The Promise to and The Commission of Peter.

(Matthew 16: 17-23)

Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, because flesh and blood has not revealed this unto you, but my Father who is in Heaven. And I tell you, that you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my Church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven; and whatever you bind on earth will remain bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth will remain loosed in heaven." 

(Matthew 16: 17-19) 

This passage is one of the great passages of New Testament. However, over the years it has always been difficult to approach it without prejudice, for it is used by the Roman Catholic church as the  foundation of the position of the Pope and of the Church. It is taken by the Roman Catholic Church to mean that to Peter were given the keys which admit or exclude an induvial from heaven, and that also to him was given the power to absolve or not to absolve an individual of their sins. It is further argued by the Roman Catholic Church that Peter, with these tremendous rights, became the bishop of Rome; and that this power has descended to all the bishops of Rome; and that it exists still today in whoever is chosen as Pope for the current generation. It is easy to see how impossible such doctrine is for non-Catholic believers; and it is also easy to see how Protestant and Roman Catholic believers tend to approach this passage with a certain degree of prejudice rather than a genuine desire to discover its true meaning. 

First of all, there is a play on words here. “Peter the rock”. In Greek Peter is Petros and a rock is Petra. Peter's Aramaic name was Kephas, and that also is the Aramaic for a rock. So, in either language there is here a play upon words. Immediately after Peter makes his great discovery and declare who Jesus is. i.e. “You are Jesus the Messiah, the Son of the living God” , Jesus said to him: "You are Petros, and on this Petra I will build my Church." Whatever else this is, it is a word of great encouragement for Peter. The Rabbis also applied the word rock to Abraham. As it was said, 'Look unto the rock whence ye are hewn.'" Abraham was the rock on which the nation and the purpose of God were founded.

Also, the word rock is again and again applied to God himself. "He is the Rock; and his work is perfect" ( Deuteronomy 32:4 ). "There is no rock like our God" ( 1 Samuel 2:2 ). "The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer" ( 2 Samuel 22:2 ). "Who is a rock, except our God?" ( Psalms 18:31 ).

One thing is clear. To call anyone a rock was a great compliment; and no Jew who knew his Old Testament could ever use the phrase without his thoughts turning to God, who alone was the true rock of his defence and salvation. What then did Jesus mean when in this passage he used the word rock? To that question at least four answers can be given. 

Augustine took the rock to mean Jesus himself. It is as if Jesus said: "You are Peter; and on myself, as the rock I will found my Church; and the day will come when, as the reward of your faith, you will be great in the Church."

The second explanation is that the rock is the truth that Jesus Christ himself is the Son of the living God. To Peter that great truth had been divinely revealed to him. The fact that Jesus Christ is the Son of God is indeed the foundation stone of the Church's faith and belief that is undeniable.

A third explanation is that the rock is Peter's faith. On the faith of Peter, the first apostle to express the full deity of Christ is the rock upon which  Church is founded. His faith was the spark which was to kindle the faith of the world-wide Church. It was the initial impetus which brought about the worldwide community of faith.

The last interpretation is my most favoured. That the rock is God himself. Peter was the first person on earth to fully understand who Jesus was; he was the first to make the leap of faith and see in Jesus the Son of the living God. In other words, Peter was the first member of the Church, and, in that sense, the whole Church is built on him. And in ages to come, everyone who makes the same discovery as Peter is another stone added into the edifice of the Church of Christ on earth. Here Peter is the foundation, but in the sense that he is the one person on whom the whole Church is built, for he was the first man to discover who Jesus was. 

In Ephesians 2:20 the prophets and the apostles are said to be the foundation of the Church. It is on their work and on their witness and on their devotion that the Church on earth, humanly speaking, depends.  In the same passage, Jesus Christ is said to be not only a rock but the chief cornerstone; he is the force who holds the Church together. Without him the whole edifice would disintegrate and collapse. In 1 Peter 2:4-8 all Christians are described as living stones who are upon faith built into the fabric of the Church.

