Lectionary Preaching; "Who is Jesus?"; August 23, 2026

I'd like to start you off with a story today from uh several years ago.

Um Emily and I just celebrated our 20th anniversary last month.

Uh so it's been a little while, but back in college when we were dating at Concordia Portland, uh, we sang in the choir together, and that's really kind of how we got to know each other really well.

And um we would often, we had kind of the bigger choir than we had the smaller choir, and our smaller choir would go out to churches a lot, um, kind of once a month or every every so often, anyway.

And we would sing and help with the worship service and things like that.

So one Sunday, um, our choir was at this church for a couple of services, and we were wearing our kind of our standard uniform dress.

Uh the guys all wore black tuxedos with a very classy bow tie, and all the ladies wore the exact same matching black dress.

And so um, in between the two services, the church had this large lobby, this narthex outside the sanctuary.

And uh Emily and I were out there, and I was involved in one conversation kind of over here.

Emily was involved in another conversation right next to me over here.

And um, as we were, you know, talking in these different conversations, I saw Emily out of the corner of my eye, and I ended up just kind of reaching over and not really looking, gently started rubbing her back.

Uh, nothing out of the ordinary.

But immediately she recoiled uncharacteristically and she jumped away.

And, you know, shocked, I turned to look at her and discovered what you no doubt have already put together.

It was not Emily.

It was our choir mate, uh, Colleen O'Mara, originally from Chicago, she would always remind us.

She was a nice young lady with the same hair color as Emily, wearing the same dress as Emily, but very much not Emily.

It was an embarrassing case of mistaken identity that we all laughed off pretty much right away.

But as you can maybe tell, it's uh still causing me a bit of embarrassment, still to this day, some 20 plus years later.

Um, mistaken identity can sometimes be funny, but as Alfred Hitchcock has taught us, it can also sometimes be quite dangerous.

That's especially true when it comes to Jesus.

As we saw in this reading that we heard earlier today from Matthew chapter 16, last week we were up with Jesus in the region of Tyre and Sidon, this Gentile country way, way up north, where we encountered this great and surprising faith from a Canaanite woman who somehow shockingly knew who Jesus was.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

Today Jesus has moved over to Caesarea Philippi, a town also way up north, about the same latitude as Tyre, but here in this northernmost Galilean city of his ministry, Jesus has a conversation with his disciples about his identity.

And in this conversation, Jesus asks a question that confronts us today just as much as it did his disciples back then.

A question for which the answer has eternal ramifications.

A question that cuts right to the heart of who Jesus is and what he came to do.

So, unlike me, when it came to Colleen Omera, let's take a close look together today.

Matthew reports Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, Who do people say that the Son of Man is?

It's a good question.

It's an important question.

It's a relevant question because Jesus has been doing an awful lot of things that were causing people to consider it.

Who is this guy who comes from the nowhere town of Nazareth, who's been teaching with such authority, who's been healing the blind and the deaf and the lame and casting out demons, who is at great odds with the Jewish religious establishment?

Who is this man who calls himself the Son of Man?

The disciples answer some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.

Now notice that each one of these answers identifies Jesus as some kind of prophet.

John the Baptist was Jesus' own relative, but their resemblance went far beyond family genes.

His preaching and miraculous works caused King Herod to suppose that Jesus was John the Baptist raised from the dead.

But no, Jesus is not John the Baptist.

How about Elijah?

The prophet Malachi had proclaimed that Elijah would return in the days of the Messiah, and many of Jesus' miracles looked an awful lot like Elijah's.

But no, Jesus is not Elijah.

In fact, Jesus himself will say that it was John the Baptist of whom Malachi had spoken.

Jeremiah, then?

Like Jeremiah, Jesus spoke disparagingly of undue trust in the temple.

He was unafraid to confront Israel's leadership.

Could Jesus be the return of Jeremiah to usher in the new covenant that he had spoken of?

Well, no, Jesus is not Jeremiah.

