I always have a hard time sleeping on friday afternoons. The combination of three or four cups of coffee at breakfast while trying to be productive downtown usually does a pretty solid number on my sleeping patterns, and leaves me in thought in the early evening when I probably should be fast asleep. One of the things that I often end up devoting some brain space to is this passage from the book of Matthew. To those of us who can't quote this from memory(myself included), here's what it says(I'm quoting from my trusty ESV1 Thinline):
"Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter replied, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ."
Now, before I begin, a disclaimer: These are only MY thoughts on the scripture. If you disagree with how I'm reading this(and you might well), you are MORE than welcome to do so. I'm not Jesus...just trying feebly to understand his words and to follow him.
So, to the point(s).
I almost always hear this taught as Jesus talking about Peter specifically, especially in reference to Peter being the "rock" of the church. However...what if by re-naming Peter...Peter, he was following in a vast Hebraic tradition of re-naming and naming things and people to testify to the work of God in the lives of his people? The Old Testament is FULL of instances of this, from Abraham-once called Abram, to Jacob-later called Israel, to David-who probably named every stone in Jerusalem at one point in time, not to mention Hosea-who married a prostitute (twice) and proceeded to name two of his kids Lo-ruhama (which means "no mercy"), and Lo-ammi (which means "not my people")-just to make a point. And his disciples ALL know this. They grew up in this culture of naming and renaming, and many of them already had names that were significant of not only who they were, but often of how their parents felt about their births.
So what if Jesus isn't really talking about Peter, but himself?
What if the "rock" that Jesus is building the church on is really the confession that Jesus is "the Christ, the Son of the living God"?
Would it change us?
Would we be more likely to walk through those now wide open gates of hell and seek and save our friends who don't know Jesus and are bound, blinded, and gagged by their sin?
Jesus says that he has given us-those who didn't arrive at the conclusion that Jesus is the Christ by our own wisdom and intellect-but have believed what our Father has told us about him-the keys to the kingdom of heaven.
THE keys.
Not just some of them.
All of them.
To the whole kingdom.
Keys with which to bind brokenness, oppression, hopelessness, despair, anger...
Keys with which to loose sinners from their bondage...
Would it change us?
