Who do people say the Son of Man is?

2nd May, 2006

As part of our pilgrimage tour we were travelling from Cana (Church of the wedding feast) to a place called Caesarea Philippi, about 20 miles North of the Sea of Galilee. To view the ruins of the City of Banyas built by Philip the Tetrarch who named it after the Emperor Caesar Augustus who died in 14 A.D. and himself. He was the son of Herod the Great and it took him from 4 B.C. until his death in 34 A.D. It was about one hour’s drive and we arrived at around noon. Alighting from our coach we proceeded to the entrance where the stream of clean, clear running water came cascading down from higher grounds.

We ascended the slop led by a path towards our right that brought us before a large cave and a large excavation site of archaeological findings. The ruins of the ‘Temple of Pan’ built before the cave entrance, against the backdrop of a gigantic wall of rock 300ft high and running 500ft long. It is part of the southern foothills of Mount Hermon. There were fishes swimming about and some heading upstream.There was this contraption with an spherical concrete base like a ‘top’ with an iron pole running through it’s centre for a hand-grip.On it’s concrete base is ‘embossed’ the wordings taken from Matthew’s Gospel. If you hold the pole and roll the inverted spherical base it will imprint Matthew’s text on the loose sand.

The cave and ruins at Caesarea Philippi.

Placard giving historical information.

The archaeological site with ruins of the Temple

Matt 16:13-20 (Peter’s profession of faith). Quote from Jerusalem Bible.

’When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he put this question to his disciples, ‘Who do people say of the Son of Man is?’ And they said, ‘Some say he is John the Baptist, some Elijah and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets’, ‘But you,’ he said’ who do you say I am?’ Then Simon Peter spoke up, ‘You are the Christ,’ he said,’Son of the living God. Jesus replied, ‘Simon son of Jonah, you are a happy man! Because it is not flesh and blood that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. So I now say to you; you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church. And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven. Then he gave the disciples strict orders not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.

Remember Christ is a Jew and he spoke Aramaic, the local language and Matthew wrote his Gospel originally in Aramaic intended for the Jewish Community. Christ chose Simon alone, whom he named ‘Peter’ to be the ‘rock’ of his church. The Aramaic word for rock is ‘Kaypha’ in which he used; so the early church was founded upon Peter, who fixed his Chair in Rome. And the Roman Empire was the World at that time with it’s great vastness extended from Britain in the North, to Egypt in the South, Portugal in the West to Persia in the East. Rome the Capital had become the centre of civilisation and culture and all roads lead to Rome. So Peter established the ‘Mother Church’ there which has become the root of Catholicism.

For the first 1,000 years of Christianity, there was only one church “Catholic’ meaning ‘Universal’. It was at Antioch that for the first time converts were called ‘Christians’. As the Church spread, Greek language soon took over as common usage; owing to Hellenisation as result of conquest made by ‘Alexander the Great’. Aramaic was spoken only by the Jews, whereas Greek could be understood by many; was the ‘lingua franca’ of the time. Thus the books of the New Testament were eventually written in Greek. Since 3rd century after the persecution when Christianity was accepted; Latin became the official language of the Catholic Church. And Pope Damasus commissioned Jerome to translate the Bible into Latin (the ‘Vulgate’) in which the linguist took 35 years to complete. In early times the Bible had to be hand-written, a slow, pains-taking, labouring process with limited circulation to churches and monasteries. For an ordinary person to own one would be beyond his means and also a vast majority of the population, farmers working on their lands were illiterate and therefore could not read. It was only with the introduction of the printing press in the 15th century that Johannes Gutenburg, the Catholic inventor printed the first book, the ‘Bible’ and it was in Latin. From then progressively the Bible became widely available and affordable.