What about one of the other prophets?

Moses had said that God would raise up for the people a prophet like him one day.

Surely Jesus was one of these prophets of old, returned.

Now these answers are not ridiculous.

They're actually quite reverent.

The people recognize that Jesus has come from God.

But their answers, as complimentary as they are, are inadequate.

Even their highest guesses about Jesus fall woefully short.

And the same is true today.

Lots of people think lots of different things about Jesus.

Many end up going the route of Thomas Jefferson, who prized Jesus as a moral teacher, who disseminated the gospels throughout the country, but excised all of Jesus' miracles from them?

How many people today admire Jesus' teachings, but don't believe he's their savior, don't believe he's God?

How many view Jesus as a revolutionary for the people, or a political reformer, or a social activist?

How many view him as a thoroughly permissive proponent of our twisted modern definition of love, who approves of everyone's behavior no matter what?

How many believe Jesus was simply a failed religious leader?

Or even a fictional creation of the early church?

How many truly have no idea?

As it was then, so it is now.

It is entirely possible to be fascinated by Jesus, to admire Jesus, to study Jesus, to even speak incredibly highly of Jesus, and in reality have no clue who he actually is.

So Jesus turns to his disciples and says to them, But who do you say that I am?

Now that's the question, isn't it?

Everything hinges on it.

And when Jesus turns the question on the disciples, it becomes intensely, even uncomfortably personal.

Because today Jesus asks the same question of you.

Who do you say Jesus is?

Of course, Jesus has been preparing us here at Trinity to answer this question all summer long as we've been working through this gospel of Matthew.

Jesus has been training Peter and his disciples on this very topic with all of his teaching, with all of his miracles and his majesty, with all of the disciples' experiences and encounters and failures.

Jesus has been showing the disciples who he is.

So what has Jesus revealed to us about himself this summer?

We can make quite the list from the Gospel of Matthew, just the text we've looked at.

Jesus, who called this sinful tax collector named Matthew, as his disciple in chapter 9, he's a friend of sinners.

In chapter 10, he sends out his disciples to bring back the lost sheep of Israel.

Jesus is a missionary.

But Jesus also said that he came to bring a sword, that he's going to prove to be divisive because many will reject him.

In chapter 11, we learn that Jesus is the very source of true rest.

In his parables in chapter 13, we learn that he is the generous sower and the attentive master, that he came to give everything for us, his priceless treasure.

In chapter 14, we learn that he is the one who provides food for the hungry, that he is ruler of the wind and the waves.

And last week in chapter 15, we saw that Jesus is Israel's Messiah and the Savior of the whole world.

Having listened to Matthew's testimony this summer, we can confess all these things about Jesus and more.

So as Jesus quizzes his disciples, have the lessons that Jesus has taught them shown them who Jesus is?

Do they get it?

Well, as he so often does, Peter answers on behalf of all the disciples, and his reply proves to be one of the greatest confessions of faith in all the scriptures.

Famously immortalized in Matthew 16, verse 16.

Matthew 16:16

Peter says, You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

Now, up to this point, uh Peter has struggled mightily with who Jesus is.

He has mangled his identity with his fear and his doubt.

But now, Peter's little faith has grown into a full-throated confession of faith in Jesus' true identity.

As Peter declares, the right answer to this question, his confession is twofold.

First, he confesses Jesus to be the Christ.

Now, this title, the word Christos in the Greek, means the anointed one.

The Hebrew equivalent is the word Meshiach, Messiah.

Peter is saying, Peter is confessing that Jesus is the promised, much longed-for one who fulfills all of God's biggest and best promises spoken throughout the ages.

Jesus is the coming king who is here to accomplish God's saving purposes.

Peter now sees what the Canaanite woman saw last week.

Jesus is the Messiah of Israel, the one anointed by God, set apart for the special mission of the world's salvation.

And this Messiah, Peter adds, is also the Son of the living God.

