Who Do You Say That I Am?

Jesu Juva

St. Matthew 16:13-20                                     

August 23, 2026

Proper 16A             

Dear saints of our Savior,

        “Who do you say that I am?” 

“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 

This question and answer is foundational to the Christian faith.  Christ is how we know God; and Christ is how we know man; and we Christians proclaim both to a world that knows neither.  Our pastors and missionaries proclaim the true God with boldness amid all the idols of this age.  And our ministries of mercy proclaim true man with boldness amid every dehumanizing force.

        This Q and A between Jesus and the Twelve is a unique moment in our Lord's earthly ministry.  There’s nothing else quite like it anywhere else in the gospels.  At what other time does Jesus sit the disciples down, look them in the eye, and ask:  What do you guys think?  Let me hear what you’ve got to say.  Or, take the unique setting of this Q and A: the district of Caesarea Philippi.  What does that matter?  Why do the evangelists bother to include that geographic detail?  Well, this may have been the farthest from Jerusalem that Jesus ever roamed.  It was about 25 miles north of the northern tip of the Sea of Galilee.  As the name, Caesarea, would indicate, the Roman Emperor was venerated there.  But the entire region was replete with religions and idols and ideologies.  Jesus had taken the Twelve deep into a territory filled with a diversity of deities, to reveal Himself as the Son of the living God.

        Jesus’ question and Peter’s answer must lead us also to confess with clarity that Jesus is God—that He alone is the way, the truth, and the life—the one Mediator between God and men—who gave Himself as a ransom for all men.  And we Christians make that good confession concerning the Christ in a world not unlike the region of Caesarea Philippi.  We live in a brave, new world—a world where the idols are no longer easily recognized or defined. 

Our idols are seen most clearly whenever we look in the mirror.  Who do I love more than me?  Who do you love more than you?  In our worst moments we are dead-set on making ourselves gods in the place of God, making our own laws to live by—on a constant quest for power, for pleasure, for control.  And all this while we signal our virtue and align ourselves with whatever it takes to be popular.

        Jesus’ question and Peter’s answer must continually call us to repentance.  You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.  Jesus is God, and we are not.  But . . .who are we?  Who do you say I am?  Who does Jesus say I am?  Who does the church say I am?  What does the humanity of Jesus mean . . . for humanity?

        Who do you say people are?  For if Jesus Christ is God and Lord, that says as much about us as it does about Him.  With Jesus at the center, we can know our place.  We know where we stand.  And we know where we stand in relation to our fellow human beings—or, as Jesus called them:  the least, the lowly, and the lost.

        Who are we?  We have received an identity that no one can take away.  Note that carefully:  Your identity is given to you, not chosen by you.  We are created by God and made in God’s image.  That creative work—that core of our identity—begins in the womb.  Who do you say that is in the womb?  The womb is where life begins—where it all began for all of us.  Who do you say is there, in the womb?  Demonic voices declare that what resides in the womb is an unwanted inconvenience—an obstacle, an accident, or just medical waste to be burned. 

But we who confess that Jesus is the Son of the living God—we know—we know that the womb is the first home of every human baby.  The womb was the first home of the Lord Jesus!  In the womb is life from God.  Those unborn babies deserve to draw their first breath.  They deserve love and protection.  They deserve a mother and a father.  And, dare I say, it’s not enough to quietly believe that—to silently assent to what the preacher is saying.  When Jesus asks, “Who do you say that I am?” silence is not an option.  How differently the gospels would read if Peter had just sat on his hands and kept his mouth shut for once.  But Peter speaks and confesses what he has been given, and so must we.  We must neither be silent, nor silenced.

        We too must confess.  We must speak out against abortion, and against every demonic ideology that seeks to rob us of our God-given identity.  Any belief system—any ideology that diminishes our humanity, or distorts our humanity, or degrades our humanity, is an assault on the humanity of Jesus, who was made to be like us in every way yet without sin, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. We confess: Male and female He created them. We confess: Marriage should be honored by all.  We confess: Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and give to God what is God’s. (Jesus is God; Caesar is not.)

        Our task in the church is to confess.  Our task is to tell people who Jesus is; and to tell people who they really are in relation to Jesus.  The world, of course, doesn’t want to hear it.  The world says, that’s just your religion (as if anything religious can be immediately disregarded).  But how much religious fervor does it take to believe that a man can become a woman, or that a woman can marry a woman?  Start disregarding religious beliefs because they are religious and soon enough you are left with nothing.

        But we in the Christian faith have been given everything.  We know.  We know because it has been revealed to us.  We have been given the faith to believe it:  Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.  He died.  He rose.  He lives!  That truth changes everything. That truth orders the universe.  That truth brings into submission all the forces of chaos.  And so, we must continue to confess it. 

This is what we have been given to do, as surely as Peter piped up at the question posed by Jesus.  We take no pride in this.  We don’t boast about this.  Nor do we apologize for this.  This has been given to us.  Here we stand; we can do no other, God help us.

        And so we in the church of Jesus Christ must never stop confessing.  We will never stop answering that most foundational question of identity.  We will never stop proclaiming the gospel answer that has been revealed to us from heaven.  We answer anyone and everyone, from the greatest to the very least: We claim one and all for the human family. 

Who are you?  You are created by God.  Your life is no accident, no random quirk of evolution.  Your life is by divine design. 

Who are you?  In Christ you are redeemed.  You are died for.  You are loved.  Jesus Christ has answered for your sin by His death on the cross. By faith He is restoring in you His divine image, making you truly human—destined not for destruction, but for resurrection. 

Who are you?  You are a son of the living God.  You are a daughter of the living God.

        Upon this rock the Lord is building His church, as the gates of hell rage impotently on.

