Main news for 16 May 2008

New International Version (en)

Matthew, Chapter 16, verse 15

¹⁵"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"

NOTES

Who do you believe Jesus of Nazareth to be? It is impossible to pass this question by. “Who are You? Who do You make Yourself out to be?” The Son of Man—who is He? “Who do you say that I am?” is one of the most important questions in the Gospel. When a demon-possessed man was brought to Him and He healed him, the people began to say: “Could this be the Christ, the Son of David? Is He not the One who is to save the world?” Yet He Himself says: “I came not to bring peace, but a sword.” The answer to the question of who Jesus is constitutes that very sword, penetrating to the deepest place, “to the division of joints and marrow”; it is not a question that can be answered evasively.

Thus Pharaoh hardens himself when God, through Moses, commands him to let His people go. The book of Exodus says: “I will harden Pharaoh's heart” (Exod 4:21). It would be naive to suppose that, through some special creative act, God compels him to refuse. Only demons act in this way, taking possession of a person's will. But once faced with the necessity of choosing, Pharaoh can no longer remain evasively polite. Either the One who sent Moses is God and must be obeyed, or there is only one living god in Egypt—Pharaoh.

Like Pharaoh, the Pharisees are faced with a choice: either this Man is the Saviour of the world, or... There is no place here for tender-hearted “political correctness.” In fact, this principal question of life transforms the wavering, weak-willed heart and gives it the opposite quality. Depending on the answer, however, the result will be either the firmness of living faith or hardness and cruelty, as with Pharaoh and the Pharisees.

This is precisely what Jesus states when He says: “Whoever is not with Me is against Me, and whoever does not gather with Me scatters.” In our time, posing the question in this way seems excessively rigorous; we would prefer to evade a direct answer. Yet nothing except this answer to Christ's call will make your heart steadfast and your life real. That is why this question is God's gift to us.

The question of who people consider Jesus of Nazareth to be may seem formal. Indeed, when it comes to the relationships on which the whole spiritual life is built, the question of formal confession is not usually the main one. Many came to Jesus, found themselves in the Kingdom and were healed while regarding Him as a prophet or a teacher. Peter's confession is important in a different respect. What comes to the fore here is the depth, fullness and permanence of the bond connecting Christ's disciples with their Teacher.

Of course, Jesus never rejected anyone who came to Him with a pure heart and sincere intentions. He demanded no creeds from anyone. Yet those who came to Him often went away. Having received what they asked for, they returned to their former lives. Well, perhaps not entirely to their former lives, for such encounters do not pass without leaving a trace, but no lasting and enduring relationship with Jesus was established, no conscious relationship of the kind needed to become His disciple.

With the apostles, however, the relationship had to be precisely of this kind. What was at stake was full discipleship, the journey in Christ's footsteps, not only an outward but also an inward journey, in which a person does not merely follow Jesus, but is changed within and with every step becomes more like his Teacher. In this context the Saviour's question acquired an entirely special meaning. It became a question about what the disciples expected from their Teacher and what they wanted from Him.

Of course, even Peter's confession offered no guarantees. Peter sees Jesus as the Messiah, but his messianic ideas bear very little resemblance to who Jesus really is and why He came. At the same time, Peter nevertheless dares to call Jesus the Messiah despite everything that He does. Jesus had already done quite enough to disappoint anyone who regarded Him precisely as the Messiah. And this is exactly what happened: people constantly demanded that Jesus finally declare His messiahship openly, and His persistent refusal to do so turned many away from Him. Peter's confession meant that he trusted his Teacher precisely as the Messiah despite the generally accepted messianic ideas. It was this “despite” that made the further journey possible, for it signified a readiness to cast aside all one's own notions of “how things ought to be” and to accept the real Messiah as He is.

It is hard to take responsibility for one’s choice. It is hard to state a definite opinion, hard to make a decision, because you bear responsibility for all its consequences and fruits. And if this choice, this decision, belongs to the religious or moral sphere, then one has to answer for it...

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