Matthew 16:13-17 (NASBStr)
Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” He *said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.
We tend to think we are so, so smart. We hang pieces of paper on our office walls to make sure everyone knows we have degrees that measured how smart we are. We love to tell people the latest book we have digested and even carry quotes around in our head to demonstrate what we have gathered through our rigorous training and discipline. We reward smartness with letters we put before and after our names. It is interesting that people in the past, often didn't have such "paper-work" to demonstrate their intellectual prowess. Abraham Lincoln, if judged upon his formal education alone, would not be able to teach in any elementary school today, much less qualify to be the school superintendent. Yet, he is revered as one of the smartest presidents and leaders we know. We love to claim knowledge is power in our country. However, we ought to take stock in the reason we know anything. In the above passage The Lord asked the disciples what the people were saying about Him. He didn't suddenly have an ego meltdown but He did want to teach them something about ego. When asked who they think Jesus was, Peter blasts out the perfect answer. You get the picture that Peter was that kid who sat in the front of the class and constantly had his hand up to answer the teacher's question. Jesus commends Peter - he gets a star on the refrigerator. But, then comes the line for our lesson today. Jesus says the following to Peter: Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. Peter must have been on cloud nine when Jesus started this commendation. Jesus saying "blessed are you" (especially after Peter just acknowledge that Jesus was the Son of God) must have been awesome. You can see Peter quickly looking at the others in the group and making sure they didn't miss that not only did he get the answer right, he was about to get a blessing from The Lord. However, Jesus tells him that any special revelation (knowledge) he has has didn't come from his own training, schooling, observations, intellect or graduation ceremony. The reason Peter knows this is because the God of the Universe choose to reveal it to him. We know what we know about God and all other aspects of life because God grants us this knowledge. We know nothing except that God reveals it. We should be praising God for what He gives us in the way of intellect and especially in the knowledge of who He is and what He has done. Wisdom is granted to those who fear The Lord by The Lord. Don't stick your chest out when you discover something about God in His Word. Bow your head and give praise if you even stumble across the piece of truth off the table of God's abundant wisdom and knowledge. He simply shared with you a crumb.
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