And Jesus said to Peter, Blessed are you, Simon Son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And 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.
One day in heaven, St. Peter went to Jesus and said, Lord, I have so many things to do this morning; could you take my place at the pearly gates for just a little while?
Jesus agreed to stand in for Peter.
The first person who appeared at the gates of heaven was a Roman Catholic. Jesus asked, Who do you say that I am?
The Catholic replied, My Lord, you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God!
How do you know this? asked Jesus.
The Catholic replied, Because the Church through the Pope taught me this.
And Jesus said, That’s not good enough; I can’t let you in right now.
Next a Lutheran appeared. Jesus asked him the same question. The Lutheran said, Why you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God!
And Jesus asked him also, How do you know this?
The Lutheran answered, Because the Bible teaches this, and it’s one of the tenants of the Lutheran Catechism.
Again Jesus said, That’s not good enough; I can’t let you in right now.
Finally, an Episcopalian arrived, and Jesus asked the same question: Who do you say that I am?
And he answered, You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
And Jesus asked again, How do you know this?
The Episcopalian answered, Because my own eyes, and brain and heart tell me that you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
And Jesus said, Excellent my son! Enter and come with me.
As they started to walk through the pearly gates, the Episcopalian then turned to Jesus and said, But… on the other hand…
Today’s reading has been the center of controversy between Protestants and Roman Catholics for centuries.
The Catholics, of course, say that when he said, upon this rock, Jesus established the Papacy as we know it… that all popes descend from the first rock, Peter. Protestants, of course, disagree.
Although the debate is certainly interesting; it, unfortunately, misses the point.
This Gospel reading has something very important to say on its own. It really isn’t about Peter; it’s about God, and what God reveals to us. Jesus begins by asking his trusted followers what people are saying about him. This is an important question considering they are in the city of Caesarea Philippa, a center of paganism.
My wife, Kathy, and I stood at the remains of Caesarea Philippi both times we went to Israel. You can still see the place where the altar to the God, Pan, is carved out of the rock. It was not a place where a Jewish carpenter might easily be proclaimed the Messiah, but in the final analysis, the query, Who do people say that I am, isn’t really the question that Jesus wants answered.
The real question comes next; Jesus asks his friends, Who do YOU say that I am… Has God spoken to any of you?
Oh how Peter loves the master, and he is moved to give his resounding answer, YOU ARE THE CHRIST, THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD!
Note carefully what follows – it emphasizes the main point of this Gospel reading. Jesus blesses Peter, but not because of his great wisdom in coming up with the right answer… not because Peter is someone special in and of himself… but because his information didn’t come from human beings, it came from the Father.
Peter’s heart was driven open with so much love that God’s revelation could thoroughly penetrate his very soul. If Jesus were to ask Peter how he knew that Jesus was the Christ, I’m sure that Peter would have said something like, Because my own eyes, and brain, and heart tell me that you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
Not too long before this incident, Peter was jumping overboard into the water in great faith until he starts to fear, and next week, Jesus will call him, Satan, when he sticks his foot in his mouth and denies the one whom he now proclaims as the Christ. Still, in today’s reading, Peter allows his love to win out; he allows that love to give him a child-like receptiveness and openness to the word of God. It is this quality that allows the notoriously un-rock-like Peter to become the foundation of the church.
The rock is not Peter personally or singularly, but rather his sensitivity to what God is saying to him. The rock is the very acceptance of God’s disclosure that Jesus is the Christ upon which the church must be built.
Who do you say that I am? I suggest that this is the most urgent question that can be asked of us. What does your love of Jesus move you to say about him Our gracious God allows us to form our own opinions, but what we say about Jesus is probably what he will be for us. If we can be a rock of receptiveness to God through love, as Peter was, then it won’t matter how inept we are, or how clumsy. It won’t matter that we aren’t professional theologians. It won’t matter that we don’t always get it right, or that we make mistakes. We will have the keys to the Kingdom. God’s word planted in our hearts is jut like having those keys.
This Gospel can cause us to have a rather fanciful image of the Kingdom, as portrayed in the opening joke of this meditation; it presents an image of Peter as guardian of the Pearly Gates of Heaven, holding in his hands the keys to those gates… the keys that can let people in or lock them out, but actually, that image is entirely unscriptural. The ony gates Jesus ever mentions in the Gospels are the gates of hell.
The gates of heaven don’t need to be unlocked because God’s arms have been open since creation. The cross of Jesus shows us that God wishes to open wide our hearts to the in-rush of His love. When you experience the love of Jesus the way Peter did, then you have a key that can unlock the gates of hell… the gates of our personal, self-willed hell. That’s why St. Paul can say, Love can set you free.
We can let the world tell us who Jesus is, or we can begin to really allow the Father to reveal him to us… to provide the foundation that can carry us through… to recognize the Rock upon which we build the church… to accept the keys to the Kingdom so that we can unlock the helllish traps into which we fall… so that for those who have eyes to see, we can see the heavenly vision.
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