Matthew 16:13-20 – Jesus the Messiah and God’s New Community

Jews, then and now, h0ld the hope that God will send a Messiah, the Anointed King to liberate them. They believe that He will front a mission to free Israel from their oppression. Through Him justice will be instituted and peace in the world will be experienced. According to Micah 5:1-3, the prophets foretold that He would be born in Bethlehem. As to when He would be born, nobody has any clue. However, most Jews believe that He would hail from the linage of King David. Hence, one of His titles was “Son of David.”

Who is this Messiah? What is He like? Has He arrived? What exactly will His role be? In Jesus’ days there were all kinds of idea concerning Him. Many saw Him as a strong and mighty warrior much like King David of old. His coming would be to deliver Israel from the oppression of their pagan enemies and establish their freedom. Many also believe that He would come and cleanse the Temple and restore true worship. He would fulfill the Scriptures prophesied about Him, usher in and inaugurate God’s Kingdom and establish it here on earth.  In the days of our Lord, many who had claimed to be that Messiah had come and gone. To publicly declare to be that coming Messiah would attract the attention of the authorities and invite hostility. So we see in these verses that when Jesus wanted to ask the question concerning the Messiah, He took His disciples up north of Israel to Caesarea, Philippi. This place was out of the jurisdiction of Herod Antipas and would be a good two days walk from the Sea of Galilee.  

The question Jesus asked was sort of indirect. “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”  It’s an indirect way of saying, who do people say that I the Son of God is? Jesus had an inclination what the answer would be, He nonetheless wanted to hear from them. So they merely reported what others thought He would be – John the Baptist, Isaiah, Jeremiah or one of the prophets. But Jesus was not interested in what others thought of Him. He wanted to know what His disciples, who had been with Him and saw His works, thought of Him. Indeed Jesus was not just God’s mouthpiece, He was the long awaited Messiah. Peter then boldly declared – You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. That elicited an immediate response from Jesus, telling Him that He did not know it by himself. What He just said of Jesus, the Messiah of God, had to be a revelation. He saw Jesus as Israel’s long awaited King, the one prophesied in the Psalms and spoken of by the prophets. With that revelation, they were not just joining a prophetic movement, they were enlisted into the army of the true King. They had just entered a huge challenge. With Jesus as their true King, then Herod, Caesar, the Roman emperor and even all the temple authorities had a challenge at hand.

At Peter’s bold declaration, Jesus revealed that He would build a community based on that declaration as its very foundation. It would be on the Rock of that confession that a new community would be built. It would comprise of people who would place their allegiance on the King whom Peter had just declared. And the invincibility of this community will be so evident that not even the gates of hell can prevent its advancement. For to them, Christ would give the key to the Kingdom. It will give them power to excess to the works that advance the Kingdom. Through them God will begin to put the world right, and the realities of heaven would be brought into the realm of earth.

Jesus warned them that till the right moment to be made public, they must keep the message of His Kingship a closely guarded secret, so as not to invite unnecessary hostility. Furthermore there are yet areas that needed honing. Peter still had much to learn and much failures to overcome. All these were part of the process of establishing this new community of God. For after all, this community is made up people drawn to God, sinners who are forgiven. For us who are grafted into this new community, let’s avail ourselves to God to fulfill His desire to make heaven a reality here on earth.