Matthew 16:13-23 - Whatsa Messiah?

So let’s recap. Two weeks ago, we learned about when Jesus first called Peter to be a disciple. This means that it was Peter’s job to fish for people. No, not take a fishhook and try to catch people, but to tell others about Jesus so that they could come to know him too.

After doing this for a while, Peter and the other disciples found themselves out on the Sea of Galilee without Jesus. But that’s okay, because just as it started to storm, Jesus walked out to them in the middle of the sea! That’s when Peter got out of the boat and started to walk on water too. Well, at least for a few seconds. After getting distracted by the waves and taking his focus off of Jesus, Peter fell into the water.

I want us to think for a minute about how Peter must have felt when that happened. How do you think Peter told that story to his friends back home? Did he focus on when he fell into the water or when he was standing on top?

My guess is he focused on when he was walking on water. Anybody can fall into water, but there aren’t too many people who can stay they got to walk on top of waves. And while some of his friends back home might have thought Peter was making the whole thing up, anyone who had heard about Jesus probably believed Peter’s story. And they were probably amazed by Peter’s faith.

But here’s the problem guys. If that’s really what happened – if Peter went home and talked about when he walked on water but downplayed the whole falling into the water part – then he was being proud.

And we’re not talking proud in the good sense of the word. We’re not talking about when you hit the winning home run in your baseball game and your parents say they’re proud of you. We’re not talking about when you can recite your memory verse at Sunday school and your teacher is really impressed. We’re not talking about the pride that comes when we acknowledge someone close to us for doing something really impressive.

No, today we’re talking about a kind of pride that’s not good for you. When our parents, our teachers, or our friends say they’re proud of us, that’s okay, because they’re trying to call us out for doing a good job. But when we start thinking, Yeah, I did do a good job, didn’t I? and then start acting like we’re the best baseball player or Bible verse memorizer there is, that’s when we have a problem.

But given what we know about Peter, that’s probably what he did after walking on water. He would have wanted everybody to know about this amazing thing he did. And we see more of Peter’s pride come out in today’s story.

Fast forward a few months after this whole walking on water incident. The disciples had spent a good amount of time with Jesus by this point. They’d heard His stories and sermons so often that they could probably recite them back from memory. But there were still lots of people who hadn’t heard Jesus’ message at all, so Jesus and the disciples kept travelling and preaching wherever they went.

Anyways, our story begins in an area called Caesarea Philippi. Jesus and the disciples had spent a few days here, and like any other day, they were wandering around the city looking for people to talk to. They were all together at the moment, and Bartholomew was telling them this really funny story about a rooster when Jesus stopped all of a sudden. Bartholomew nearly tripped over Jesus because he had to stop so fast.

“What’s up Jesus?” Bartholomew asked, trying to recover his balance and play it off like he didn’t nearly fall flat on his face.

But Jesus didn’t answer right away. Instead, he simply looked at the crowd around Him. He narrowed His eyes a little bit, but not in an angry way. He just looked puzzled.

“Jesus?” Bartholomew said again.

“Tell me,” Jesus said without looking at the disciples, “Who do people say that I am?”

The disciples gave each other that confused look they would get whenever Jesus asked a random question like this. A bunch of the disciples looked to John, the disciple who could sometimes guess what Jesus was thinking, but John only shrugged.

“You’ve talked with the people here,” Jesus continued. “Here and in all the cities we’ve passed through. So who do they think I am?”

Still confused, the disciples started to give some answers. “Some think you’re John the Baptist,” one of them said, frowning. “Other say you’re Elijah, that prophet from centuries ago who just disappeared one day,” another said. “Yeah, from what I’ve heard, most people think you’re some kind of prophet,” a third disciple said.

“But what about you?” Jesus asked, now looking at the disciples with the same puzzled expression. “Who do you say I am?”

Suddenly, nobody was looking at Jesus. Some of the disciples looked at their feet, some looked over Jesus’ shoulder, some even looked away entirely. It’s not that they didn’t have ideas of who Jesus was, but they were too nervous to say them out loud. What if they were wrong? What if Jesus laughed at them? What if Jesus wasn’t who they thought He was?

But finally, Peter clenched his fists and looked up. He took a deep breath and said, “You are the Messiah. You are the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16, NIrV).

Jesus’ puzzled face immediately became a smile. It was that same smile He had given when Peter stepped out of the boat and started walking on water. Jesus was beaming ear to ear as He said, “Blessed are you, Peter. You didn’t learn this from any human. My Father in heaven, God, showed you this! Soon, very soon, I’m going to set up my kingdom, and you’re going to have the keys to that kingdom Peter” (Matthew 16:17-19, NIrV).

