Proper 16: Gospel, Matthew 16:13-20

Matthew 16:13-20

Jesus doesn’t waste anything. Place, time of year, or his immediate company. Everything he says comes with import because all these elements and more are orchestrated to bring power to his Word and to sustain it in the ears and hearts of those who hear. This week’s gospel reading is one of the most riveting exchanges in the Bible. The work of revelation, that process by which God allows us in on things only he could teach, is in full swing in the region of Caesarea Philippi. And dear Peter is the one who will receive the immense and weighty truth upon which the Church of Jesus finds its footing.

Most of us know the exchange well enough. Jesus will have an answer to the most important question in the universe. “Who is Jesus, the carpenter of Nazareth?” And Jesus aims his sights on Peter, the impetuous one, the one I like to call “the disciple with the foot-shaped mouth.” He almost always says the wrong thing and usually at the wrong time but not here. Not here. Jesus asks the band of his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” Answers fly but no one hits the mark. Then Jesus goes one-on-one with the question aimed at Peter. And because God is faithful and loves to reveal the beauty of his Son, Peter nails the answer.

Jesus and his disciples are in the far north and Caesarea Philippi has a pagan shrine given to the worship of Pan, the half-man, half-goat shepherd god. The shrine of Pan is situated in a location known by the locals as “the gates of hell,” a towering mount with a gaping chasm below. Among the blessings spoken to the fisherman at his God-revealed answer is this, “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” He meant what he said, and his disciples and Peter knew exactly that of which he spoke.

The question asked of the disciples that day continues to ring out precisely because Jesus doesn’t waste anything. As you and I stand before the gates of hell, what is the answer we give this day to the question Jesus keeps on asking. Who do YOU say the Son of man is? The question is the most important one in the universe. The answer is even more so.