Who do you show Jesus is?

Pentecost 17, Proper 19

Fr. Tim Nunez

May my spoken word be true to God’s written word and bring us all closer to the living word, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Caesarea Philippi seems an odd place for Jesus to bring his disciples. Although technically within historic Israel, it was in a region of Greek villages, which were remnants of Alexander the Great’s empire 300 years before.

Herod the Great, the same Herod that bult the Temple Mount and hunted Jesus at his birth, established the city and built a temple to Augustus Caesar there. The people were supposed to worship Caesar as a god. (After Herod died, his son Philip the Tetrarch governed that region and added his very Greek name to it.)

Herod the Great also built a major temple there to Pan. Pan was a Greek god of fertility, agriculture and flocks who was worshipped in the region. At Caesarea Philippi is a huge cave which they thought was an entrance to the underworld.

Out of that cave flows water from the aquifer at the roots of Mount Hermon. The water is clear and beautiful, and vital to the agriculture in that region and is one of three headwaters of the River Jordan, which flows south to the Sea of Galilee, then south to the Dead Sea. It’s beautiful and a striking contrast of crystal clear spring waters flowing out of the cave leading to the Underworld.

Whereas so much of the Middle East is dry and barren, Caesarea Philippi was and is lush and green and fertile. It became one of the primary centers of Pan worship, Greeks and Romans made pilgrimages to it, seeking fertility and protection of their flocks and crops. It was also called Paneas or Banias after the springs.

The area around the major temples had lots of statues and shrines, a spiritual mall of sorts where you could shop for the favor of whatever gods and goddesses you wanted to worship.

It’s there, not at the Temple in Jerusalem or at one of the other holy places in Israel, not even in Galilee where they began together. That Jesus asks them, “Who do people say that I am?” Well, people say a lot of things. Here in this pagan stronghold his disciples echo people’s tendency to link Jesus to Israel’s past, not only individuals but God’s eternal call to repentance and faithfulness to Him, the One true God.

Good for them, given that they are at a pagan stronghold!

Then comes the kicker: Who do you say that I am? Impetuous Peter gives the right answer, o cristos or “the Christ.”  The Christ in Greek and the Messiah in Judaism mean the same thing, literally “the anointed one.” Anointing goes back to the designation of Levitical priests during the Exodus, people set apart for conducting worship and taking care of everything to do with worship.

Later, we find the prophet Samual anointed by God to speak for him. Samuel anoints Saul as king, then David as king and priest. As Israel repeatedly falls away from God over the following centuries, the prophets speak of a messiah that will come from David’s line. Those include familiar passages from Isaiah and others that we revisit, and get quoted in the Gospels, during Advent and Christmas.

Daniel then describes one who will come down from heaven, fully divine, as a “Son of Man,” also fully human. Jesus will quote that passage, Daniel 7:13-14, at his trial. Peter has gotten all of that correct in his answer, “the Christ.”

Then Jesus reveals an additional piece. We see it in part in our passage from Isaiah this morning. “I gave my back to those who struck me…I did not hide my face from insult and spitting.” There is also Isaiah 53, “The Suffering Servant.” Jesus explains that he must go to Jerusalem, to suffer and die then be resurrected in three days. Life will flow out of death, just as the springs of water flow out of that huge, dark cave.

Peter naturally wants to protect Jesus. He loves him. Jesus rebukes him on the strongest terms. How did Satan tempt Jesus in the wilderness? To follow natural needs and instincts instead of God’s will. No, Jesus must now start working his way to Jerusalem to truly be the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One who will sacrifice everything for the reconciliation of humanity with God.

Then he called the crowd with his disciples. He called the crowd of pagans there worshiping their idols and tells them the truth, just he is teaching his disciples. It resonates the exact point that he just made with Peter. If we are going to follow Jesus, we have to follow him on his terms.

Take up your cross, bear the burdens of responsibility that God lays on your shoulders willingly and faithfully. His yoke is easy. His burden is light if we will follow him.

If we spend our lives focused on this life, we are choosing a life of fear and worry over things and circumstances that won’t last. When we die, it’s over, lost, gone. Someone said at Bible study this week, “You never see a Brink’s truck in a funeral procession.” I might add, coming or going.

And those who lose their life, who put it all under his grace, open up an absolute treasure of meaning and purpose. Eternal life includes today. So don’t gain the whole world and forfeit your true life.

And this s the key to living the life of Christ, the life of the Anointed One. Many, most, of us struggle with taming our tongues. To the extent we struggle with it, what makes it restless, evil and full of poison? Anger. Fear. Anxiety. We can add to that list, but all of it is rooted our worldly needs and desires and our lack of control. Even if we don’t say the bad thing, Jesus warns us that even thinking it is the worst part.

Now that we all feel bad, busted and helpless, let’s turn to our Messiah, our Anointed One, our Lord and Savior, the Prince of Peace who lifts us out of that impossible battle and into the new life of grace, grace that overcomes our sin and grace that guides us into true life.

The only way to follow him is to follow him. That doesn’t mean checking in with him every now and then. It means fundamentally orienting ourselves toward him and purposefully taking the next steps.

Let us pray… Heavenly Father, we are surrounded by idols and ideas, needs and desires, that continuously distract us from you and tempt us away from you and your will. We pray that you will be bless and guide us by your Holy Spirit to follow Jesus, to give up our lives for life he won for us on the cross and demonstrated to us when he rose from the dead. Help us, Lord, to take up our crosses as agents of your Kingdom.

AMEN!