If someone were to ask you who you think Jesus is, what would you say? Many of us might give the same answer that Simon did in this morning’s Gospel and say that Jesus is Christ and Son of God, but we might also give other answers. We might say that Jesus is our Lord and Saviour or that he’s our Heavenly Advocate. Perhaps we’d say that he’s the One who takes away our sins, or the Good Shepherd. In fact, there are lots of ways we could answer that question and answer it correctly. But however we answered that question, and no matter how correct our answer was, there’s a sense in which we’d still be left with the same question, ‘Who do you say Jesus is?’ Because all the answers I’ve mentioned, answer that question by giving Jesus a title or a role, all of which do say something about who we believe him to be, and something about what we believe he does, but who is he? How do we answer that question in such a way that we can really get a handle on him, and on his earthly life and his ministry and his teaching? 

This is a very important way we have to try to answer this question because it’s in these terms that we have to try to make Jesus understandable to people who don’t really know who he is at all. It’s an essential part of proclaiming the Gospel, in fact, because there’s no point in telling someone who knows little or nothing about Jesus who Jesus is by giving them a list of his titles and roles because they’d mean little or nothing to them. So we have to say who Jesus is in ways that they will understand before we can move on to titles. And if we think about it, isn’t this exactly what we see both in this morning’s Gospel reading, and in the Gospels in general.  

This morning, we heard Simon Peter’s great confession of faith that Jesus was “Christ, the Son of the living God.” But this wasn’t something that Simon came to understand immediately. As Jesus said, it was revealed to him by the Father, but it was an understanding he came to only after he’d spent time with Jesus, after he’d heard Jesus speak and seen him at work. In other words, Simon Peter came to understand who Jesus really is, after he’d already come to knew who Jesus is in a more everyday sense.  

And if we take the Gospels as a whole, we see that they’re written to explain to people who Jesus is in that way, so that they might come to understand who he really is and so come to faith. We see this in the way that the evangelists used what they knew about Jesus because they almost certainly edited the stories, so that Jesus could be seen to be addressing the concerns of the people the evangelists wrote for. Mark, for example, which was probably written for a largely Gentile readership, shows Jesus as a man of action, for ever on the move, pressing on with the Father’s work. Matthew, on the other hand, which was probably written for a Jewish Christian readership, shows Jesus as more of a great teacher, perhaps especially the great teacher of Israel. Luke, again written for a Gentile readership, shows Jesus as someone who cares for all people, not just for his own people, the Jews. John is different because it explains at the very beginning who Jesus is, the Word made flesh and then goes on to expound on that by showing Jesus a worker of great signs. Jesus often speaks of himself as “I am” in John’s Gospel which is how God called himself to Moses at the Burning Bush. John’s is the most theological of the Gospels, as we might expect as it was the latest of the four Gospels to be written, and it seems to want to appeal to both Jews and Gentiles, to bring them to a deeper understanding and faith but also, being written after the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, to show that Jesus is the new focus of worship for all God’s people.  

As we look at the history of mission and evangelism, we invariably see that this is the way it’s worked. Missionaries and evangelists have taught people who Jesus is by showing how his teaching and example fit in with and meet their needs concerns. And then, once people have come to understand who Jesus is in that sense, they’ve been able to come to understand who he really is and so come to faith. It’s a process; we adapt the way we speak about Jesus so that we can assimilate his teaching into the new situation, and we try to change old ideas to accommodate Jesus’ teaching so that eventually, hopefully, Jesus’ way replaces the old way.  

This process can work both ways though and if we engage in mission and evangelism, we have to make sure that we know Jesus well enough that we don’t allow other ways to be assimilated into his teaching and his ways to end up accommodating other ways. This is always a great danger and, unfortunately, it’s something that does happen all too often and it when it does, the end result is the blind leading the blind – people who don’t really know Jesus themselves, giving people who don’t know him at all, a distorted image of him which, in turn, means they can never really get to know who he is.   