Probably not the reaction you were expecting, was it? But this is a big deal! Basically, what Jesus was saying was, “You didn’t figure this whole Messiah thing out on own Peter. That was God. God has made it clear to you who I am and what my purpose here on earth is. And you are blessed because God has chosen to give this information to you and to let you be one of the big players in bringing it about!”

I’m not really sure how Peter would have reacted in that moment. He might have smiled back. He might have looked down embarrassed. I’m sure the other disciples were surprised. But I think they were also pretty excited when they heard the word “Messiah.”

Why is that? Well, to answer that, we have to understand what the word “Messiah” means. You see, we often talk about Jesus as our Messiah as if it’s some special title for “Saviour.” And that’s kind of right. But back in Bible times, the word Messiah meant something else as well.

You might remember that last month, we learned about Daniel. Well, back in Daniel’s day, the Babylonians had taken over Israel. And since then, the Jews had been under the control of one nation after another. It started with the Babylonians, then the Persians, then the Greeks, and now they were under the control of the Romans.

Now the Jews were hoping that God was going to send someone – some leader or king – to get rid of the Romans and to let the Jews become their own nation again, like they had been back in the time of Moses or David. This leader is what they called the Messiah. They thought the Messiah was going to be this great military leader who was going to free Israel from the Romans!

So when the disciples heard Jesus basically confirm that He was the Messiah, that was huge news! This is what they had been waiting for! Jesus was going to set up a kingdom, and they thought that meant the Romans were going to be history!

There’s one problem though – the Jews got it wrong. And Peter was going to learn that very quickly.

See, even though Peter might have been shy about this attention at first, his pride got the better of him. Suddenly, Peter started acting like this big shot disciple who had figured who Jesus was before the rest. He probably started thinking he was right about a lot of things and that the other disciples should come to him for advice.

But the next day, Jesus said something that didn’t quite add up to Peter. Jesus started telling the disciples that He was going to have to go to Jerusalem, that people were going to hurt and make fun of Him, that He was going to be killed, and that three days later He would rise again.

Now we know that this is exactly what happened. Jesus went to Jerusalem, He was hurt and made fun of, He died on the cross, and He rose again three days later. And we know why Jesus did this too. He died and rose again so that he could wipe away our sins, all those bad things we’ve done, and fix our broken relationships with God.

But the disciples didn’t know this yet. And when Peter heard that Jesus thought He had to go to Jerusalem to die, Peter’s first thought was, That isn’t right! The Messiah isn’t supposed to die. The Messiah is going to kick out the Romans! What are you thinking Jesus?

So Peter thought it was his job to make sure Jesus was on the right track. He took Jesus aside after hearing this and said, “Never, Lord! This will never happen to you!”

Now here’s the thing, guys. Peter honestly thought he was doing the right thing. He really thought that he was trying to help Jesus. But Jesus’ response was the total opposite of what Peter was expecting.

“Get behind me, Satan!” Jesus said. “You are standing in my way. You do not have in mind the things God cares about. Instead, you only have in mind the things humans care about” (Matthew 16:23).

Woah! Jesus has said some confusing things and some stuff we don’t always like to hear, but this is next level. Yesterday Jesus was praising Peter for listening to God and getting things right, but now Jesus was calling Peter “Satan” and saying that Peter was in the way! What happened?

What happened was pride. After Jesus had praised Peter the day before, Peter thought he had all the answers. With God’s help, Peter had figured out that Jesus was the Messiah. But Peter only had half the answer there. Jesus is the Messiah, but Peter had a completely wrong idea about what the Messiah would be like and do. Peter thought the Messiah would be an earthly military hero, but he never imagined that the Messiah really came to save us from a much bigger enemy: sin! But part of saving us from sin meant going to Jerusalem and dying just like Jesus said.

I’m sure this was devastating to Peter. He had been over the moon yesterday, thinking he was this great disciple. But now Peter realized he still had a lot to learn. His pride took a beating, but that was probably a good thing. Even if Peter didn’t understand this whole thing about the Messiah having to die, Peter had learned that even when we get things right one day, we can still mess up the next.

And honestly, Peter still struggled with pride. We’ll see one more story next week where Peter’s pride got in the way and led him to make a terrible mistake. And that’s why it’s so important that we remember our lesson for today: Pride gets in the way of us seeing truth. God wants to teach us about Him and to reveal how much we need Jesus, but we won’t see it until we stop letting our pride control how we think.

In short, I’m not saying that you can’t be happy when you score that winning homerun or do well on your memorization. But don’t let it get to your head like Peter did. There’s lots more games to play and things to learn. And when we keep our pride in check, not only will we learn more about who God is, but it will make our lives that much easier too!

~Brentagious