumbling-block' to describe Peter. He's saying that the Rock upon
which the church was to be founded had become a rock that was
attempting to trip Him up! The King James Bible translates
'stumbling-block' as 'offense' because the word in Greek is
'skandalon', which is where we get the English word 'scandal' from.
To suggest to Jesus that He now abandoned His mission was a
scandalous temptation that the disciples needed to put behind them.
'Get
thee behind me!'
There's a children's
chorus, that in times of temptation can actually be quite effective,
that goes;
“Get
thee behind me Satan, get thee away,
Don't want anything to
do with you today,
SO... get thee behind
me Satan, get thee away,
Cos I'm a christian
soldier and I'm learning how to pray.
I'm a christian
soldier and learning how to pray.”
As He teaches about
the cross He must face, Jesus teaches the disciples that they will be
challenged to fulfill their own destiny; a destiny linked to His
ultimate victory. Verses 24-28.
Then
Jesus said to His disciples, "Whoever wants to be my disciple
must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For
whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses
their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to
gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give
in exchange for their soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in
His Father's glory with His angels, and then He will reward each
person according to what they have done. "Truly I tell you, some
who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of
Man coming in His kingdom."
To quote from the
New Interpreters Bible Commentary:-
“This
call to discipleship is based on faith in Christ and confidence in
the future victory of God; it is not a matter merely of high human
ideals or noble principles. That is, the life called for here is not
based upon on a reasoned conclusion based upon how things are...but
on faith that something has happened that makes everything different”
That 'something' is
the death and resurrection of Jesus, the central acts of the Good
News of the gospel. Without His death there is no message of
redemption, without His resurrection there is no hope of eternal
life. These two central events make all the difference in the world.
In this world we can
either exist or live. We are either on a journey from the womb to the
tomb or living a life from before the womb to beyond the tomb. Either
we believe that we are born, we get by and then we die, or we frame
our life in the terms of Scripture... that before we were even born
God had us in mind, that we are here on this planet for a purpose
that God alone can fulfill in us as we seek to live as children of
the Kingdom and that beyond this life there are dimensions that our
minds can hardly fathom.
Either we believe
that the world is a cruel and uncaring place and we need to just make
the most of the miserable time we have before blind chance destroys
us or we can adopt the attitude that every day is a blessing given to
us by God and that the greatest use of our life is to spend it in
tasks that outlast it.
And
the difference revolves around what we believe about Jesus, about why
He came and who He was. Which throws us right back to the central
verses of chapter 16, the moment Jesus turns to His disciples and
puts them on the spot, verse 15 "But
what about you?" He asked. "Who do you say I am?"
How we answer
that question determines how we live our lives!
In our next chapter we are
taken to the mountaintop and given a glimpse of glory, we witness the
disciples fledgling attempts at Kingdom work in the casting out of
evil, we hear Jesus again stating His intention to travel to
Jerusalem and we will finish by coming right down to earth.... with a
question about paying taxes. But all of that next time.