It takes a leap, not certainty. A risk. Being wrong. Being changed. Growing. This is the character of our entire faith.
And other signs of the grace of God
Proper 16A | Matthew 16:13-20
The teacher isn’t making it easy on his students. The questions sound simple. At first. But they are sneaky, deep, and require our actually paying attention.
The first,
“Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
should be simple enough, I suppose. What have we heard along the way? They might not talk in front of Jesus, but his followers? Sure. And besides, they’ve gone out without him. Healing. Proclaiming the Good News. No doubt they’ve said some things themselves about him.
What did they say, I wonder? When they bring him up. It can’t just be other people talking. Calling him a prophet. Maybe Elijah’s come back. No, they’ve had to say something themselves. But what? That he’s special? Not just a healer or a prophet, probably.
“But who do you say that I am?”
Now that should be easy, too. But it requires admitting something. Not other people’s ideas, but their own.
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