Last updated on January 17, 2021
Two commemorations appear on the calendar today. One is a commemoration of the life and work of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the other remembers the “Confession of St. Peter.” I’ll have to be brief today – and the rest of this week – but consider the collect assigned for today:
The event is recorded in 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, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 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. 18 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. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.
The question of verse 15 is posed to us as well. Is Jesus just some eccentric holy man rebelling against the religious authorities in the 1st century…or is He the Son of God? I choose, by faith, to answer as Peter does. Do you?
You know who else answered the question the way Peter did? Martin Luther King Jr.
I thought about writing more about him but I (1) ran out of time and (2) my good friend James M. Patterson has a fantastic reflection on MLK that gets to the heart of how I think of him to. Take a look: https://old.lawliberty.org/2017/01/16/the-vanished-world-of-martin-luther-king/
And heres an appropriate collect for the occassion:
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