WHO DO YOU SAY THAT I AM?

Matthew 16:13-20

Skid Row in Los Angeles has roughly 10,000 homeless, poor, and marginally employed residents. The area, with its numerous street encampments, rescue missions, and single room occupancy hotels, has the dubious nickname of “the homeless capital of the nation.” It is also the most policed area in the country. In the heart of it all is the Hospitality Kitchen, also known as the “Hippie Kitchen,” run by the Catholic Worker program. The soup kitchen offers hot meals three days per week to thousands of our brothers and sisters in need and also has a medical and dental clinic on-site with doctors and nurses volunteering their time to offer medical attention.

On the wall that faces 6th Street as you approach the Hospitality Kitchen, there is a large mural, beautifully painted and depicting the homeless community lining up for food. A closer look reveals that one of those people is Jesus himself, simply getting in line with the others. This powerful image serves as a reminder that God is in full solidarity with all of humanity and stands with the poorest among us. For me, it is an icon of Jesus of the people, with the people, and for the people.

Today’s teaching from the Gospel of Matthew has Jesus asking the disciples about who people think he is and further presses his point: who do they think he is.

In 2007 I made the pilgrimage to the Holy Lands and stood with friends where it is believed Jesus stood with his disciples that day asking those questions. Standing there, one is aware that you are standing adjacent to one of the most prominent pieces of landscape in all of Israel – the massive wall of rock at Caesarea Philippi that is over 100 feet high and 500 feet wide. It is upon this sheer cliff that the city of Caesarea Philippi was built and around the time of Jesus’ ministry it was rededicated by King Phillip to honor Caesar who considered himself a god. And throughout the years, hundreds of people would carve niches into the side of the cliff and pay homage by placing statues of their pagan gods so they could be worshipped.

That they were adjacent to shrines where people came to worship Ceasar and other pagan gods adds to the gravity of Jesus’ questions that day about his identity. Given the context and proximity of the setting, Peter’s claim that Jesus is the Messiah – the Son of God is a bold and risky or even dangerous one. And that Jesus brought his disciples to this place in the region of Caesarea Philippi and not to the city on top of the sheer cliff speaks, at least to me, of vantage point.

It feels like Jesus was making a point. Against this backdrop of the massive rock with its marble temple honoring an earthy emperor and niches to pagan gods carved in the side, Jesus asks the question: “Who do they say that I am?” This feels like a clash between the kingdom of the world and the Kingdom of God.

Then Jesus asks the follow-up question of who do the disciples say he is. Peter is quick to respond, and Jesus rewards his proclamation by anointing him as the “Rock on which I will build my church.” But I wonder if he wasn’t speaking of a literal building or institution but instead referring to the people – people who like Peter, live as best we can the life modeled by Jesus, even with all our flaws and shortcomings.

Amid the questions about who Jesus is, he self-identifies often as The Son of Man. What does he mean by that? First, when I hear “Man” in this context, I hear it as “human.” One could say the Son of Humankind. Could it be that he knew himself not only as the Son of the people, with and for the people, but as the people, and even further, as all of humankind. This touches what many are discovering as the Universal Christ.

Today we are reminded that as followers of Jesus, we stand in opposition of institutional structures of power and control, whether those are the towering cliffs of corporate greed, oppressive political structures, or even religious institutions that serve themselves more than serving the people and are more interested in asset mapping than building the Kingdom of God. Jesus says that we can and should stand as truth in the face of these false idols. Each one of us make up the real church – the church of the people following the lead of Jesus, the Son of Man and brother of us all.

We also have our own work to do. We must break down walls within ourselves that divide us from one another and keep us from fully realizing the Kingdom of Heaven that Jesus says is within us.

When Sister Greta celebrates Holy Eucharist at our own House of Prayer, she serves the communion bread with words that always resound with deep truth: “Receive who you are.” Hearing those words as the bread is placed in my hands feels like coming home.

Through us, the Universal Christ can build a human church of the people that nurtures a real love that springs from compassion and forgiveness whose heartbeat is the very heartbeat of God within us, and nothing less. Living life in this awareness can be our answer to our brother Jesus’ question: “Who do you say that I am.” And in doing so we just might discover who we really are.

Brother Dennis