It is clear to see that the New Testament writers took the picture of the church community as a building and used it in many ways. But at the back of it all is always the idea that Jesus Christ is the real foundation stone upon which the Church is built, and he is the only power who holds the Church together. When Jesus said to Peter that on him, he would found his Church, he did not mean that the Church depended on Peter, but that it depended on himself and on God the Rock. But he did mean that the Church began with Peter; in that sense Peter is the foundation of the Church; and that is a unique honour that no Catholic or Protestant can ever take from him.

The second point is that the very word used for Church (ekklesia) very often conveys something of a wrong impression. We are apt to think of the Church as an institution or an organization with buildings and offices, and services and meetings. The word that Jesus almost certainly used was qahal, which is the word the Old Testament uses for the congregation of believers, the gathering of the people of the Lord. 

Therefore, what Jesus said to Peter was: "Peter, you are the beginning of the new people of the Lord, the new fellowship of those who believe in my name." Peter was the first of the new fellowship of believers in Christ. It was not a Church in the institutional sense, still less a Church in a denominational sense, that began with Peter. What began with Peter was the fellowship of all believers in Jesus Christ, not identified with any particular building or synagogue and not limited to any single Church, but embracing everyone who loves the Lord. Therefore, what we can say about the first part of this controversial passage is that it means that Peter is the foundation stone of the Church in the sense that he was the first of that great fellowship of people who joyfully declare their own personal discovery that Jesus Christ is Lord; but, in the ultimate sense, it is God himself who is the rock on which this ne family of believers called the Church is built.

The Gates of Hell

Jesus goes on to say, “that the gates of Hades shall not prevail against his Church”. The idea of gates prevailing is not a natural or an easily understood metaphor. 

For many it calls to mind the image of a fortress. This suggestion may find support in the fact that on the top of the mountain overlooking Caesarea Philippi, where Jesus was based during this conversation with his disciples, stood a great castle which would have been in full glory in the time of Jesus. Jesus is using the location to create an image of the Church as a fortress, and the forces of evil as an opposing army; and saying that the power of evil will never prevail against the Church. In the ancient east, the Gate, was always the place, especially in the towns and villages, where the elders and the rulers met and dispensed counsel and justice. Anyone with a problem would be told to "go to the city gate and speak to the elders." So, the gates came to represent the place of government. So, then the phrase can also be seen to mean that the powers and principalities, the government of Hell, so to speak, will never prevail against the Church.

There is another idea here we can add to the mix. If we go back to the idea that the rock on which the Church is founded is the conviction that Jesus is none other than the Son of the living God. The the one person whom the gates of Hades could not shut in was Jesus Christ. He broke the bonds of death. As the writer of Acts has it, "It was not possible for him to be held by death.... Thou wilt not abandon my soul to Hades, nor let thy Holy One see corruption" (Acts 2:27 ). This may be a triumphant reference to nothing less than the coming Resurrection of Jesus. Jesus may well be saying: "You have discovered that I am the Son of the living God. But the time will soon come when I will be crucified, and the gates of Hades will close behind me. But they are powerless to shut me in. The gates of Hell have no power against me, the Son of the living God."

However, we take it, this phrase triumphantly expresses the indestructibility of Christ and his Church.

The Place of Peter in the Historic Church.

We now come to two phrases in which Jesus describes certain privileges which were given to and certain duties which were laid upon Peter. He says that he will give to Peter the keys of the Kingdom. This is an obviously difficult phrase for those of a Protestant tradition and we will do well to begin by establishing the things about it of which we can be sure. This phrase always signified some kind of very special power. In the New Testament this phrase is regularly attached to Jesus. It is in his hands, and no one else's, that the keys are held. In Revelation 1:18, the risen Christ says: "I am the living one; I died, and behold I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades."  

