Twenty-first Sunday In Ordinary Time

MATTHEW 16:13-20    (Isaiah 22:19-23; Romans 11:33-36)

Last Sunday’s gospel reading gave us an example of Matthew’s theological geography. Jesus left the traditional boundaries of the Holy Land and responded to the plea of a Canaanite, a heathen, a Gentile, a woman. In this way Matthew gives clues to the ulti-mate goal of the Christian movement – the conversion not just of Jews, but of all nations. This Sunday’s gospel reading gives another example of Matthew’s theological geogra-phy. If the Christian Community, the Church Jesus established, was to reach the Gentile world, his proclamation of “building the Church” is appropriately made in Gentile land. Therefore the setting is in “the district of Caesarea Philippi,” beyond the Holy Land.

First Jesus takes one of the earliest opinion polls known to humankind, as he asks his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of man is?” All four gospels borrow the title “Son of man” from the Book of Daniel and apply it to Jesus. The disciples list the various identities of Jesus as they were expressed by the word on the street. “Some say you are John the Baptizer.” John had been executed by order of Herod Antipas, and some were of the opinion that John had risen from the dead. Among those who held this opinion was Herod Antipas himself, who is quoted in Matthew 14:2 speaking about Jesus’miracles, “This is John the Baptizer. He has been raised from the dead. This is why these powers are at work in him.” Others thought Jesus was Elijah returned from heaven. Elijah had never died, but according to a legend in 2 Kings 2:11, this 9th century B.C. prophet had been whisked off to heaven in a chariot of fire pulled by horses of fire. Some day he had to return to die. Still others thought Jesus might be the resurrected 6th century B.C. pro-phet Jeremiah “or one of the prophets.” So much for public opinion.

Now a more important question: Jesus asks his disciples, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon son of John, never at a loss for words, by this time recognized as leader and spokesperson for Jesus’ disciples replies, “You are the Christ (Messiah) the Son of the living God.” “Christ” and “Messiah” are identical titles, the first taken from the Greek verb “to anoint,” the second from the Hebrew verb “to anoint.” Why “living God”? Other men, especially emperors, were sometimes thought to be sons of some pagan god. But there was only one living God, the Lord God worshipped by the Jews. The title

“living God” recalls the frequent oaths attributed to God in the Old Testament, “As I live…”  It can also be a play on the personal name God reveals in Exodus 3:14, a name which the Jews did not pronounce, but “Yahweh” is one possible pronunciation, while another possibility is “Jehovah.” The point is this, that personal name is derived from the 

Hebrew verb meaning “to be, to exist, to live,” thus the God that is, the God that lives.

Jesus decrees a beatitude upon Simon, “Blessed are you, Simon son of John.” Why the beatitude? Because Simon received this proclamation of Jesus as Son of the living God directly from God, “…for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.” Simon has bestowed an exalted title on Jesus. Now Jesus returns the compliment, “I tell you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church….” The
Greek word translated as Peter is the masculinized form of the Greek word for ‘rock.’ Paul often uses the Aramaic word for “rock”, Kephas or Cephas when referring to Peter. The fact that Jesus bestows the title “Rock” upon Simon is especially significant from Old Testament background. In Isaiah 51:1-2, the Israelites are told to “look to the rock from which you were hewn…. Look to Abraham your father….” As Abraham was the father of the People of God in the Old Testament, so Simon Peter is the father of the Peo-ple of God in the New Testament. Look to Peter, the rock from which you were hewn.

Jesus invests Simon Peter with the stewardship of the Church, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. What-ever you unbind on earth shall be unbound in heaven.” The keys are symbolic. They sym-bolize the power to open and close entry to the Christian Community. The meaning of Jesus bestowing the keys on Simon Peter is indicated by Old Testament background which served Matthew in the composition of this text. This background occurs in this Sunday’s first reading, Isaiah 22. Eliakim is invested with the stewardship of the palace of the kings and power beyond the palace, “He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. And I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David. He will open, and none will close. He will close and none will open. And I will fasten him like a peg in a sure place and he will become a throne of honor…. And they will hang on him the whole weight of his father’s house….”

This describes the authority of Simon Peter and those who succeeded him, from the great to the shysters who did not live up to their commission. Why did Matthew, about the year 85, include this episode in his catechism? By that time it was clear that the world was not about to end as earliest Christianity expected. The Church had to continue. There had to be a center of unity, a final authority, an ultimate decider.  Jesus promised that “the gates of hell shall not prevail” against his Church. Often in the history of the Church it seemed that the gates of hell had indeed prevailed. Then God, true to his Son’s word, raised up great “stewards of the palace and the house of Judah” to bring order out of chaos.