This Messiah is not simply God's specially appointed servant, but God himself, God incarnate, the Son of Man, is also the Son of God.

The disciples had drawn this conclusion back in chapter 14 when Jesus had saved Peter and hauled him back into the boat.

And now Peter confesses it to be true with all his heart.

Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

This is a confession of faith the Holy Spirit has given to his church.

To you.

Do you believe it?

Will you confess this to be true about Jesus with all your heart?

Everything hinges on it.

Your eternity hinges on it.

Jesus is no mere prophet, he is the prophet, priest, and king who is sent by God and who is himself God, who has come to conquer sin and death and make everything wrong with this world okay again, whose colossal love is for you, whose grace has been poured out on you with extravagant mercy and power.

And we need it.

I need it.

This past week it was confirmed that my dad has prostate cancer.

The outlook is favorable, but it's scary, right?

And then just a few days later, we learn that Liam, the five-year-old son of some very good friends of ours out in Nebraska, has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and given less than a year to live.

Do Peter's words today really matter in such a time as this?

Is his twofold confession anything more than this nice, neat doctrinal statement?

Yes.

Because Peter's faith is ours.

Peter's Savior is ours.

Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and that means the world, even when the world is falling apart.

I may not know why all these things are happening, but I know who Jesus is.

Last week I speculated that Jesus' face probably broke into a big smile when the Canaanite woman displayed her faith in the midst of a desperate situation.

Pretty sure the same thing happened here with Peter's answer.

Jesus acclaims his response and then reveals to us two things about God's mercy.

First, the Father graciously gives us the gift of faith.

Peter says, or Jesus says, that Peter did not arrive at the knowledge of who Jesus is on his own.

It was given to him by his heavenly Father.

Our faith is always 100% a gift from God.

It's not a work that we do or muster up.

It's not a gift that we give to him of our own selves.

As Paul said today in Romans, we are all blessed by the measure of faith God has assigned.

And we can have such faith because of the second thing Jesus reveals about his mercy toward us.

The Son forgives sins.

Jesus tells Peter that the hallmark of his church will be the forgiveness of sins.

Peter and the apostles and the church for every generation to come will proclaim this good news.

And even as Jesus speaks to Peter today, he's on the way to make it all happen.

The cross is going to show us a full picture of just what kind of Messiah Jesus is.

From the northernmost city of Galilee, he is going to go down, down south to Judea, to Jerusalem, down into the darkness of the grave.

And then the Son of the Living God will live again.

He will come up again, alive again, victorious forever, victorious over death, over hell, over our every sin.

And nothing opposed to Christ and his church will prevail against us.

Nothing.

Not cancer, not broken hearts, not the gates of hell.

Because by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus has built us up.

He has given us forgiveness and life and eternity.

How much has been made of verse 18?

Jesus says, I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.

Peter means rock in the Greek.

And the Roman Catholic Church has claimed that Jesus is establishing the papacy here, and Peter is the first Pope.

But Peter is not the rock.

Jesus is.

It's Peter's confession of faith on what Jesus is going to do, on who Jesus is.

That is the foundation on which Jesus is going to build his church.

Church fathers like Origen and Augustine and Hillary and Chrysostom, they all agree.

It's the truth that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, that is our foundation and the solid rock on which we as the church stand.

Next week we're going to see that Peter himself still has so much to learn as he drifts away from this great confession to getting it all wrong again.

But Jesus makes every wrong right, every wrong within us and every wrong in this world, he has come to save us and make us alive again.

Death and Satan and hell itself cannot overcome us because Christ has conquered them completely.

So when everything else gives way, when our faith feels weak, when our circumstances around us seem hopeless, or when we realize how often we ourselves have mistaken his identity, we look to Jesus.

We confess alongside Peter, He is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

And he is the rock on which we stand forever.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

The peace of God which transcends our understanding, transcends our circumstances.

Guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord now and forever.

Amen.