It appears to me that what Jesus is saying to Peter is that in the days to come, you will be the steward of the Kingdom. And in the case of Peter the whole idea is that of opening, not shutting, the door of the Kingdom. That soon became abundantly true. At Pentecost, Peter opened the door to three thousand souls ( Acts 2:41 ). He also opened the door to the Gentile centurion Cornelius, so that thereafter it was opened to the Gentile world ( Acts 10:1-48 ). Acts 15:1-41 tells how the Council of Jerusalem opened wide the door for the Gentiles, and how it was Peter’s witness which made that possible ( Acts 15:14 ; Simeon is Peter). 

The promise that Peter would have the keys to the Kingdom was the promise that Peter would be the means by which the door to God was opened for thousands upon thousands of people in the days that followed. But it is not only Peter who has the keys of the Kingdom; every Christian has them; for it is for every one of us to open the door of the Kingdom to other people, and so to enter into the great promise of Christ. Jesus further promised Peter that what he bound would remain bound, and what he loosed would remain loosed. Theologian Richard Glover takes this to mean that Peter would lay peoples sins, and bind them, to their consciences, and that he would then loose them from their sins by telling them of the love and the forgiveness of God. 

That is a lovely thought, and no doubt true, for such is the duty of every Christian preacher and teacher, evangelist or even just being someone Christian friend, to draw people’s attention to how they are bound up in sin and then to show them the way they can be set free.

To lose and to bind was very common Jewish phrases. To bind something meant to declare it forbidden; to loose was to declare it allowed. So, what Jesus is saying to Peter is: "Peter, you are going to have grave and heavy responsibilities laid upon you. You are going to have to take decisions which will affect the welfare of the newly birthed Church. The duty of binding and loosing meant that Peter would have to take decisions about the Church's life and practice which would have far-reaching consequences. And indeed, when we read the early chapters of Acts, we see that in Jerusalem that is precisely what Peter did.

When we study closely this passage which has caused so much argument and controversy, we see that it deals, not with organisations churches and religious hierarchies but with the things of salvation. 

Jesus said to Peter: "Peter, your name means a rock, and your destiny is to be a rock. You are the first man to recognize me for what I am, and therefore you are the first stone in the edifice of the fellowship of those who belong to me. You will also stand up for that fellowship against the embattled powers of evil who will no prevail against it.  And in the days to come, you must be the one who will unlock the doors of the Kingdom to both Jew and Gentile. Also your role Peter is to guide and help solve the problems and direct the work of the infant and growing fellowship of believers we today call the church." Peter was the first to make the great discovery as to who Jesus really was; therefore, Peter was given both great privileges and great responsibilities. It is a discovery which everyone must make for himself; and, when they make it, the same privilege and the same responsibility are laid upon them.

The Great Rebuke

He gave orders to his disciples to tell no one that he was God's Anointed One.

(Matthew 16: 20-23)

Although the disciples had grasped the fact that Jesus was God's Messiah, they still had not grasped what that amazing truth really meant. To them it initially meant something totally different from what it meant to Jesus. They were still thinking in terms of a conquering Messiah, a warrior king, who would sweep the Romans from Palestine and lead Israel to power. That is why Jesus commanded them to be silence. If they had gone out to the wider world and preached their own ideas to soon, all they could have been responsible for was the raising of a tragic rebellion; they might have only produced another outbreak of violence and the early church would have been doomed to disaster. 

Before they could preach that Jesus was the Messiah, they had to learn what that fully meant. In point of fact, So Jesus will begin to help open their eyes to the fact that for him there was no way but the way of the Cross.  He will soon tell them that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer at the hands of the "elders and chief priests and scribes." These three groups of men were the three groups of which the Sanhedrin was composed. The elders were the respected men of the people; the chief priests were predominantly Sadducees; and the scribes were Pharisees.  In effect, Jesus is saying that he must suffer at the hands of the orthodox religious leaders of the community out of which he had arisen, and what a sobering thought that is for all of us who wish to walk the same path in life as Christ did.