Texts: Isa 51.1-6; Rom 12.1-8; Matt 16.13-20
When we got to Nashua—which is a small town of about 200 people—we stopped at the restaurant in town. My cousin’s wife worked there, and we met my Uncle Leroy and Aunt Bonnie and a few of my cousins there. When we walked into the restaurant and sat down, the waitress came to take our order. She was a local; she’d gone to school with my two uncles and my aunt, and watched my cousins grow up, but she didn’t know me. However, after looking me over, she asked, “Are you Wes’s son?” She'd never seen me, but she knew my dad, and that told her enough to recognize me.
When Jesus asks the disciples, “who do you say that I am,” Simon responds by telling him who his Father is: “You are the Messiah, Son of the living God.” This is not news to anyone at this point; so far in Matthew’s gospel, all of the disciples have recognized Jesus as God’s Son, and he has referred to himself as such. And yet, when he says this, Jesus blesses him.