The middle man or woman!
Amanda MacQuarrie
September 01, 2017
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Matthew 16: 13-20
13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’ 14 And they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ 15 He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ 16 Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’ 17 And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.’ 20 Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
This passage speaks of Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Christ. But the passage begins with Jesus asking, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
Very often it is through the faith of others, and how they are towards us, that we come to know Jesus as Lord.
Augustine, although brought up a Catholic, lost his faith in adolescence. As a young man in his 20s he flirted with Manichaeism but after moving to Milan he encountered Ambrose, the Bishop of Milan of whom he wrote:
“That man of God received me as a father, and showed me an Episcopal kindness on my coming. Thenceforth I began to love him, at first indeed not as a teacher of truth (which I utterly despaired of in Thy Church), but as a person kind towards myself.”
Augustine was moved by his sermons and realised that “The Manichees were to be abandoned; judging that even while doubting, I might not continue in that sect … I determined therefore … to be a Catechumen in the catholic church, … till something certain should dawn upon me, whither I might steer my course.”
And encouraged by Ambrose he returned to Scripture which eventually meant that he came to know Christ.
Imagine if we were the person God was using in someone else’s life to point them to Him? How does that affect our interactions with people? Choose one person today in your contacts and pray for them, that they might come to know Christ.
Lord of our days,
Lord of our moments,
Be in the nitty gritty of our lives,
Open our eyes to see the people you bring across our paths today,
The person on the train next to us,
The child at the kitchen table,
The person we serve in the café,
The friend we message or text…
And may our prayer, our longing, for them
Be yours.
Amen.
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