THIS would be the day of “Peter and Paul”, but, going by the principal-service lectionary, Peter is the one who counts. The second and third service lectionaries confirm the identical priority. The reason for joining the 2 saints is that 29 June commemorates their martyrdom during persecution by the Roman emperor Nero in 64. In the Church of England, we will select whether to maintain the double celebration, or mark Peter alone.
Back in January, we commemorated Paul’s conversion; so it is sensible to offer attention to Peter now. In the course of the 12 months, we encounter Paul continually through our Bible reading, but Peter only rarely. Peter’s meaning for us doesn’t lie primarily in his preaching or writing, but within the honour accorded to him by Jesus.
Peter has not worked out the puzzle of Jesus’s identity by himself: God has disclosed that messianic identity to him. Matthew uses a strong word to explain that disclosure: apocalyptein. It means “to disclose”, but with an eschatological dimension: God has given Peter a vision, an encounter with truth which also reveals a component within the divine purpose.
Honest commentators must admit that verse 18 is problematic: “You are Peter, and on this rock I’ll construct my church.” It is one in every of only two places within the Gospels where Jesus mentions “church”. In the opposite place, a neighborhood gathering of believers is supposed (Matthew 18.17). Here, though, the meaning is unambiguously Church with a capital “C”, and never “the Church of God”, but, Jesus says, “my Church”. We don’t must commit ourselves to full Roman primacy, or supreme papal authority, to feel the facility of the everlasting bond being revealed here between the Master and his chief disciple.
The Pentecost-miracle indicates that the Church belongs to the apostolic era, not the time of Jesus’s life. Here, Matthew cuts across this by reminding us that the Church is just not a human association, but a divine possession, and that it has each a universal dimension (16.18) and native expression (18.17).
What can we learn concerning the Church from Jesus’s words here? First, it’s already a component of Jesus’s vision for the Christian future. His earthly self is not going to see that future, but his everlasting self will go on shaping it through the approaching of the Spirit upon his followers, and their sharing of that Spirit with others.
Second, it is just not an establishment, still less a constructing or buildings, but a fellowship of human beings. Its foundation is neither rock nor rules, but a living individual: Peter, who imitates Jesus in being a first-born (Colossians 1.15, of Jesus; Hebrews 12.23 of Christians), and a first-fruits (1 Corinthians 15.23, of Jesus; Romans 8.23, of Christians). What Jesus declares here, John also affirms (21.15-19).
The “gates of hell” (AV) cannot prevail against the Church. The language suggests conflict, combat. But there’s a non-combative interpretation. The gates of hell must stand either open or shut. If open, they’re at all times able to let in those unwise enough to live without God, or against God. But if the gates of hell stand shut, they represent resistance to God’s attempts to interrupt in and overwhelm evil. They could also be barred, locked, barricaded, guarded. But they can’t withstand God for ever. His goodness, his love, will prevail against them. Perhaps the one great mystery about evil is its extraordinary resistance to God’s self-evident (to those inside the covenant of grace) love. In the tip, Jesus says, even that resistance will crumble.
The language of “binding” and “loosing” has been taken as bestowing authority on the Church, Peter’s authority, to pronounce what’s and is just not binding upon the faithful, and to forgive people — or not forgive them. But “binding” and “loosing” can also be the language of exorcism, which could point to setting people free from the facility of evil, and binding them to what is sweet.
In verse 20, Matthew goes back from whatever unique source he should have been using for verses 17-19 to follow Mark over again. It is a relief: such holy mysteries are usually not a snug resting place. An unexpected message on this Gospel got here to me just as I used to be ending writing: in Revelation, heaven’s gates stand at all times open (21.25), but, on this vision, although Peter holds the keys of the Kingdom of heaven, heaven itself has no gates.
