21st Sunday in Ordinary Time     Matthew 16: 13 - 20

Matthew 16: 13-20       Matthew’s gospel account now has come to the middle chapters.   They are a turning point after Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount and after journeys with his disciples on a mission of healing and public teaching.   In these chapters the Pharisees challenge many of the things that Jesus promotes.  Among them healing on the Sabbath and less strictures about diet and about rules of cleanliness.   Then news comes that John the Baptist has been brutally killed by Herod.                

Here Jesus knows he must reveal himself more directly to the men and women who have joined him in his teaching and healing.   So he feeds the five thousand.   So walking on the water he appears to the disciples.   So he drives out demons.  And today we hear him make his own identity clear to his followers and in this action he declares also who his followers are called to be.   He does this with a general question about the Son of Man, the one mentioned in so many of the Hebrew Scriptures who will free Israel from the prison of their sins and their oppressors.   Jesus asks his followers, “Who is the Son of Man?”   And they suggest some names, not one of them fully convincing.   The answers do not reflect any strong opinions.   The great prophets are all dead and now even the Baptist is dead.  

Jesus limits the discussion by asking the follow-up most important question: who do you say that I am?  Here Peter makes a more complete statement of faith than what seems possible at this point in the story of Jesus:  “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.”   Somehow the evangelist Matthew cannot wait to get the truth out on the table.                         

And also at the same time, Matthew lets us know how persons who proclaim such an identity for Jesus are now to be identified.    All those who proclaim Jesus as the Messiah become “rocks” and creators of community for those who are ignorant or confused, afraid or indifferent.  Jesus’s interrogation is a moment of revelation not only about him but also about those whose imaginations move them to proclamations about him.          

The exchange reminds me of an exercise that a teacher of adolescents suggested for them.   “Take the sentence “I am imaginary and not real.”    Repeat it and then add a description that further describes yourself.”   One lad said.   “I am imaginary and not real.   I am courageous and not afraid.”   A girl said, “I am imaginary and not real.   I sing and dance and don’t sulk.” 

Using this model Jesus might repeat what Peter says:   “I am imaginary and not real.  I am the Messiah, the Son of God and not a failed teacher.”   For Jesus the aspiration as Messiah breaks into reality.             What do I say:  “I am imaginary and not real.  I am a human being dignified in God’s creation, even a “rock” and not simply sore and stiff and tired with life.”   Let’s all take a moment and fill in a sentence to complete “I am imaginary and not real.”