        In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

 

Buried Treasure

Jesu Juva

St. Matthew 13:44-52                                         

July 26, 2026

Proper 12A                                 

Dear saints of our Savior~

        You really can’t go wrong watching episodes of Antiques Roadshow on PBS.  That’s the program where people bring in their antiques and heirlooms to be appraised by experts—to see whether they have trash or treasure—something that’s worthless or worth a lot.

        For people like me, with an untrained eye, it can be difficult to tell whether an item is trash or treasure.  What may look like a beautiful vase dating from the “Ming Dynasty” might actually have been made in New Jersey.  And what looks to me like a desert landscape painted “by the numbers” might turn out to be a one-of-a-kind masterpiece valued at six figures.  It’s exciting to think that something you own—something boxed-up in your basement or gathering dust in your attic—might actually be an extremely valuable treasure.

        Jesus knew that this drive to hunt for treasure is hardwired into most human beings; and perhaps that’s why He told two quick parables that build on this basic instinct to search for and seek out things of great value:  The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up.  Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.  In a day before banks and safety deposit boxes, it was quite common for people to bury things of great value.  Especially if an invading army was on the way, or if you were about to embark on a long journey, burying your treasured possessions was often the most effective way to protect them.

        The next parable concerns a pearl—but not just any pearl:  Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.  In First Century Palestine pearls were just as valuable as gold.  If you were lucky enough to find one of great price, you would do all you could to acquire it.

        So, now that we know the earthly stories, what’s the “heavenly meaning” of these parables?  The prevailing interpretation of these parables down through the centuries has been that they are about discipleship—that the buried treasure and the priceless pearl correspond to the truth of the Gospel—that we are saved from the power of sin and death through faith in the crucified and risen Christ—that He who knew no sin became sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.  And, yes, this is pure gold!  This is a priceless treasure!  Just as the people in the parables sold all they had to acquire that treasure and that pearl, so should we spare no expense in following Jesus and acquiring the gold of the gospel.  Nothing in this world—not family, not money, not career—should compare with our regular reception of Christ’s gifts to us in Word and Sacrament.  Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.  When it comes to Jesus and His gifts, we should bear any burden, make any sacrifice, and pay any price to have those treasures as our own.

        But that traditional interpretation has a problem—a problem posed by our sinful condition. Our sinful natures prefer trash to treasure.  God’s Word tells us that our salvation in Jesus Christ should be our most treasured possession.  It says in 1 Peter that your faith is “of greater worth than gold.”  The First Commandment proclaims our priorities perfectly:  You shall have no other gods.  We should fear, love and trust in God above all things.  We “fear” a lot of things.  We fear the disapproval of others.  We fear viruses and parasites.  We fear losing our jobs and incomes.  But we do not fear God as we should.  We do not love Him or trust Him or seek Him as we should.  We do not treasure Him above all else.  We are like faithless Esau, quick to trade away our baptismal birthright for a pot of stew.  We are certainly not like the treasure hunters in the parable who gave up everything—all that they had—to acquire the treasure.  Have you given up everything for the faith?  Would you give up everything?

        If we take this interpretation to its logical conclusion, it’s not very satisfying.  If our discipleship hinges entirely on our pursuit of heavenly treasure—if it’s all about our quest for holiness—then all we are left with is our sin and our failure and our disobedience.  We are left with all trash and no treasure.

        But there is another interpretation of these parables—one that centers on Jesus, and not on us.  For the thing that the treasure hunter and the pearl merchant have in common is that they “sold everything,” they gave all they had, to “buy” their desired treasure.  There was an exchange.  There was a purchase made. There was a quid pro quo, a this-for-that.  Only one man actually gave up everything—including His very life—to acquire the object of His desire.  That man was Jesus.  He alone came to give His life as a ransom payment for the many (Matt. 20:28).

        In this Christ-centered approach to the parables, Jesus is the treasure hunter and you—you are the treasure.  You are holy to the Lord your God.  He has chosen you as His treasured possession.  You, dear baptized believer, are priceless and precious in the eyes of Jesus, who purchased and won you from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and His innocent suffering and death, that you might be His own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness.  You aren’t trash; you are treasure!  You aren’t worthless; but worthy to be called a child of God though faith in Jesus.

        Without Jesus and without faith, we are lost.  When sin is the center of our lives, then we are not only lost, but dead.  We are, in fact, dead and buried, just like the treasure in the parable.  But we who once were lost have now been found.  Our sin has been answered for.  A loving Lord has rescued us from the trash heap and claimed us as His own.  You are not your own; you were bought at a price (1 Cor. 6:18-20).

        Jesus sought you and bought you.  You are precious and paid-for—blood-bought, baptized, and beautiful.  In fact, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us so.  Nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

        On this side of heaven, however, God’s treasure remains somewhat hidden.  We are the Lord’s treasured possession, but we often feel like “buried” treasure.  We are buried beneath the world’s hatred—buried beneath the weight of our own struggles against sin—buried beneath the load of crosses that our Lord would have us carry.  But you belong to Jesus.  You are precious to Him.  And that changes everything.

        Many of the Lord’s treasured possessions are no longer with us.  We knew them, and loved them—parents and grandparents, spouses and children.  We treasured them for a time, but now they have gone to be with the Lord—with the One who treasures them so much more than we ever could.  Their earthly remains now lie at rest, buried in the earth—like treasure.  But on the Day of Resurrection we know what will happen.  Those resting places—those cemeteries—will be like fields of buried treasure from which the Lord with all His angels will raise up all the dead and will claim all that is rightfully His.  You are rightfully His.  You together with all the saints are the Lord’s precious, priceless treasure.  You are safe in His keeping until that blessed day.

        In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.