Union Church

August 24, 2008
Matthew 16:13-20

Today’s gospel lesson has Jesus skulking around the Roman town, Caesarea Philippi. This town is the northern regional administrative centre for Roman Occupation.

As he goes along he asks the crowd,
“Who do people say that I am?”

A number of responses are offered.
Some suggests the recently beheaded John the Baptist,
others suggest Elijah, the wonder worker of old.
Still others suggest Jeremiah or some other dead prophet.
Notice not one political figure is put forward in this political town.

Jesus isn’t satisfied with these responses so he asks his entourage, “And you, who do you say I am?”
Simon blurts out the outrageous, but perhaps upon second thought the obvious, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
What Simon is saying is, “You are the one and true King of Israel. You are the one and true son of God, not Caesar.”

We are used to this Son of God terminology for Jesus but maybe not used to its full implication which is Jesus, not Caesar is the one true Son of God.

Satire, as we know is one of the most powerful forms of social and political criticism. So it is no accident that Jesus went trooping around the countryside holding court, followed by his entourage acting out a peasant king routine.

It was outrageous! It turned convention upside down.
It was street theatre.

Old Testament tradition had it that when a King was coronated, he was adopted as a son of God.
The Romans went one step further and saw Caesar as the actual Son of God who brought peace through victory and was now to be worshipped.

Simon Peter, at the Roman town, at the convergence of local Jewish life and Roman rule suddenly tumbles to what Jesus is up to.

Jesus is burlesquing the oppressor, Jewish and Roman alike.
Jesus - a nobody, a landless, expendable, with no fixed address peasant is carrying on as the one and true king of Israel,
the promised Messiah, the one and true son of the living God!

It was too outrageous for the general population to grasp, but there at Caesarea Philippi, Simon Peter gets it if only for a moment.

Part of what Jesus is up to is creative resistance towards the tyranny of his time. The messiah, the son of the living God rules not as a worldly king, not as pax romana, peace through victory, but as if God is King, which is peace through justice.

Everybody knows that worldly kings command and control the population. They live in luxury and splendour.
Jesus acting out “God as King” raises up the poor and destitute, welcomes the dispossessed, cleanses the unclean, restores the untouchables, honours all, especially the least in the kingdom of the world as beloved family members.
Now this is kingship as if God is King.

What is the application for today?

The first is to admit that we are all caught up in some kind of tyranny in our day and age.

At some level we believe that might is right.

We are convinced that peace occurs through victory and forget that victory only comes after war.

The second is to realize how hard it is to recognize this mind set.

So let’s ask ourselves:

Which form of Caesar, which cultural script do we need to resist?

What issue confronts us or our loved ones?

If Jesus is calling the shots would anything be different?

Creative resistance is to speak our truth or stand for the truth and let go of the outcome.
When we try to control the outcome, we become little Caesars and the truth and the grace get lost every time.

There is more to God’s blessing than our little Caesar moments can grasp.

So in a nutshell, creative resistance doesn’t take itself too seriously.

The Christian life is creative engagement as if God is in charge.

How do we do this? How do we live this?

We live this one day, one step, one compassionate choice at a time.

It doesn’t matter how small, or how insignificant our truth might appear.
It doesn’t matter how silly, or how ridiculous our non-controlling stance might seem.

Jesus got to the truth of things and let go of the outcome and God’s blessing swept throughout the world.

Let’s make an intentional commitment today to say yes to Jesus’ vision of peace through justice and remember that we can also have fun along the way.