Matthew 16.13-20

CRUNCH TIME

(Matthew 16.13-20)

"Who do people say the Son of Man is? (Matthew 16.13).

It was crunch time! Time was running out.

For some three years Jesus had been trying to teach his disciples about the Kingdom of Heaven and his place in it.

Now, mindful that he was rapidly approaching his death and subsequent resurrection, he decided that the time had come when he must challenge his disciples to see whether they had understood what he was about, since he wanted to be sure that his work would continue when he was no longer permanently with them. It was indeed crunch time.

So Jesus took his disciples away from the crowds, so that they could be alone with him, without any distraction.

He took them to Caesarea Philippi, some twenty five miles north of the Sea of Galilee.

As Archbishop Stuart Blanch has observed, it was a place with an ‘ecumenical dimension'.

It was an area which was scattered with ancient Syrian temples dedicated to the worship of Baal. In fact, there were at least fourteen such temples. It was an area close to a hill in which there was a well-known cave that was claimed to be the birthplace of the Greek god of nature, Pan.

And it was also an area where there was a great white marble temple, built to the godhead of the Roman Caesar by Herod the Great.

It was therefore a place where the ancient worship of the Syrian, Greek and Roman gods came together.

In fact, the history of Caesarea Philippi is written in the changes to its name. Originally it had been called Balinais in view of the worship of Baal. Then it became Panias since it was the birthplace of Pan, and then it became Caesarea, because it was the city of Caesar worship.

Hence Archbishop Blanch describes the setting as having an 'ecumenical dimension'.

And it was in this 'ecumenical’ setting that Jesus asked his disciples, 'Who do people say the Son of Man is?'

To which the disciples made various suggestions.

"Some say John the Baptist', because, like Herod Antipas, some people thought that John the Baptist had come back from the dead in the person of Jesus.

‘Others say Elijah’, because people recognised in Jesus the voice of prophecy.

‘Others, Jeremiah', because the Jews believed that he would precede the coming of the Messiah.

"Others, one of the prophets'. Even if the people did not identify Jesus with such great historic figures as John the Baptist, or Elijah, or Jeremiah, they certainly recognised him as a prophet.

But Jesus pushes the disciples further. Whilst it may be interesting to know what other people thought of him, he really wanted to know what the disciples thought of him. This was indeed crunch time. Now they had to decide for themselves. So he asked, 'Who do you say I am?

Whilst the disciples were chewing this over, the ever-impulsive Peter blurted out, 'You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God'.

Both Mark and Luke, who also record this incident in the respective gospels, record Peter as saying, ‘You are the Christ', There is really no difference in the answer, since the word 'Messiah' comes from the Hebrew and ‘Christ' comes from the Greek meaning 'the anointed one'.

In Israel, since early times, high priests and kings were both anointed with oil as a sign that they had been chosen by God for their office. In much the same way as our Queen was anointed with oil at her coronation in 1953.

‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.'

There comes a time in the life of all who follow Jesus when they must decide, who is Jesus?

Sooner or later, surrounded as we are by the pantheon of today's gods of Baal, be it materialism, power, ambition, wealth, celebrity culture and so on, we too must decide what does Jesus mean for us in our twenty first century 'ecumenical dimension'.

It is not enough to know what other people think of Jesus, or what the Church's creeds teach, or even to worship in church because our friends do. We must decide for ourselves what we believe.

ls Jesus just a good man?

Or is Jesus mad?

Or is he a deceiver?

Is Jesus just a wonder worker, who performed extraordinary miracles such as healing the sick, providing food for the hungry and stilling the raging storm at sea?

Or is Jesus just a great teacher, who expressed his teaching in homely stories, which we call 'parables', and in the Sermon on the Mount which contain wise words which have stood the test of time?

Or is Jesus just a great prophet, next only to Muhammad, as Muslims maintain in the Koran?

Or is Jesus more than these? Where do you put Jesus amongst the inspirational leaders in history?

Sooner or later the crunch time comes in your life, as it did in the lives of the early disciples, when you need to decide. You cannot sit on the fence for ever.

This is something Christians in Zimbabwe are finding out to their cost today.

In 2007, Bishop Kunango of Harare, a strong supporter of the 87 year old President Mugabe, was excommunicated by the Anglican Church over some 38 charges, including incitement to murder, which he still faces.

In retaliation, the former bishop has decided to take control of some 8000 Anglican churches, schools, and hospitals in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana and Malawi. He sees himself as a nationalist leader who is Africanising a church associated with British Colonialism. In this he is being actively helped and supported by the Zimbabwe government. Some churches are being used for businesses and some for living space. Police regularly use violence and tear gas to prevent worshippers using their buildings and they are forced to worship in the open air, in tents or rented buildings. Even the consecration of his successor in 2009 had to take place outside his cathedral in Harare.

Only this week (August 2011), the Church Times has reported that clergy and their families are being evicted from their rectories, after the High Court in Harare gave guardianship of such properties to Nolbert Kunango.

Also, I read this week in the Tablet, the international Roman Catholic journal, that priests of that church are being regularly intimidated by the secret police who attend their services.

The reason for this is a pastoral letter, which was issued by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference in Zimbabwe at the beginning of the year.

In it, the bishops wrote that, 'corruption is a cancer destroying our nation'. It therefore encouraged politicians to engage in 'serious discussions' about the state of the nation. It warns that the alternative was to allow Zimbabwe to, 'continue to be dogged by violence, political intolerance, injustice, rigged elections, fear and deception.'

As a consequence, priests are being interrogated, tortured and some ‘disappearing’. Even the wearing of a dog collar can now be dangerous.

Meanwhile, in our own country (UK), Nadia Eweids, a BA employee who was dismissed for refusing to cover up her cross at work, Shirley Chaplin, a nurse banned for the same reason, Lilian Ladele, a London registrar disciplined for asking to be excused from registering same sex couples as civil partners, and Gay McFarlane, a relationship counsellor who refused to give sex therapy advice to gay couples, are awaiting decisions from the European Court of Human Rights for seeking to practice their Christian faith in their work locations.

Such people have had to face the crunch decision as regards who is Jesus and what does that mean for them in their lives?.

And so I ask you today, as Jesus asked his early disciples, not who do other people say he is, but who you, yes you, say he is?

After all, the continuance of the Christian Church depends on you as it did upon the early disciples.