Ah, Caesarea Philippi – a road trip North only this time, not necessarily into God’s country!
Jesus and the twelve were somewhere in the region of the base of Mt. Hermon. It just so happened to be the site of a number of “pagan temples.”
You can still walk among these ruins – today – and see the footprint of the floors and walls and the little niches carved into the mountainside where various statues were placed.
To the left of the ruins – you can see the mouth of a large cave partially filled with water.
It was said, in Jesus’ day and time – water would “gush up” and “out” of this cave without warning – spewing up waters from the depths of the earth.
The people believed it to be a bottomless pit…and it became known as being “the gates of hell.”
In the middle of the pool stands a large rock table and it was on that rock that children were sacrificed to appease the angry god, Moleck.
After a child was slain, the body would then be thrown into the water. If it sank, Moleck was pleased. If the little lifeless body floated, the sacrifice was then – done in vain.
So this was the actual background setting to where Jesus and the disciples stood. There can be no sugar coating it!
Jesus and the twelve made the approximate 25 mile journey on foot. It was about 25 miles north of the Sea of Galilee.
It was almost as if, this background were chosen intentionally for Jesus to ask the question: “Who do people say, that the “SON OF MAN is?”
The answers were a little bit surprising. John, the Baptizer, Elijah, Jeremiah…most people assumed he was a prophet. Many feared that he might be more than that…
For sure he did signs and wonders. For sure he was a healer. But what else was he?
When you think about it, the world knows us mostly by who we’re related to – and what it is we do for a living.
Check out any obituary in the newspaper…and those things seem to be the qualities by which we are known.
Pj – baby brother of Bonnie (from Racine) and a clergyman who loved parish ministry…
No one really cares about titles, status, grades or degrees…
We are known by what we do.
I have a friend who is a principal of an elementary school. One day there was a minor altercation on the playground – a first grader pushed one of his classmates off the slide, and while she wasn’t hurt, it could have been dangerous.
The teacher sent for the principal.
The principal talked with the children in the hallway outside of their classroom, rather than going into the intimidating office.
The principal listened to their stories and then explained the seriousness of playground safety and “how important it is” to be nice to each other.
When she finished the little boy apologized and that was that.
A couple of days later she happened to see the little girl with her mother in the checkout line at Pick N’ Save. She got into the adjacent checkout line, but was in earshot of the little girl and her mother.
She overheard the mother ask her daughter, “Who was that lady who just waved at you?”
The little girl said, “She works at our school.” “What does she do there?”- the mother asked. The little girl said, “She’s the one who helps people to apologize to one another!”
Jesus was known…as being a powerful presence. King Herod even thought that Jesus might be a resurrected Baptizer…others thought he was the one to come, before the great and terrible day of the Lord, while others saw him as one who opposed the religious leaders in Jerusalem…and as one who predicted the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple…
Matthew says, that Peter was finally starting to “get it”…that he recognized Jesus as the Son of the Living God…the Messiah, the Anointed One.
But what is important here … is obviously, who do YOU say that Jesus is?
And also important, what will people someday have to say about you?
Who are you? Whom are you related to?
What did you do in this life?
Where was your passion? How and in what ways…are you making a difference?