Confession of St. Peter | January 18th 2026 | The Rev. Nat Johnson
Confession of St Peter: January 18, 2026
Acts 4:8-13 | 1 Peter 5:1-4 | Matthew 16:13-19 | Psalm 23
The Rev. Nat Johnson
On January 7, Renee Good, a 37-year old mother of three, was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis. In the days since, people have gathered in prayer and protest across the nation. People in Minneapolis are organizing to be legal observers to raids and confrontations, to protect neighbors, schools, and houses of worship. Earlier this week at a vigil held in Concord New Hampshire, Episcopal Bishop Rob Hirschfeld spoke to those gathered about the “cruelty, the injustice, and the horror…unleashed in the city of Minneapolis.” He warned them that in this moment, it is likely that we are entering a “new era of martyrdom,” when many will be called on to make a stand, putting “our bodies…between the powers of the world and the most vulnerable.” Bishop Hirschfeld later clarified in an interview, after his words went viral, that he was not encouraging people to go out looking for death or inciting violence, but that the “signs of the times” that he read in what’s happening in our world today suggest that injury and death are a possibility if we follow Jesus in the business of standing up for the disinherited.
Responses to Bishop Hirschfeld’s words have been ringing out across news stories and social media. Those engaged in the work of community organizing applaud his words and see in them validation not only of their work but of the rising tension and anxiety and fear within the immigrant communities they serve. Others have been worried that Bishop Hirschfeld’s words might act more like fuel on the fire, agitating for physical resistance and escalating tensions. In the range of responses, each one appeals to Jesus, to our call as disciples of Jesus, and to the implications that Jesus’ life, ministry, death, and resurrection have upon each of us who claim to be his followers.
“Who do people say that I am?” Jesus asked his disciples. The answers of the “people” vary across the social and political spectrum today as it did in Jesus’ own day. Today, Jesus is proclaimed as a great moral teacher, a prophet, a spiritual sage, a revolutionary; he is also seen as a lunatic, a criminal, a fraud. By the time that Jesus asks this question in Matthew’s story, the “people” have had a variety of answers, all based on their encounters with him, and through him, with the Living God. The Magi recognized Jesus as a child who would be king of Israel. John the Baptist understood Jesus to be the promised One who would baptize with fire and the Holy Spirit. The crowds saw Jesus as One with authority who had the power to heal and teach. The disciples saw Jesus as their teacher with supernatural powers that commanded even the wind and calm the stormy seas. The religious leaders thought Jesus was the ruler of demons, and the puppet king Herod feared he was John the Baptist come back to life.
In the 15 chapters that precede our Gospel Reading today, Jesus has engaged in the ministry of healing, liberation, and restoration. He has fed thousands by multiplying bread and fish. He’s proclaimed the good news of the Kingdom of God, challenged unjust teachings and practices among the religious and political elite. In everything he did, he embodied the reign of God and demonstrated God’s just compassion. He challenged religious, political, and social norms, and liberated people from the oppressive rule that governed their lives.
“Who do people say that I am?” Jesus asked. In response, the disciples claim that “the people” see Jesus standing in the prophetic traditions of John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah – each one called to speak truth to power, to name the injustices inflicted upon the disenfranchised, to name the social sins of the community. In each of the prophets named, the people’s hopes and expectations are also named. While the people may not have the “correct” answer, they saw in Jesus the fulfillment of their hope.
“But who do you say that I am?” Jesus then asked the disciples. In a moment of divine inspiration, Peter blurted out, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” His answer affirms the angelic witness who named Jesus and said he would save people from their sins and who would fulfill prophecy, and would be called Emmanuel, God with us. And Peter’s confession aligns also with the voice from heaven who, at Jesus’ baptism, claimed him as beloved Son and filled him with the Holy Spirit. Jesus praises Peter, not because Peter had somehow figured everything out, but because Peter was open to the revelation of God. No human logic or reasoning would lead to such a confession – as the responses from the people demonstrated.
To be sure, Peter’s response did not necessarily indicate he knew the full implications of what he confessed. Immediately following our passage this morning, Jesus began to explain to his disciples what it means to be the Messiah. He tells them that this path will lead him to suffering, to rejection, to state sponsored torture and execution. Peter could not reconcile this with his understanding of “Messiah.” The Holy One of God surely could not suffer such a devastating defeat! The description of what Jesus said he would face was at odds with Peter’s understanding of who Jesus was and his expectation of what Jesus’ identity meant for him and for the rest of his followers.
Now, we know that this isn’t the end of Peter’s story. He continues to follow Jesus, he continues to stick his foot in his mouth, and he even betrays and denies Jesus when the very thing Jesus warns him about comes to pass. But, then, he becomes a witness to the resurrection, he experiences the power of forgiveness and restoration, and then, along with the other disciples and followers of Jesus gathered in an upper room in Galilee, he is filled with the Holy Spirit and empowered to bear witness to the world that only in Jesus do we find our salvation. At the end of his life, at his own execution, he understood the truth that Jesus had tried to teach him and the others so long before, that the way of Christ is the way of the cross. He finally came to understand that death held no power over him because true life was found in Jesus.
“But who do you say that I am?” Jesus asked. This is a question as much for us today as it was for Peter and the others in our story. Who do you say that Jesus is? I suspect that if we answer that question in any way like Peter did, we may (like Peter) not understand the full implications of that confession. Perhaps it takes a lifetime to come to the understanding that Peter finally came to. Perhaps it comes gradually, evolves within us as we encounter Christ in one another, as we experience the power of the Spirit in the changes and chances of this life, as we choose to stand up against injustice and speak truth to power. Perhaps, for some of us, it comes in a catalytic moment of crisis and trauma when we are faced with the possibility of death. Wherever we might find ourselves in this journey toward understanding, Jesus is beckoning us to keep following, to keep wrestling, to keep stepping out in faith.
“Who do you say that I am?” Jesus asks us. Our answers to this question require more than just words and intellectual assent. In his letter to the Romans, Paul exhorts his readers to offer their bodies as living sacrifices as their act of spiritual worship. Peter suggests something similar in his first letter when he exhorts his readers to see themselves as “living stones” being built into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood. Our witness to the Living God requires more than just words: it requires a life grounded in prayer and lived in such a way that Jesus’ identity is seen in us. Our lives are meant to be declarations of the One we follow, proclaiming the excellence of the One who has called us. Throughout his letter, Peter suggests that we do this by living in mutuality across differences, through collective responses to injustices, and in the tender and humble love we offer to one another.[i]
I don’t know if we are, as Bishop Hirschfeld suggests, entering a “new era of martyrdom.” But I do know that what we do in this moment and the many more that are to come will give the world an answer to Jesus’ question. Bishop Craig Loya of Minnesota reminded the people of his diocese and community that “love calls us to give ourselves away. Love may very well call us to put our very lives on the line. We may not feel like we are able to stop what is happening in this place…but no matter the outcomes, we will not be moved. We will continue to stand up. We will continue to stand with. We will march in the streets, and deliver food to those locked in their homes, and flood our legislators with calls for the madness to stop. And because we have each other, because we are carried along by the Spirit’s river of love, the weariness will not overcome us. The anger will not consume us. [Because we must] get on with the business of turning the world upside down.
We [must] get on with the business of resisting with love, of disrupting with hope,
of agitating with joy, because we know that love has already won. Our work is to show up, every day, in every place, using all that we are to show the world its victory, until God’s love is fully and gloriously done, on earth as it is in heaven.”[ii]