Then came the ‘East/West Schism in the year 1054 when the churches split between the Latin-rites Roman (Western) Church and the Eastern-rites Byzantine/Greek-speaking Orthodox Church. Their disagreement besides ‘doctrine’ on Christology but also on the supreme authority of the pope. Sadly it could not be resolved and there was no reconciliation but instead followed by mutual ex-communication of each other. Soon came Martin Luther in 1517 when he broke away to form the ‘Reformation (Protestant) church’. Henry VIII King of England also broke away not because of doctrine; for earlier Pope Leo X had confer upon him the title of ‘Fedei Defensor’ (Defender of Faith) for writing a treatise against Marin Luther defending the 7 Sacraments and the supremacy of the pope. However the Pope refused to annul his marriage to Catharine of Aragon as he wanted to marry Anne Boleyn. Finally Henry established his National ‘Church of England’ and became the head.

To-day the Catholic Church comprises of one Roman (Western) and 22 Eastern Catholic Churches that are in communion with Rome. The Catholic Church is Apostolic, built on a lasting foundation: ‘the twelve apostles of the Lamb’ (Rev 21:14, The city walls stood on twelve foundation stones, each one of which bore the name of one of the twelve apostles of the lamb. Eph 2:20 You are part of a building that has the apostles and prophets for its foundations, and Christ Jesus himself for its main cornerstone). She is indestructible (Matt 16:18) and upheld infallibly in the truth (1Tim 3:15) 'I wanted you to know how people ought to behave in God's family - that is, in the Church of the living God which upholds the truth and keeps it safe'.

Christ governs his church through Peter and the other apostles who are present in their successors, the pope and the college of bishops. Imagine from only 12 apostles it has grown to enormous proportion to the present Catholic population of 1.13 billion, however for the first time, Islam have overtaken Catholicism with 1.5 billion.

In Matthew’s Gospel when Christ changed Simon name to Peter (‘Rock’), he gave him the ‘keys’ to his kingdom, with the divine power to bind and to loose. “Keys’ symbolise authority as used in the Old Testament in (Is 22:22, Rev 1.18) from ancient times to the present day; to be given the key to the city meant to be given free access to and authority over the city.

Christ had given his authority, protection and assurance; that the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it. In Matt 28:18-20 ‘He said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ‘Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations; baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you. And know that I am with you always; to the end of time.’

However, he also predicted the manner of death Peter would encounter. According to Catholic tradition Peter was crucified in Rome during persecution by Emperor Nero around 65 A.D. He chose to be hung upside as he felt unfit to die like his Master. His body was taken by the faithful and buried at a nearby cemetery (Catacomb).

Statue of St. Peter holding the ‘key’

So the path to the his kingdom can be rough and crooked as John the Baptist, a cousin of Jesus, the ‘Voice in the Wilderness’ preaching and calling the people to repent. He was preparing the way to make the path straight, valleys be filled, mountains and hills made low. Everything crooked made straight; the rough paths made smooth.

The followers of Jesus, his apostles and disciples were martyred, starting with Stephen the first to be stoned to death outside the Lion’s Gate (Jerusalem) renamed St Stephen’s Gate. Peter crucified up-side down and Paul, a Roman citizen suffers less humiliation by beheading; both died in Rome. James the leader of the Jerusalem Church was martyred being thrown down from the Temple Mount. Andrew crucified at Patras in Achaia, Philip crucified in Phrygia, Simon the Zealot martyred in Persia as was Jude. Luke the Evangelist died at the beginning of the 2nd century in Thebes and Mark in Egypt and his body smuggled to Venice and entombed in St. Mark’s Basilica. Finally was left John who fortunately died of old age at Ephesus.

Who is this man called Jesus the Nazarene?

He did not have the military might

Nor any political power,

Never wrote down anything,

Travelled only a few miles around Galilee.

His own Jews were against him,

The Romans crucified him, nailed him to the cross.

His disciples deserted him,

When dead he was taken down and laid in somebody else's tomb,

Yet till this-day after more than more 2000 years, he left behind the legacy of tremendous impact whose influence effecting more than 1/6 of mankind that inhabit the world. And conversion continues everyday.

The same question Jesus is asking us, ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?