Matthew 16.13-20 The profession of Peter’s faith

The Johari window is a group therapy technique used to help people get to know themselves and one another. There is a predefined way to do this but since I’m terrible at following directions, I’m going to tell you how I use it in a group, especially in a religious retreat type group.

You take a sheet of paper, fold it in half, then fold it in half again so you have four sections. You begin alone by writing down in the first box words you would use to describe yourself. Maybe you’re active and friendly or shy and aloof. You pick your words and you write them down. You can use 2-3 words phrases if you want but don’t be writing a whole paragraph or even complete sentences. Or, you can use a list called “The 56 Adjectives” to select words from. Not my preferred method as I like open-ended questions, but some might struggle.

The next step if you gather in a circle. I love circling or even squaring if circles aren’t an option for any group activity so everyone can see each other. I hate rectangles. They create blind spots and make it so some people are just really far away. In this exercise, you need to see one another. While in this circle, you pick someone to begin; how they are selected doesn’t matter. They are “it” like a game of tag, only in reverse, because all attention is about to be on them. Fair warning: this activity takes a long time, and by the time we get to the last person, people will have gotten bored with the activity, especially if the group is large.

On a short sidebar, the length of time everyone in the group has known the other group members can vary dramatically. This produces the best results. It is good to have someone who has known you a long time as well as some people who just met you today. Because what happens next is that everyone in the room is going to have an opportunity to describe that person in one word and then explain why they chose the word they did. If you want to do the activity quietly, you could have them write down their responses, but this activity is best for getting people to start communicating with one another.

Once the person has said why they chose the word they did to describe the person, the person then looks down at their window. If they have chosen a word similar to how this person described them, they write this term in what is labeled as an “open window.” It is a trait they know about themselves and others recognize in them. If they do not have the trait listed as a way they describe themselves, this descriptive word then goes into the “blind” slot, like window blinds. It is something other people can see from the outside but the person does not see about themselves. A third window is where you put the words you use to describe yourself, but other people do not see. This is a “closed window”; those things aren’t escaping into the world. Each person must use a different word or short phrase to describe the person who is “it.”

After one person goes through the exercise, we process. I appreciate groups who are willing to say both what society determines are kind things as well as those who are willing to say, identify that they think a person is bossy or stubborn too. We talk about what was surprising or different than expected. Maybe there is a trait people thought others thought about them but no one does. Maybe there’s something people think about them that blindsides them. People who have just met them are often very good at finding these things. Even if someone has only known this human being for a few hours, they can reveal an important trait this person demonstrates even if it is “I had no idea you were even in this room until we started this exercise.”

There are advantages to have everyone write down things on cards or pieces of paper and then handing them out to each other so the activity is done anonymously but I prefer to talk things out. Conversation and discussion should be encouraged.

When Jesus asks his disciples “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” he is first seeing what people think about him. As someone who travels and preaches, I get this. I am very curious what the people I preach to think of me openly and honestly. What opinions they have and where they are coming from. The way I talk can be interpreted as cocky, arrogant, confident, or any other number of flowery adjectives. This varies between the personality of the judger and how well they know me.

Jesus gets answers all centering around the people believe he is some kind of religious prophet, so I guess that’s good. But let’s look a little deeper into this. If we did the Johari window exercise, and John the Baptist is “it” what words would you use to describe him? Oh, yes, I probably should have warned you: Interactive sermon time, audience participation is expected and will be drug out of you against your will if necessary. How would you describe John the Baptist? Smelled like a camel, at bugs and honey, baptized Jesus Christ, beheaded at the request of Herodias’ daughter, Salome for marrying his brother’s wife.

How would you describe the prophet Elijah? For reference, he’s a prominent Old Testament Prophet that I feel should have gotten his own book like Isaiah but he lived during King Ahab’s reign so he has been confined to 1 and 2 Kings. He is known for dramatic acts such as calling down fire on Mount Carmel, predicting drought, reviving the dead, and parting the Jordan, he was fed by ravens, sustained a widow’s household through famine, and ascended to heaven in a whirlwind. He trained Elisha who most people get their names confused.

And last of all, how would you describe the prophet Jeremiah? He did get his own book and for 5 decades prophesied to the people of Israel the destruction of Jerusalem and then the temple, and for 5 decades no one listened to him.

What others think of us is not always the truth, is it? That’s one of the things that we have to process during the Johari Window exercise. Truth it seems, varies by the person who is telling the story.

And so, Jesus then asks those who are closest to him. Who do you say that I am? We only get to hear Simon Peter’s answer, which Jesus is obviously pleased with. Jesus is not just the prophet. Peter tells us He is so much more “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

What we think of someone determines how much we trust someone and how much direction and leadership we are willing to accept from them. Peter’s answer tells Jesus that he will be instrumental in God’s plans. Peter sees Jesus not just as a prophet, not just as someone who is warning people but as someone who can take action in the world. He is not the simply the bearer of Good News, he IS the Good News.

You are not simply humans. You ARE children of God. As such there is so much more to us than what we readily see. There is what we know, what others see that we don’t see, what both of us know and then… there’s this. The Johari Window has 4 windows. One is open, one has blinds, one is closed and the other…is the potential in us yet unknown.

The unknown is what we do with all this information. What we have the potential to become when we fully recognize and act as who we are meant to be in the world. The unknown is who we can be revealed to be through the eyes of God only by combining all that we know, all that you know, and what God sees in us.

Matthew 16:13-20

The profession of Peter’s faith

16:13Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”

16:14And they said, “Some say John the Baptist but others Elijah and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

16:15He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”

16:16Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

16:17And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my Father in heaven.

16:18And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.

16:19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

16:20 Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.