“The Significance of Jesus”

Matthew 16:13-20

Webster’s Dictionary defines the word significance as “the quality of being important.” I think we can all agree that Jesus was and is eternally and cosmically important. As Peter so well articulated it in today’s text, Jesus is the Messiah – the Christ – and (in a truly unique way) the Son of the Living God.

As we read the gospels we often see Peter as a good-hearted, well-meaning, but hard-headed disciple. He displays a clumsy sort of brashness and bravado. To some extent, he is the proverbial bull in a china shop. He can’t seem to stay out of his own way.

But in today’s text he is the disciple who gets it, the one who answers the question of Jesus’ identity with these paraphrased words, “What I have experienced in you, Jesus, is that you are the Messiah, the one that has been sent to us as a gateway to God.” To which Jesus replies, “God bless you, Simon, son of Jonah! My Father in heaven, God himself, let you in on the secret of who I am.”

Peter’s perception of Jesus was surely informed by the day in and day out experiences of following him, but that perception was shaped and sharpened by God. Peter didn’t come up with his statement about Jesus all by himself. He had help. The voice of God was speaking in his heart and for once Peter was not only listening to that voice, but responding to it. He truly understood the significance of Jesus.

Jesus went on to speak some more words to Peter, the meaning of which the church has been feuding over ever since. First of all Jesus gave him a new name, the one that he has been called through the ages. No longer would he be Simon. Said Jesus, “I tell you that you are Peter [Petros, meaning rock]…”

And now comes the controversial part: “… and on this rock [petra] I will build my church, and the gates of Hades [of death] will not prevail against it. I 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.” Or as it reads in The Message, “You will have free and complete access to God’s kingdom, keys to open any and every door: no more barriers between heaven and earth, earth and heaven. A yes on earth is a yes in heaven. A no on earth is a no in heaven.”

Our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters interpret this to mean the Peter was the first pope, the church’s ultimate authority on earth as in heaven. We Protestants, especially those of us who are of the Presbyterian persuasion, do not buy that. We quite rightly understand Peter to be an important figure of the early church, a rock-solid leader of the church and faithful preacher of the gospel truth. To some extent he was a vital building block of the church, but not foundational. He possessed apostolic authority but that authority was not based on his rightness or righteousness.

Who is the church’s one foundation? Hear what Paul wrote in the third chapter of First Corinthians: “No one can lay any foundation than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ.” Listen to what Peter himself wrote in the second chapter of his first epistle: “Come to him [to Jesus], a living stone… a cornerstone chosen and precious…” The church’s one and only foundation is Jesus Christ our Lord.

So what was Jesus really saying to, or more correctly saying about, Peter in today’s text? What did he mean when he said that upon this rock I will build my church? Jin S. Kim, pastor of a phenomenally successful multicultural Presbyterian Church near Minneapolis, has a rather unique take on this. The rock of which Jesus is speaking is not Peter but Peter’s testimony, his faithful words as to the identity of Jesus Christ. As was said earlier, that testimony came to Peter as a revelation from God.

That testimony, those words, is the church’s foundational theological statement. Jesus is Lord. Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah. Jesus is the very Son of the Living God. That’s not just Peter’s testimony. That is the testimony of the church down through the ages. That is the testimony of the church today. “You are the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.”

So what about all that business about the keys to the kingdom, all that business about binding and loosing? Those keys belong to the church universal. The church operates not with the authority of Peter or his human successors, but with the authority of Jesus. We have been given the authority to in Jesus’ name interpret the kingdom of God to the world. We have been given the keys necessary to interpreting God’s revelation: his revelation in Jesus the Living Word, his revelation contained in the written word of Scripture. It is up to us to testify before the world to the true identity of Jesus. It is up to us to proclaim the gospel truth.

Binding and loosing is a rabbinical term employed by Jesus in today’s text. Essentially the authority to bind and loose that has been given to the church, not just Peter and his successors but the church, is of a doctrinal and disciplinary nature. The church, in accordance with God’s Word and by way of the power of the Holy Spirit, has the authority to declare what is and isn’t the true doctrine of the church, an authority exercised alongside the authority to discipline – to reprove and rehabilitate – its members.

An aside: these two forms of authority have been misused, misinterpreted, and misemployed by the church from its beginnings. Christian doctrine and the interpretation thereof are all over the map. Off and on over the centuries church discipline has been either punitively applied in harsh and horrible ways or else ignored. But the church, when it is faithful, has remained very clear about its foundational testimony as to the identity and significance of Jesus: “You are the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.”

The church, disorganized and dysfunctional as it is in its various institutional forms, is still the body of Christ. It is his church, the one he founded to continue his work. When it is at its best the church’s identity takes shape as a revelation of Christ’s identity and mission.

With this in mind Charles E. Hambrick-Stowe wrote these words of commentary: “The church is not merely a means to achieve a greater goal, nor is it just a voluntary association of like-minded people.” [Another aside here – all too often the church operates in America as if it really is a voluntary association of like-minded people, kind of like we’re an ecclesiastical version of the Lions Club, which we are not.]

Dr. Hambrick-Stowe goes on to explain what the church is: “It is an article of faith. Jesus promises that he will build his [not ours] church.” Furthermore, and these are truly wonderful words to hear: “He will protect the church he is building so that, while the force of sin and death will do its worst to destroy, the church nevertheless will prevail.” And thus it is that as the church, just like Peter, bumbles, stumbles, flounders, and fails – as it surrenders itself to its surrounding cultures and forgets who and what it has been called to be - Jesus keeps it from self-destructing. “Upon the rock of its faithful testimony I will build my church, and not even the gates of hell will prevail against it.” That, my friends, is truly a word of grace.

But as always such grace comes with responsibilities, one of which is to answer that same question that was put to those first disciples. In the words of Jin S. Kim, “Jesus’ question to each of us is, ‘Who do you say that I am? What is your testimony of me? What is your experience of the living God through my witness and presence’?”

And if we understand the significance of Jesus at all, our answer will be that of Peter, “You are the Christ, the Messiah, Son of the Living God.” Amen.