The gospel reading for Sunday, August 27th is Matthew 16:13-20, and it contains the famous (and controversial) line, “On this rock I will build my church.”
What is this rock? Is it Peter’s confession? Is it Peter himself? Is it the literal rock they were standing on in Caesarea Philippi, by the gate to the underworld, where fertility gods lived during the winter?
Check the Fathers: Origen says No, it’s not Peter. Cyprian and Firmilian say Yes, it is. Tertullian, Pseudo-Clement, and Augustine have said both Yes and No.
Of them, I’ll quote Augustine: “Let the reader decide which of these two opinions is the more probable” (Retratations 428).
As a reader, I’ll say it’s probably Peter; and to copy Augustine, I’ll let you, readers, decide which you think it is.
I won’t make a case for this, because it looks clear to me, and I’m more interested in other parts of the text.
Jesus is the wise man who was always going to build his house on a rock. We should read this passage as being part of the same story Matthew’s been telling for 16 chapters. Remember the way he ended the Sermon on the Mount (5-7): “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock” (7:24-25). Jesus has been looking for a rock, and now he has found one. But that’s not all that he has found in Peter:
Peter, the Rock, is also a Prophet to the Gentiles. You may have heard this name-pun before: “Peter” (Petros) sounds like “rock” (petra). But we often miss the second name-pun.
In John, Jesus calls Peter, “Son of John” ([ho huios] Ioannou), 1:42; 21:15). In Matthew, Jesus calls Peter, “Son of Jonah” (bariōná, 16:17).
What gives?
Peter’s dad’s name is John, but in this scene, Jesus sees Peter as a spiritual son of Jonah. Just as Jonah was sent, reluctantly, to preach good news to Gentiles, so Peter will be sent, reluctantly, to preach good news to Gentiles (Acts 10-12).
Whether or not Jesus promotes Peter to “Pope”, Matthew does show Jesus promoting Peter to “Prophet”, and more particularly, the kind of Prophet who proclaims the good news of Jesus’ salvation to the Gentiles even though he doesn’t want to. But that’s not Peter’s only promotion…
Peter the Scribe. The next thing to notice is that Jesus gives Peter “the keys of the kingdom of heaven” (16:19). What are the keys for? They are for “binding and loosing” (16:19).
What do those words have to do with forgiveness? (And the sacrament of confession? the proclamation of absolution?) Plenty (e.g., Matt. 18).
But before that, though, notice that “binding and loosing” was already a rabbinic idiom—one which Jesus, Peter, Matthew, and everyone around them would have known. “Binding and loosing” had to do with specific, practical interpretation of the Scriptures, both determining and explaining what was off-limits (“binding”) and what was allowed (“loosing”).
That’s the work that Jesus had been doing in the Sermon on the Mount: “You have heard it said... but I say to you...”
And when Jesus taught the way of the kingdom—binding and loosing—the crowd’s takeaway was that Jesus spoke with more authority than “their scribes” (7:24). Why their scribes and not the scribes? Because Jesus was doing the binding and loosing work of a scribe, giving his own practical interpretations of the commandments, albeit with authority.
Remember his intro: “I have not come to abolish [the commandments"] but to fulfill them… Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (5:17, 19).
By this point (Matt. 16), Jesus had already identified that his disciples had become the good kind of scribes, scribes like him, scribes who have been trained for the kingdom of heaven.
Remember his response to his disciples, once they had shown that they understood his seven parables in Matt. 13:
“Have you understood all these things?”
They said to him, “Yes.”
And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.” (13:51-52)
Matthew is pro-Prophet and pro-Scribe.
Because he has rightly proclaimed who Jesus is (16:16), Jesus calls Peter a Prophet (16:17).
Because he had rightly proclaimed his understanding of what Jesus teaches (13:51), Peter is a Scribe trained for the kingdom of heaven, authorized to bind and to loose (16:18-19). (He’ll even “loose” by declaring all foods clean in Acts 10.)
This scene depicts the ordination of a prophet, the authorization of a teacher. Peter is the first man sworn into office in the kingdom of heaven.
The future-perfect tense: “will have been bound… will have been loosed.” If you know Greek, or if you took Latin in grade school, you’re at an advantage, because you know how the “future perfective” works.
The “perfective” aspect describes an event that has been completed in the past, but has implications for the present situation (e.g., “The old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now… because she has died.”1)
Adding a time element, like the future, to the perfective aspect means that a completed event has bearing on a future situation (e.g., “If you try to call the old Taylor tomorrow, she will not come to the phone… because she will have died by then.”)
Here’s what this means.