For example, although many of the things Jesus said were very political in his own time and place, he didn’t advocate any earthly political system. He only kingdom he ever spoke about was the kingdom of heaven. He rather spoke about our individual and collective duty to fulfil the Great Commandment, our duty to love God above all else and to love our neighbour as much as we love ourselves. Inevitably, this involves caring for those less fortunate than us. We also know that Jesus and his disciples had a common purse and that the disciples continued this practice in the very early Church. And so, Jesus has often been called the First Socialist and people have used this idea to promote that particular political ideology and system. On the other hand, I remember once hearing a TV interview with a very well-known American evangelist who said that Jesus was not a socialist, that “Jesus believed in private property, in capitalism and free enterprise”; that “Jesus believed in the American Way.”  

Those are just two examples of other ways being assimilated into Jesus’ teaching and then passed on to other people as his teaching. But it’s a very widespread problem because it’s something we can all do at times at least. We do it because we think we know Jesus, and we believe ourselves to be acting in good, Christian ways, when, in fact, what we’re really doing is acting in ways that we, or that our society thinks are good, or at least acceptable. I think we do that quite a lot actually because it’s one of the ways we try to absolve ourselves from our sins. We might think what we do is acceptable because everybody else does it. We might think it’s not such a terrible sin because it’s not as bad as the things other people do.  And how often have we heard people say something along the lines of,  

“Well, I know Jesus said such and such, but there’s more than one way to interpret that.” 

Or, even worse,  

“Well, I know Jesus said such and such, but what he really meant was…” 

And then we go on to give our explanation of what we think Jesus meant, which is perhaps nothing more than what we’d like him to have said.   

I don’t know how many of you saw or remember the BBC adaptation of Anthony Trollope’s Barchester Chronicles from the early 1980s but there’s a scene in one of the episodes that I think sums up just the kind of problem I’m talking about. The archdeacon, Dr Grantly, and his father-in-law, another clergyman, Rev.  Harding, are discussing a pending lawsuit regarding some financial irregularities in the Church. The archdeacon expresses the view that some people will not be happy unless the Church gives all its’s money way and he asks what then would become of the Church? Rev. Harding says it’s something he’s sure Jesus Christ might approve of at which the archdeacon angrily responds,  

“Jesus Christ has nothing to do with it!” 

And this is the great problem. If we’re going to proclaim the Gospel we have to make sure that what we say, and do, has everything to do with Jesus Christ. We have to make sure that we know who Jesus is, not just that he’s the Christ, the Son of God, our Lord and Saviour and all the other titles we ascribe to him, but who he is in terms of what he taught and what he did during his time on earth. Because it’s only if we really know who Jesus is in those terms that we can help others to know him too.  

Amen.    

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Propers for the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, 23rd August 2026

Entrance Antiphon 

Turn your ear, O Lord, and answer me; 
save the servant who trusts in you, my God. 
Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I cry to you all the day long. 

The Collect 

O God, who cause the minds of the faithful 
to unite in a single purpose, 
grant your people to love what you command 
and to desire what you promise, 
that, amid the uncertainties of this world, 
our hearts may be fixed on that place 
where true gladness is found. 
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, 
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, 
God, for ever and ever. 
Amen. 

The Readings 

Isaiah 22:15, 19-23  
Psalm 138:1-3, 6, 8 
Romans 11:33-36 
Matthew 16:13-20 

Prayer after Communion  

Complete within us, O Lord, we pray, 
the healing work of your mercy 
and graciously perfect and sustain us, 
so that in all things we may please you. 
Through Christ our Lord. 
Amen. 

Entrance Antiphon 
A great sign appeared in heaven: 
a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon beneath her feet, 
and on her head a crown of twelve stars. 

The Collect 
Almighty ever-living God, 
who assumed the Immaculate Virgin Mary, the Mother of your Son, 
body and soul into heavenly glory, 
grant, we pray, 
that, always attentive to the things that are above, 
we may merit to be sharers of her glory. 
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, 
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, 
God, for ever and ever. 
Amen. 

The Readings 
Revelation 11:19, 12:1-6, 10 
Psalm 45:10-12, 16 
1 Corinthians 15:20-27 
Luke 1:39-56 

Prayer After Communion 
Having received the Sacrament of salvation, 
we ask you to grant, O Lord, 
that, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 
whom you assumed into heaven, 
we may be brought to the glory of the resurrection. 
Through Christ our Lord. 
Amen.