Matthew 16. 13-20

When I ask people ‘who is Jesus for you?’, many respond ‘a friend’. And that is understandable. The lived sense of Jesus is something warm in the heart, a personal non-judgmental presence that is as precious as a friendship.

But the word ‘friend’ can be problematic because a friend is a human, and limited in the ways any human is.  A friend may be non-judgmental but also may be just mirroring what you yourself want. Is Jesus just a personal cheer leader, a supporter of whatever we do and whatever we are on the journey through life?

No human has been as close to the physical Jesus as the disciples whom Jesus called friends, but Jesus does not define himself as their friend only. He wanted far more for them than friendship.
So he praised Peter Peter’s faith when Peter said: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”  Peter is saying here: ‘You are human and divine. You are something more than I can ever be. You join humanity to the Godhead and yet you are a part of this world. You can actually give me eternal life”.

Jesus is not just Peter’s friend.  A friend is great but cannot redeem you, cannot heal your emotional and spiritual wounds. A friend is a loving supportive human who encourages you, but cannot transform you.

Jesus is a deeply personal experience, like a friend, and Jesus does want the best for you. But that best is not necessarily what we think it is. What would you or your friend say is the best for you? Good health, ease of worries, happy families and workplaces, fulfilling hobbies?  All good things and God would like that too.

But that is not why you were made. And until we fulfil the purpose for which we were made, we will not know fulfilment or true happiness.

That purpose is to reflect the image of God to others and so build a community of peace and justice here on earth. The collect for the day says this:

O God, fount of all wisdom, in the humble witness of the apostle Peter you have shown the foundation of our faith: give us the light of your Spirit, that, recognising in Jesus of Nazareth the Son of the living God, we may be living stones for the building up of your holy Church through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.   Amen.

When we truly recognise Jesus, we recognise our role in building his kingdom, and so should be motivated to do just that. But so often we read Scripture and the promises of God to be with us and save us as being purely about our own individual selves.  God will bring us to where we want to be. God will save me to be the hero of my life story.

Last week’s salvation story was about Joseph, sold into slavery by his brothers, who endured many years of pain, imprisonment and awfulness to become second only to Pharoah. He overcomes adversity to rise above everyone. Isn’t that a story about God saving a person? Yes. But this isn’t a story simply about Jospeh being blessed.  God saved Jospeh so that he could help his family and the Israelites survive starvation.  Joseph wasn’t saved because he was ‘good’ or special.

When we think like that, we create a God of conditional love.  If I am good, I will be saved, or if I am going along quite well, all is well in my life then God must be happy with me. It’s really all about me!

But that isn’t what the Scripture says. Mary says yes to God and a sword would pierce her heart. Jesus said yes to God and he was crucified.

Something other than our good fortune is going on in the Scriptural understanding of our relationship with God.

Joseph recognises this depth that goes beyond his personal good fortune to position him within a cosmic drama that extends over decades and will indeed extend over generations.

He tells his brothers: And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you (Genesis 45.5).

A bit humbling that. Joseph wasn’t saved, as I said, because he was special or because he was particularly loved by his father.  God so loved the world that he could continue to try to work through the sins of the brothers to make a situation that would indeed save not only Joseph but his brothers and indeed the Israelites. Isn’t that redemption?

Maybe the very word ‘saved’ needs some redefinition. If we think that God saved Joseph because he is to be a ‘hero’ in the story, then we have a picture of God who lets many die, but picks out the one’ goody’ to get the glory.  That isn’t Scripture but the plot of Hollywood action movies.

In today’s Old Testament reading many babies were murdered by the Egyptian forces, but Moses was ‘saved’. Doesn’t God care about all the other babies?  Well, he does. And what does he do about it?

The Jesus who is the Son of the living God comes to tell us. God’s plan is to overcome the sin that has infected the world and caused the evil that murders, betrays, and destroys communities and individuals.

Jesus, the God-Man, comes to draw us back into the heart of the Father; he calls us to be transformed into Christlikeness. He is not a friend mirroring what we in our human subjectivity want, he is the power of God to keep calling us to be more than we can be, to use whatever life throws at us, to build with others something that does truly reflect the eternal life of peace grace and dignity for all. We are here for the well-being of others.

Maybe Jospeh and Moses weren’t saved because they were good guys but because they co-operated with the call of God to be living stones of forgiveness and grace to others and they became ‘good’ along the way? Maybe those who died, all the other babies lost in Egypt, are not ‘unsaved’ but swept to that eternal kingdom where they can grow to fullness of life? They may be ‘lost’ here but they are held eternally in the loving arms of the living God.

God uses whoever is available on earth for his eternal plans. That means you and me. The point is, are we responding to this call to be building his divine kingdom, or are we wandering along, asking Jesus to support us where we are, or where we want to go?

Jesus is not a human friend, but he is deeply personal and can be personally experienced. He sees with compassion who we are and we can truly go to him in openness and honesty. And Jesus does comfort us – the Lord is indeed our Good Shepherd. But Jesus also wants far more than to simply comfort us if that keeps us where we are, locked in the trappings of our own minds, of our own cultural values.

He wants us to be transformed into his grace and fire!  And transformed into utter freedom.

Do we call Jesus our friend? Or our saviour? Or redeemer? Do we see him as the doorway to the living God for us and for the world?

Names matter.

This week: Take some time to ponder how you would name Jesus – and may you find new blessings as you do so.  Amen