Today, August 23, is the Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time.

First Reading: Isaiah 22:19-23

Thus says the LORD to Shebna, master of the palace: “I will thrust you from your office and pull you down from your station. On that day I will summon my servant Eliakim, son of Hilkiah; I will clothe him with your robe, and gird him with your sash, and give over to him your authority. He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. I will pace the key of the House of David on Eliakim’s shoulder; when he open, no one shall shut, when he shuts, no one shall open. I will fix him like a peg in a sure spot, to be a place of honor for his family.”

Gospel: Matthew 16:13-20

Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi and he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter said in reply, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, your are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Then he strictly ordered his disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.

There is, at bare minimum, enough material in this Gospel reading to provide for three excellent homilies. One homily could focus on the question of Jesus, “Who do you say that I am?” Another homily could focus on Peter’s role as the rock on which Jesus built His Church and what it means that Jesus gave the keys to the kingdom to Simon Peter. Finally, a third homily could focus on the line “the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against [my Church].”

Tonight, I’ll go with the first question, and see where it goes from there over the next couple of days. Thinking about it, I never finished my series on the question of whether or not Jesus claimed to be God. Things are getting backed up.

Jesus asks His disciples: “Who do you say that I am?” It is a question each of us must answer. In fact, it is the central question of Christian life and faith. It is the answer to that question that defines us as Christian or not Christian.

Was Jesus a great man, a magnificent teacher of ethics? Was He a guru, a magi, a philosopher? Was He one of those who challenged religious convention, like many prophets did? Maybe He was even a revolutionary, a secret zealot hoping to overthrow the Roman occupation? Was He a miracle worker, a healer, blessed by God or, contrary to all of that, a man who had made a Faustian bargain with the devil? If He was that, it seems the devil didn’t keep his part of the bargain, for Jesus didn’t live long once He began His public ministry. He was plotted against by the Jewish leaders of the day and sentenced to death by the Roman Empire’s local authority, the prelate Pontius Pilate.

Or was Jesus who Simon Peter said he was: the Christ, the Son of the Living God? After all of the noise that surrounded Jesus wherever He went settled down and Jesus and His disciples found a secluded spot, He inquired of the disciples that made up His inner circle who the crowds thought He might be. John the Baptist! Elijah! Jeremiah! One of the prophets! It would be easy to mistake Jesus as merely a prophet. He was a prophet, of course, but He wasn’t merely a prophet. I recall a conversation I had with a woman years ago. She was not a believer. It was around the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi. I spoke with her of how much I admired Francis and the example of a life lived entirely in dedication to following the gospel, including the strict poverty, the praise Francis rendered to God, and the joy he exuded in everything he did. My friend asked why I didn’t revere Francis as I did Jesus. My answer was simple: Francis was a good man and a great saint, but he wasn’t the living God of the universe. Francis didn’t die and rise againt to redeem me.

Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Yes, He is a great ethical teacher. Yes, He challenged the religious conventions of His day. Yes, He was a revolutionary, though not a political or partisan one, but one who led a revolution of grace and love and transformed priorties. Yes, He was a miracle worker, a healer, one blessed by God who touched others with God’s grace. But He is so much more than any one of those things, and even so much more than all of them. He is the Christ, the Son of the living God! He is the cause of our redemption. He is the Lamb of God, given over for the sake of our sins to free us from the chains of sin. He is the Risen Lord, who’s resurrection prefigures our own being raised to glory, for those who remain faithful to Him, who take up their cross and follow Him, who unite their sufferings with His, and who put their faith in the joy of the resurrection. Jesus promises that we will share in the very nature of God. And Jesus keeps His promises.

Be Christ for all. Bring Christ to all. See Christ in all.