The Naming

Matthew 16: 13-20

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’ And they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.’ Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

There's something a little strange about this gospel. 

When Jesus told Peter he was the rock on which Christ would build his church, Peter said nothing.

This is motor mouth Peter we’re talking about. This is the Peter of the gospels who was the perfect example of someone who starts to talk before his brain gets into gear. If you glance through all the gospels you will often see the phrase, “Peter said…” He is the only one of all the disciples whose words are recorded so often and, frequently, what he blurted out revealed his proclivity for speaking first and thinking later.

“Go away from me Lord for I am a sinful man.” (What if Jesus had taken him up on that?)

“God forbid, Lord. This must never happen to you!” (When Jesus spoke of his coming Passion.) 

“Let’s make three tents up here on the mountain, one for each of you.” (Let’s keep you all up here on the mountain forever.)

“Lord, how often do I have to forgive?” (Once was probably difficult enough for Peter let alone seven times seven. Seventy times seven must have shaken him up a bit.)

“We have left everything to follow you. What do we get out of it?” (Of course, we never say things like that...)

“I will never desert you or leave you...”

“Why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you...”

“You will never wash my feet…well, OK then, if you insist, but wash everything not just my feet.” (I wonder if he started stripping.)

However, when Jesus named Peter a Rock on which he would build the church, Peter was uncharacteristically silent. He didn’t start protesting that he was a sinful man or that he had no skills to build a church, whatever a church was. He didn’t suggest to Jesus that it would be much better if Jesus was the Rock and he, Peter, would tag along and be a pebble in Jesus’ shoe. He didn’t get all excited and start making plans to start the next week by drawing up committees and getting volunteers. He didn’t ask, “Why? We have a perfectly good temple right now.” 

Peter said nothing.

I believe Peter was silent because he had heard his true name and there’s not much you can say when you first hear your true name. It is a moment of joyful clarity, a moment of realizing you were moving toward this point your whole life. It is full of the sense that you finally know who you are and who you were always meant to be. It feels like coming home. You fully believe it but you can hardly believe it. It’s a moment where language fails you.

It is significant that Jesus begins this dialogue with the disciples, especially with Peter, by asking, “Who do people say that I am?” and then going on to ask, “Who do you say that I am?” We need to take notice of this and seriously question ourselves as to whether our understanding of who Jesus is comes from what we have heard others say or from personal encounters with him, face to face, not just once but many times. He is always asking you, “Who do you say that I am?” You need to look him in the eye and, from your own deep inner conviction and heart knowledge, be able to answer, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” And once having said that to him, you need to allow yourself to hear him say back to you, “Blessed are you! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are________.”

Most people don’t stop to listen to him say, “You are________,” because they are too busy paying attention to who other people say that they are or who they think they should be. Some people are totally connected to the negative voices of the past and of the world: “You are unworthy, selfish, inadequate, a failure and a hopeless sinner. Your body is all wrong, you don’t have the possessions you should possess at your age, you lack so many skills and you make poor choices.”  Other people listen to voices that define them according what those other voices think they should be doing. Most people think they should be able to find their identity in their vocations and then muddle around in guilt or frustration when they find after a while that a life of marriage, parenthood, the priesthood or the religious life doesn’t necessarily fulfill the deepest desire all humans have: to be unique, effective and wholly loved.

God has a name for you. Whatever that moniker is that everyone calls you by right now is more like a nickname, really. Like Peter’s true name, ‘Rock’, God’s name for you holds everything you were created to be. God’s name for you is a journey of discovery and it will grow as you grow. God’s name for you may look nothing like who or what you are right now, so don’t assume anything. Jesus called Peter, “Rock On Which I Will Build My Church” but consider who Peter was in the Gospels. Did he look like a solid and wise foundational rock type person to you? He was an impulsive, rough and poor fisherman with no education to speak of. He was a man those other voices would have sneered at and condemned as a sinner. God does not name us according to how we see ourselves, according to what education we have or haven’t had or according to how others see us or want us to be. He names us according to what he created us to be. He names us and when we open our ears to hear him calling us by name, we begin to grow into the fullness of who we were created to be just as Peter grew into becoming Rock, Healer and Shepherd or the way the stern, legalistic and self referential Saul became Paul (which means small or humble), a man who grew into finally beholding the mystical Christ and learned that wisdom resides in the spaces in between black and white.

Hearing one’s name does not lead to instant spiritual success. Both Peter and Paul had to fail, fall, fumble and betray Jesus. Both of them had to go through desolation and desperation, otherwise they would have tried to form themselves into being whatever they first thought their names meant. Both, in different ways, had to come to a point of realizing that their egos, their Wounded Warriors of false self, had no place in their journeys of becoming who God meant them to be and they had to understand that their visions of what the future should look like were completely erroneous. No one could have envisioned all that happened in the Acts of the Apostles. No one could have foreseen the high numbers of people who came to believe in the name of Jesus. Even if it had been predicted, no one would have believed the advent of explosive truth that went so far beyond the parameters of acceptable Jewish theology. No one, not Peter, Paul nor any of the other disciples, could have anticipated or envisioned what God’s names for them would bring about in their lives or in the lives of the people around them.

Who do people say that you are?

Who do you say that you are?

Now…who does God say that you are? 

Listen to him…it will be nothing like what you expected.