Faith in Jesus as Messiah carries with it a cost

March 19, 2001

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April 22 Lesson

Faith in Jesus as Messiah carries with it a cost
___Matthew 16:13-26
___¹³When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?"
___¹⁴They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets."
___¹⁵"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"
___¹⁶Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
___¹⁷Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. ¹⁸And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. ¹⁹I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." ...
___²¹From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
___²²Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. "Never, Lord!" he said. "This shall never happen to you!"
___²³Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."
___²⁴Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."

___By Carolyn Ratcliffe
___Much is being written today about faith and discipleship; that is, what it means to follow Jesus and how to be like Jesus. However, little is said about what having faith in Jesus costs now or might cost in the future.
___Jesus at home
___The story is told about a king named Midas who loved his daughter very much but also loved gold. As the story goes, Midas was given the opportunity to have his desire fulfilled. He asked that everything he touched be turned to gold. Only when his little daughter ran to him and hugged him, did he realize the cost of his selfish desire. Often Christians are selfish, desiring all of the joys and riches of the kingdom of God while, at the same time, never thinking there might be a price to pay for their faith.
___Jesus was well aware of the cost of faith. In Matthew 13:53-16:28 there are a number of instances in which faith and lack of faith come into play. This section of Scripture begins after Jesus has finished teaching in parables and returns home to Nazareth. Matthew finds Jesus rejected by his own hometown. Sadly, the people of Nazareth had knowledge of Jesus but did not know him. In Nazareth Jesus did few mighty works, perhaps because of the lack of faith of the people of Nazareth or because he knew the glory would not be given to God. The cost was the people missed the power and grace of God. We, too, many times miss the riches of God because of a lack of faith.
___John the Baptist dies
___Our attention is directed next to the account of the death of John the Baptist, an event that happened earlier and is a parenthesis here in Matthew. Matthew gives a great deal of attention to John as the herald of the Messiah. John is the bridge from the Old Testament to the New Testament, a point not missed by Matthew's audience of Jewish Christians.
___Jesus, saddened by John's death, chose to withdraw, but the crowds would not allow his seclusion. When Jesus saw the crowds, his heart was moved, and he was compelled to heal them, teach them and feel compassion for them. What follows is one of the greatest signs of the inauguration of the kingdom of God, the feeding of the 5,000 men plus the women and children with only two fish and five loaves of bread. Jesus, as the Great Shepherd did in Psalm 23, had the people sit on the green grass (Mark 6:39) as he "prepared a banquet" for them.
___After the feeding of the multitude, Jesus sent his disciples ahead of him in a boat while he withdrew to pray. A sudden storm came up causing the disciples a great deal of concern. After praying, Jesus, the Lord of creation, walked on the water to meet the disciples. His very presence was their assurance all would be well. Peter, in his usual rashness, stepped out of the boat to walk toward Jesus, but when he allowed his fears to overcome him, he began to sink. Jesus saved him. The disciples then declared, "Truly you are the Son of God" foreshadowing Peter's great confession following in chapter 16.___
___Miracles in Gentile lands
___Jesus and the disciples traveled to land of Gennesaret, where much healing was done because of the faith of the people, contrasting the lack of faith Jesus encountered in Nazareth. Here Jesus was confronted by Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem. They accused Jesus of ritual uncleanness, and he countered by accusing them of moral uncleanness, calling them hypocrites.
___From the land of Gennesaret, Jesus and the disciples traveled into the Gentile region of Tyre and Sidon. There he was confronted by a Canaanite woman begging for the healing of her daughter. Jesus rejected her request, but her persistent faith that required only the crumbs he had to offer won him over. He honored her faith. The cost of her faith was humbling herself before a Jewish teacher and for that she received the grace that crossed over ethnic and cultural barriers.
___Jesus then returned to the area near the Sea of Galilee, perhaps even to another Gentile area. There Jesus healed all manner of afflictions, putting deeds to his words. Jesus once again felt compassion on the multitude gathered there and fed 4,000 men, women and children.___
___Who am I?
___From beginning to end, Matthew leads the readers of his gospel to the realization that this Jesus is the Son of David, the promised Messiah, however unlikely this may have seemed to the scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees and even to his own disciples. After this great ministry of teaching and healing, Jesus took his disciples to Caesarea Philippi for a time of reflection and seclusion. Jesus came to the heart of the matter. "Who do men say that I am?" he asked the disciples. Their answer was pregnant with meaning. Some saw Jesus as fulfilling the role of John the Baptist, while others saw him as Elijah, the great prophet of old who worked miracles and performed mighty deeds. Others thought Jesus was Jeremiah, the prophet who promised the new covenant of the heart. At the least, Jesus was a prophet, perhaps even the promised great prophet of Deuteronomy 18:15, come to proclaim a word from God.
