28.01 Sons of Jonah
Matthew 16:13-17:13
“And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
Matthew 16:17-18
He’s not called Stu.
How are you with names? I’m generally not too bad, but there’s one person I know whose name simply will not lodge in my mind. I do know his real name, and I know him fairly well. But however hard I try and force my brain to attribute his actual name to him, my mind is resolute on calling him Stu.
Jesus seemed pretty good with names. But there’s a funny thing in today’s passage.
He calls Peter’s dad the wrong name.
At the end of John’s gospel, we read that Peter’s dad is actually called John. Not Jonah.
This gets scholars thinking. What’s going on? Spelling mistake (they are, after all, quite similar names)? Nickname (not uncommon in the New Testament)? Second name (like John Mark, who wrote Mark’s gospel)—John Jonah/Jonah John?
The other option is that Jesus was being highly intentional, and picked out this name to define Peter’s lineage for a very specific reason. Because the name Jonah has a backstory.
You’ll probably remember Jonah from the Old Testament, and you’ll likely remember him as the guy who was swallowed by the fish. He was. But the backstory to the fish is that Jonah was sent by God to speak to the very worst of God’s enemies: Ninevah. The capital city of the nation that would soon conquer and exile Israel. They were supposed to be God’s enemies. They were certainly Israel’s enemies. And yet God asks Jonah to go to these very people to bring them a message of transformation and love.
He pretty much asks Jonah to go into hell itself and bring there the message of life.
You can see why he didn’t want to go.
Cut back to Jesus and His disciples in Caesarea Philippi.
Caesarea Philippi was a non-Jewish region, named after Caesar (who the Jews didn’t like), and King Philip (who they didn’t like either). It was home to deep caverns, from which water spilled out to the surface. Local people performed pagan rituals there, sacrificing goats to the Greek god Pan. The caverns were so deep and the reputation of the area so sordid that this place was known as the Gates of Hades itself.
Jesus takes His disciples to this place. The most wounded, broken, messed up place imaginable, the very gates of Hades, and then tells Peter that he is a son of Jonah—who was called to enter into the most wounded, broken, messed up place imaginable.
In short, Jesus is establishing a vision for His Church.
Not a holy cluster, hidden from the world. Not a religious clique, avoiding the pains and injustices and mess of the world around it.
But a mobile, agile, mission team, sons of Jonah, called to enter into the very places of the most darkness and the most pain and the most brokenness, and to bring there God’s inbreaking reality of life and truth and goodness.
To go to the very Gates of Hades themselves, and break them down with the inbreaking love and justice of the Kingdom.
Sons of Jonah.
This is the rock that Jesus built His Church on. It is the foundation that was necessary to create the kind of shape of community that He dreamed of.
And it shapes your day, and my day, right now.
Because the call of His people remains the same.
To find the places of pain and woundedness and brokenness, to step in with a different message of transformation and love, to kick in the doors of Hades itself, and invade with the reign of shining, vibrant, life and love that is only found in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.
Reflect:
We too are sons of Jonah.
What place of pain may God be inviting you to invade today?
Pray:
Lord Jesus
When I look at all the pain and brokenness,
I can feel overwhelmed.
I ask you today for a few things.
I ask you for the compassion,
that I may meet the wounded with love rather than with reluctance.
I ask you for courage,
That I may not stand apathetic and silent when I encounter injustice.
I ask you for power,
That the places of pain that I engage may be touched by your healing presence.
And I ask you that you would help me to treasure the small opportunities to be simply kind.
Make my smiles warmer, my heart more generous, and my contribution more transformative
That your heaven may invade hell today
With your inbreaking reign of perfect peace.
Lord Jesus, in Your Name,
Amen.
Old Testament:
For those also reading the Old Testament this year, your additional readings are here:
Exodus 6:10 | Psalm 16