When Jesus hands Peter the keys, he speaks hypothetically (the grammatical “subjunctive” mood) about “whatever” (not “whomever”) he might bind and loose in the future. And whatever Peter might bind or loose—by the time he binds or looses it, it “will (already) have been (fully) bound (or loosed) in heaven” (Matt. 16:19).
Jesus is not installing Peter as heaven’s bouncer, contra the cartoons. Jesus is not giving priests the authority to say whose sins heaven will forgive, and whose sins heaven will not forgive.
Here, Jesus apes language from the Jewish law court. Here is Craig Keener: “Jewish people believed that the authority of Heaven stood behind the earthly judges when they decided cases based on a correct understanding of God’s law. . . . by obeying God’s law, the earthly court simply ratified the decrees of the heavenly court.”2
Scribes trained for the kingdom of heaven work a lot like the old kind of scribes, only they vibe with the Sermon on the Mount, and they do a lot more forgiving (in two weeks, I’ll write about this theme in Matthew 18).
Matthew 16:13-20
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.
Participating in Peter’s Office. Finally, his passage features two statements of identity. One from Peter, “You are the Christ (etc.).” One from Jesus, “You are Peter (etc.).”
Two men, looking at each other, loving each other, pointing a finger at each other, and telling each other who they are. They're both right.
The Church, founded on Peter, tells Jesus who he is.
Jesus, looking at us, tells us who we are.
Peter doesn’t hoard rock-dom, but he gives it out: “Coming to [Jesus], a living stone, rejected by men but with God chosen and precious, You yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house into a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 2:4-5).
What a great Rock Peter is. He calls Jesus a rock, the Church a bunch of rocks—everybody but himself. I’m glad Jesus built his church on such a humble, rocky rock.
To the extent that we, like the Queen of Sheba coming to Solomon (12:42), come to Jesus to see his wisdom (13:1-50), and listen to him (e.g., “I say to you...”, Matt. 5-7; “Listen to him”, Matt. 17:5), we become scribes, trained for the kingdom of heaven (13:51-52). We participate in Peter’s prophethood and scribe-hood. We insist on forgiveness (6:14-15), we fight lust and anger (5:21-30).
Lectionary Resonances
Isaiah 51:1-6. Easy—it’s a passage about a rock. “Look to the rock from which you were hewn” (51:1). So are we built on the rock (Matt. 16:18), or are we hewn from it (Isa. 51:1)? Yes to both. The second half is also great: “Give attention to me, my people... for a law will go out from me, and I will set my justice for a light to the peoples” (51:4). That's absolutely what’s happening in Matt. 16:13-20, and it’s happening through Peter.
Psalm 138. “All the kings of the earth shall give you thanks, O Yahweh, for they have heard the words of your mouth, and they shall sing of the ways of Yahweh” (138:4-5). Kings will know the ways of Jesus because Peter, the Scribe, will teach them. Psalm 138 projects that the “binding and loosing,” done right, will serve the poor: “For though Yahweh is high, he regards the lowly, but the haughty he knows from afar” (138:6).
Romans 11:25-36. There's a song in there (11:34-35). Maybe that's the song that the kings will sing (Ps. 138).
How I might preach this
So, I am preaching this one, which is fun, since I had also preached on Matt. 13:51-52 a few weeks ago. I think that it’s important to teach the Church what “binding and loosing” means. It’s how we make good decisions, teach kids, navigate our world, and disciple people. Whether or not forgiveness (and the sacrament of Reconciliation, and the priestly authority of pronouncing God’s absolution) are the main point, it’s an explicit teaching from Jesus, for everyone (Matt. 6:14-15). You could focus on any of Jesus’ teachings, but probably especially this one.
I’m hooked on the line, “Listen to him,” from 17:5. I mean, its’ the starting point. We can’t teach what Jesus teaches unless and until he teaches—and his scribes teach—us. But here are some preaching angles.
When the Church takes up Jesus’ charge to Peter (Matt. 16), the world will sing about Jesus’ wisdom (Ps. 138): “Who has known the mind of the Lord” (Rom. 11).
God has hewn us from the rock: Look to Abraham (Isa. 51), look to Jesus (e.g., Matt. 5-7), and look to Peter (e.g. Acts 10).
Not only has Jesus taught us to forgive relentlessly (Matt. 6:14-15) and to examine our consciences (Matt. 5), he has also authorized us (Matt. 16) to be his prophets and scribes. So listen responsibly; practice faithfully; and teach courageously.
No, Taylor Swift has not given me permission to use her lyrics in my Greek grammar lesson.
Cited in Mounce, Basics of Biblical Greek, p. 235.