___Jesus was not satisfied with these answers and asked the disciples rather pointedly, "Who do you say that I am?" Regardless of what others thought, he was concerned about who his closest companions knew him to be. Peter responded for all of the disciples, calmly and deliberately: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" (16:16). There it is. An honest declaration, laying everything on the line. This confession marks the turning point in Matthew's gospel; from this time on Jesus moves toward his Passion. Following the confession, Jesus uses the word "ekklesia," church, for the first time. The church, a community of called-out ones, is the representative of the Christ on earth.
___In this section of Scripture, there are a number of issues for interpretation. The first concern is Jesus' address concerning Peter's name and subsequent meaning of the terms used. Jesus turned to Peter, acknowledging this revelation of Peter's confession was of divine origin, a gift given by God himself. In the Greek text of Matthew, Jesus says to Peter, literally, "You are rock and upon this rock I will build my church." The problem comes in that there is no clear antecedent to "this rock." One possible explanation, held in particular by Roman Catholic tradition, is that Peter is the foundation upon which Jesus will build his church, thus giving credence to the argument that Peter was the first pope. However, there is no biblical evidence that Peter possessed singular authority over the other 12, nor had Peter been "the rock" up to this time. Furthermore, there is no biblical evidence that this authority of Peter should be passed on to another. Indeed, the foundation rock of the church is Jesus himself, not Peter.
___Another possibility, held as the traditional Protestant view, is that the rock refers to Peter's confession. Certainly Jesus could find no foundation upon which to build his church in the confession of others who saw him simply as prophet. It was only in the confession of the disciples, articulated by Peter, that a foundation was found, a confession of faith in Jesus as the Messiah, Son of God.
___A third possibility holds that, in the original context, the text means Jesus did single Peter out as the foundation of the church, but Peter is seen as unique and unrepeatable. Peter does later play a very important role in the establishment of the church. In all lists of the disciples, Peter is first, Peter is prominant in the church in Jerusalem, Peter spoke the sermon on the day of Pentecost, Jesus appears to Peter on resurrection morning and Peter is part of the inner circle of disciples who minister to Jesus. The key to this reading, however, is the understanding of the uniqueness, one time only, of the appointment of Peter. From this interpretation, Jesus' singling out Peter should give encouragement to all Christians, then and now, that if Jesus could use Peter's strengths and weaknesses, he can also use each of ours.
___Gates and keys
___Another interpretative difficulty rests in the phrase "gates of Hades." Using Isaiah 38:10 as a reference, it is probably best to say that this phrase is referring to "gates of death." In this interpretation, the suggestion is even death will not be stronger than or overcome the church. In other words, the church will never die though its members will. The church is built upon the firm foundation of the Christ, who was not destroyed by death. If, however, the "gates of Hades" refers to portals of the underworld, then the assurance is the foundation will hold even against Satan himself (Revelation 9:1-11). Either way, the invincibility of the church is in view.
___One last issue resides in the meaning of "keys of the kingdom" and the power to bind and loose. Matthew possibly had in mind here Isaiah 22:20-25 in which the keeper of the keys is given authority over a household as teacher and administrator. Furthermore, the terms "binding and loosing" must be understood in rabbinical terms of authoritative teaching concerning what is forbidden and permitted in the Torah. In this sense, Peter, and later the church (18:18), has the special authority to teach in the name of Jesus___
___The Messiah must die
___Jesus concludes his teaching at Caesarea Philippi with the declaration that he has come to suffer and die, but he would live again. The word "must" indicates that what Jesus is saying has to be--it is God's secret for the future, his divine purpose. This declaration has a two-fold purpose. First, it prepares the disciples for the coming death of Jesus; and, second, it provides Jesus with an occasion for instructing the disciples concerning the cost of following him.
___The disciples completely miss the hope of the resurrection in his statement, denying the possibility of the Messiah's death. No one in Israel thought the Messiah would suffer and die, a concept that would become a real stumbling block to converting Jews (1 Corinthians 1:23-24). The impetuous Peter, the rock, becomes a stumbling rock. Jesus rebukes Peter, saying, Do not tempt me, Peter, but follow me to the cross. The result of following Jesus is a cross of total self-denial and complete submission in obedience to the will of God in words and deeds.___
___The cost of grace
___Grace is priceless for it cost the life of the Son of God, the Passover lamb. Faith and discipleship, too, come at a cost, for as Jesus said, we must lose our life to find it (10:39). The test comes as to how much of our lives are we willing to lose. ?

For thought and discussion
___ What actions do you think demonstrate a real faith in Jesus? What actions do not?
___ Do you think that complete surrender to Jesus as Lord and Savior results in suffering? Have you ever suffered for the sake of Jesus?
___ From a biblical viewpoint, do you think the church has the authority to forbid or permit church members to have certain things or do certain things in the context of following Jesus as disciples?
___ Do you think the church exercises authority and discipline today? How do you think it should?
___ How do you define the "cost of faith?"?
___ What do you think Jesus means when he says we must lose our life to find it?

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