This sermon was preached on Sunday 27th August 2023 at All Saints Church, Oakham and St Peter and St Paul, Langham.

Reading – Matthew 16:13-20

Who do you say I am? You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God. 

Last week Cecily and I were in Westminster Abbey. It was all very exciting to be there. It’s been on the TV a lot in the past year as well with our late Queen’s funeral and our new King’s coronation. Now I love going to churches, like a bit too much, probably an abnormal and unhealthy amount, so you can imagine how thrilled I was to be in the mother of all English churches, Westminster Abbey. Then partner that up with my love of the monarchy, it was one of my most enjoyable moments of the year. I loved walking down the side aisles of the nave and coming through to the chancel to join the afternoon service of Evensong. All the while sat in the chancel, I couldn’t but think, wow! It was here that the King was crowned. I am here standing where he stood. 

I held on to this phrase all day. ‘Standing where he stood.’ And it’s a related to moment from one of the greatest heroes our society has ever known. I am of course talking about Harry Potter. If you haven’t seen Harry Potter then I might spoil something of it for you now, but you’ve had enough time to see it so I’m not too apologetic. But for those of you who have seen it, you might remember at the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (the final instalment of Harry Potter that was so epic that they had to make it two parts) that Harry comes back to Hogwarts to face Voldemort and all the baddies in an ultimate final battle. When Harry comes back, Professor Snape (Alan Rickman) has gathered all the students in the great hall and he is issuing his warning to all the students that anyone who knows where Harry Potter is and doesn’t share his whereabouts will be held equally guilty to Harry Potter.  

Snape is walking down the great hall issuing his threats, and out of nowhere, Harry Potter steps out from the crowd of students and everyone gasps. He looks at Snape and says to him, ‘How dare you stand where he stood.’ How dare Snape stand in the place of the great wizard and headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster whom Snape murdered? And by this, Harry was saying, you are not worthy to stand in the place of a great man like Dumbledore. ‘How dare you stand where he stood.’

Cut to our gospel reading and we see Jesus and the disciples have gone up to the district of Caesarea Philippi. Caesarea Philippi is no Hogwarts, but it was home to a different sort of leader, well not a leader of sorts but rather a god. Caesarea Philippi was a city built by Philip the Tetrarch, son of Herod the Great (the king Herod who tried to kill baby Jesus). But prior to building this city, the area had been called Paneas because it was dedicated to the Greek God Pan. The cave of Pan housed an altar and temple to the god Pan and was a significant centre of Pagan worship. And it was in Caesarea Philippi, this place dedicated to the god Pan, that Simon Peter first declared that Jesus was the Messiah and the Son of the living God. 

Woah, hold on a second. What just happened here? Pagan and Gentile onlookers might see what happened here and say to Jesus, ‘How dare you stand where Pan stood and be elevated as a god? Who are you, Jesus, to call yourself God?’ This is the question that Jesus himself asks the disciples, ‘Who do you say I am?’ And Jesus’ question is met with the greatest answer in the whole of history, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’ In the place that elevates the god Pan, Jesus is elevated to be God instead, and not only God but a real and living God. 

Simon Peter’s choice of words in this episode is fascinating. He declares that Jesus is the Son of the living God, and this is significant because the god Pan wasn’t. In fact, the historian Plutarch, recorded that during the time of Emperor Tiberius (who was the Roman emperor during the life of Jesus), news of Pan’s death arrived via a divine word to a sailor travelling via Greece. In a place which remembered a dead god, Jesus was declared to be a living God. Imagine how powerful and significant it would be to hear Simon Peter’s confession about Jesus given this backdrop to Caesarea Philippi.

Jesus is the Son of the living God. He is the promised Messiah who is the new Jewish king (a dig at Philip the Tetrarch), and the one who will rule over all things. If any said to Jesus, ‘How dare you stand where he stood,’ then they would be met with the realisation and great truth that Jesus is worthy to stand in the place of all gods and all kings. He is the living God; he is the King of Kings. 

But how did Peter know this? How did Peter know this greatest truth in all of history that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of the living God? Well, one could imagine that the disciples have pieced it together along the way through spending so much time with him. But as you can see, none of the other disciples were saying it. If anything, they kept dodging the question and pointing to what other people were saying. People say he is Moses or that he is Elijah. But Jesus pressed them and wanted to know what they thought for themselves. 

We might do the same. Somebody might ask you, ‘So, what do you believe about Jesus?’ And you respond by saying Christianity says this about Jesus, or the Church says this about Jesus. Both of these are true, but it dodges the heart of the question. What do you believe in your heart about who Jesus is? It’s all very good to say that Christianity says Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God but Jesus wants to go deeper when considering this answer. ‘Who do you say I am?’ What do you believe about me in your heart? 

When Simon Peter dug deep into his heart, he realised that he knew deep down that Jesus wasn’t just a prophet, he wasn’t Moses or Elijah or Jeremiah, but he was the Messiah and the Son of the living God. In his heart, he knew the greatest truth the world has ever known. And Jesus was glad to hear Simon Peter say this. This was not revealed to him through living alongside Jesus, rather this revelation came from God who revealed it to Simon Peter. God was stirring in him, and Simon Peter was open to responding and seeing what God was revealing to him. 

And deep down when we look into our hearts and confess that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of the living God, we are confessing something that God himself has been stirring and revealing to us in our hearts. The main issue is that we don’t look in our hearts and truly listen to Jesus’ question, ‘Who do you say I am?’ 

When Simon looked into his heart he knew who Jesus was, And Jesus said to Simon that he was to be Peter, which means ‘rock’. Peter is to be the foundation of the church Jesus is building. Simon Peter is the rock upon which the church is built not only as the first leader but primarily because his confession is the foundational truth upon which the church is built. The core of who we are as the Church is to be a confessing people, confessing in our hearts that Jesus is God and him alone. This is what makes our faith a rock. 

Who do you say I am? This question is so important because the answer we confess reveals what we believe in our hearts. And to be the church and to be a Christian is about knowing and confessing from our hearts that Jesus is God. 

So who do you say Jesus is? When you look deep into your hearts, who is Jesus to you? This is the most important question you can ask yourself because it is about the greatest truth in all of human history. Do we confess like Simon Peter that Jesus is God? Or is Jesus something else to us? And if he is something else, like a good teacher, or a cool dude, is that enough for the life of faith we are living? I would argue it isn’t. Great teachers and thinkings have come and gone over the years but Jesus is eternal. To know that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God changes everything. It is a rock of faith. So when the winds and rains of the storms of life come, we are rooted in the rock-solid foundation of the confession of Jesus as Messiah and Son of the living God. But if we are rooted in this notion that Jesus is something else, that our hearts don’t believe that he is God, then our faith and lives are like a house built on sand. When the storms come, we will be washed away. 

It is the confession of Jesus as Messiah and Son of the living God which stands as the rock of our faith. But what are you confessing in your heart? Look deep inside. Is your heart confessing a faith of a rock or sand? Jesus is asking you, ‘Who do you say I am?’ Will you confess like Peter that, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God?’

Amen. 

If you have been enjoying my content, then sign up to my new newsletter to enjoy my latest content in your inbox and more.