Faith Seeking Understanding – March 17, 2024, the Fifth Sunday in Lent
Psalm 89:1-8, Matthew 16:13-28
March 17, 2024, the Fifth Sunday in Lent
I have to start with a disclaimer here. You know that I like to put some thought into sermon titles, and I thought about a lot of titles for this one. But the one I chose here was not my idea. I sometimes “borrow” titles from others. And I took this one from the title of a book written by Dr. Daniel Migliore, who was one of my favorite professors in Seminary. (Remember him, Kari?)
The book was called “Faith Seeking Understanding.” And actually that phrase goes back much farther than that! It comes from a quote by Saint Anselm of Canterbury. In the 11th Century, he wrote this. (In Latin, of course!) “I do not seek to understand in order that I may believe, but rather, I believe in order that I may understand.” Isn’t that great? Listen to it again. “I do not seek to understand in order that I may believe, but rather, I believe in order that I may understand.” That’s how our faith in God works best. We believe first, we take the step of faith, and then, through that faith, our understanding grows. Does that make sense? You don’t know everything about the Gospel when you accept Jesus, and of course, you can never know everything about God!
I don’t think our world gets that. People in our world are more prone to seeing it the other way around. They would say, “If I don’t understand, then I refuse to believe.” “If you can’t prove it to me, then I won’t believe it.” That’s a pragmatic approach. That makes sense. People in our world want to be assured of things. They go by the idea that “Seeing is believing.” That’s an important phrase to people.
But faith often works differently. We start by taking that step of faith, and then we grow in our understanding. Which then leads to a greater faith. That’s “Faith seeking understanding.” But as I said, for some people in our world, that’s a tough one.
But it’s worse than that. Because, you see, some people in our world don’t want to believe! That’s where they’re starting from. They don’t want to believe, so they refuse to understand. Even though they say, if they understood they would believe. Sometimes it seems to me that the search for truth in our world has been eclipsed by the desire to be right, by the promotion of the self, and by the fear of not being the final authority in one’s life. To put it simply, like perpetual teenagers, many people in our world simply don’t want a God “telling them what to do.” Or worse, telling them what “thou shalt not do!”
That’s what we’re up against when we try to share our faith in our world. And that makes it hard! But it’s our job to show people that there is an understanding to be had, if we just have faith. It’s our job to show them the value of having that faith, and then seeking understanding. I hope you see that.
That idea of “faith seeking understanding” keeps going around in my head. And I hope it’s going to be going around in yours! And what got me started, thinking about all of that, is the story we have today about Peter. Yeah, we love Peter, don’t we? And here, Peter almost understood! He knew that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah the Son of the Living God. But he still didn’t understand what that meant – not fully.
So, which came first for him, faith, or understanding? I wonder. It’s kind of hard to tell here. Because Peter had something that’s closely akin to faith. He had obedience. And that’s good. When Jesus called him, he followed. That took faith. But did he already have some understanding of who this Jesus was who was calling him? We know Jesus’ fame was spreading in those days. People were hearing about him. People were talking about him – probably even these humble fishermen by the sea of Galilee. And so when Jesus approached them, they already knew he was someone important. So, when he called, in faith, they followed. The understanding would come later.
Fast forward three years, and here we have these two stories, back to back. And what I like about having them together, is that they show us the same interplay between faith and understanding.
In the first story, Jesus asks his disciples the “sixty-four thousand dollar question.” “Who do people say that I am?” That was a big question then. As I said, there was a lot of buzz going around about Jesus! People were talking about him. They were wondering who he was. And they were saying all kinds of things. His disciples answered him. “Some say you’re Elijah or Jeremiah or one of prophets. Some say John the Baptist.” And that raises some interesting questions, doesn’t it!
But then Jesus asks, “What about you?” “Who do you say that I am?” And Peter states, “confesses,” blurts out! (Peter did that a lot!) “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!” And of course, we know that. And we’re sort of proud of Peter here, aren’t we? “Yay, Peter, you got it.” “Nice going!” “Ya done good!” Jesus commends him, too. “That wasn’t something any person told you,” he said. You got that understanding from God.” Then he gives him an even higher commendation. “You, Peter, are the rock on which I shall build my Church!” No doubt, Peter’s level of faith is high!
Ok great! But then there’s this next story. Jesus began to tell them that he must go to Jerusalem, and there he would suffer and die, and then be raised. And there Peter blurts out – again. (And this is probably what they were all thinking, anyway!) “No, Lord. Surely that will never happen to you.” “Oh Peter, you were so close!” “But, you don’t have the understanding! Not yet!” I suppose at this point, even that “faith thing” was pretty hard, too!”
Now some have said that Jesus’ reaction is pretty harsh here. “Jesus said to Peter, ‘Get thee behind me, Satan.’” They’ve said that Jesus was literally calling Peter “Satan.” But I don’t think so. I like to think he was facing Peter, but telling Satan to get behind him so that he was putting himself between Satan and Peter! In other words, he was protecting Peter. I think that’s what was happening. And I think Peter needed that. He had faith, but he was having a hard time with the understanding. And I’m sure the others were, too! And they needed that protection so they could gain that understanding!
And what about us? What about you? How do you fit in with “Faith seeking understanding?” Are you able to believe, even before understanding? For years, people have asked me, “How can I have faith when I don’t understand?” “How can I believe when what I’m asked to believe seems impossible?” Maybe that’s an even harder one? “And what if I have doubts? Does that negate my beliefs?”
I think we’d agree that we all have times of doubt. I know sometimes when that happens, we feel like we’re the only ones who do. But we’re not. We all have doubts. And when you do have doubts – and you will – I encourage you to think about this phrase. “Faith seeking understanding.” And don’t let yourself slip back to the other way around! Don’t let it be, as Saint Anselm warned, that you “seek to understand in order that I might believe.” It may not come that way! Do it the way he said. Make the choice to believe first, then through that belief, seek the understanding. Think about the man standing before Jesus who said, “Lord, I believe. Help thou my unbelief!”
We’re preparing ourselves for the celebration of Easter. And when we think about believing things that seem impossible, well, Easter is all about the impossible! And that can raise some doubts in us, can’t it? How can a man come back from the dead – especially after such a brutal death! Sometimes I think that may have been an important part of God’s plan. If Jesus had died in a more humane or “gentle” way, his resurrection wouldn’t have seemed so impossible. But no! His death was horrific! And it’s impossible to think, as some have, that he could have survived what he went through for 3 days, much less come back to life after it! And yet… Jesus did!
So, in preparation for Easter, choose to believe that! Have faith that he did. Then let your faith seek understanding. And in that understanding, know again, that, because he came back from the dead, he defeated the power of death, and, as Paul said, “Nothing can ever separate us from his love!” That’s a great thing to believe! And know, that, just like he did with Peter, that same Jesus stands between us and Satan. Because he has the power to do so!
In this time of Lent, as Easter approaches, think about the belief you have that Jesus is, as Peter said, “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Think about his resurrection that we celebrate. And think about the words of Saint Anselm, “I do not seek to understand in order that I may believe, but rather, I believe in order that I may understand.”
Prayer
Eternal God, we believe. But sometimes our belief is strong and sometimes it’s weak. Help us to have the strength we need to choose to believe, no matter what we may be going through, and give us the wisdom to seek understanding. We thank you and we praise you, and we pray in the name of Jesus, our Savior, Amen.