Of Doctrines, Rocks, and Keys: A Meditation on Matthew 16

When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi,

 he asked his disciples, saying,

Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?

 And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist:

some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.

He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?

And Simon Peter answered and said,

Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona:

for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee,

but my Father which is in heaven.

And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter,

and upon this rock I will build my church;

and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven:

and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven:

and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

 

Matthew 16 begins with the Sadducees and the Pharisees, religious leaders of the people of Israel, haranguing Jesus for a sign to prove that He really was the Christ.  What is revealed across Jesus’ long interaction with these religious leaders is that they had no intention of acknowledging Him at all.  They saw His miracles, heard His teaching, and were continually trying to undermine, trick, and ultimately betray Him to death under false accusation to the Romans.  Their doctrine was one of man and politics, of hypocrisy and power.  They denied Jesus and the Scriptures, creating their own traditions upon which they built their kingdom, and exercised their authority to their own benefit.  Many of them were, in St. John the Baptist’s words, a brood of vipers whose teachings and actions lead to both physical and spiritual death.  To them, Jesus offered a correction that in their blindness which could see the weather better than the signs of their own times, the only sign they would receive was that of Jonah—a cloaked reference to Jesus’ coming three days of death in the belly of the earth, only to emerge triumphant over the grave.

 

This is the context in which Jesus gave His disciples warning to beware the false teachings of the Sadducees and the Pharisee, which like leaven begin small with false words, assumptions, and corruptions, but manage to infect the whole mind and spirit of people.  A religion of power, politics, and personal advantage blinds the eyes to the authentic works of God, and dulls the ears to hear His saving Word.  No greater an example can be made than the situation in which Jesus and His disciples were in, where the very Incarnate Word of the God walked among them, full of grace and truth, inspiring many to follow Him, while others plotted His death.  Jesus put a point on this when He asked His disciples to tell Him who people conjectured Him to be, and they responded with all kinds of whacky answers:  John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or some other heroic prophet of antiquity brought back from the dead.  The religious leaders were blinded to who Jesus really was by their own commitment to false doctrine, and the people were muddled and confused by the influence of that same false religious system.  False teaching not only corrupts the ones who teach it, but those who learn from it.

 

When Jesus asked directly who the disciples knew Him to be, St. Peter responded on behalf of them all by declaring Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of the living God.  This declaration and doctrine Jesus warmly confirmed as having come from God Himself, and noting Peter’s rock solid answer, Jesus told him that it was this rock of confession—this bedrock doctrine of Jesus as the simultaneously divine and human messianic Savior of the world—upon which His unconquerable Church would be built. To Peter would be given the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, the power to forgive sins in Jesus’s Name according to Jesus’ own teaching that all who repent and believe would be saved by grace through faith in Christ alone.  This power would be a power over sin, death, hell, and all the wiles of the devil; a battering ram against which the gates of hell itself could not stand.  The power to forgive sins would change the world, rescuing people from the condemnation of their inherited Original Sin, as well as the sins of their own commission.  These Keys would unlock the gates of heaven for all mankind, that everyone who would repent and believe the Gospel might be unchained and set free from eternal perdition.  These Keys would be the gracious gift of life earned by His Vicarious Atonement upon the Cross, given freely to a world which did not deserve it, nor could ever earn it.  These Keys, to proclaim the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation to all who repent and believe in Jesus, or to declare bound in sin all who refuse to repent or believe in the Word of Christ, would be the living and active Word of Jesus among His people until His final return, empowered to accomplish what it says by the omnipotence of His Holy Spirit.

 

And what Jesus promised to St. Peter in Matthew 16 before His crucifixion, He fulfilled in John 20 after His resurrection, where John clearly declares that Jesus breathed on all His disciples, gave them these Keys of the Gospel, and sent them out as His Apostles to bear His saving Word.  Jesus accomplished what He promised, building His unassailable and eternal Church upon His Eternal Word, and the sacrifice of His own body and blood upon the Cross.  What Jesus alone could earn, He gave freely to His disciples, instructing them to give just as freely to others as they themselves had received.  The Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven which Jesus gave to His Church are the living power to forgive the sins of all by grace through faith in Christ alone, and to declare to a fallen world that there is salvation in no other name given under heaven but Jesus.  This is the power of the Keys, of the true doctrine of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and His ultimate return to judge the living and the dead.  This Eternal Word of Law and Gospel, the confession of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God, has been, is now, and shall be forever the Rock upon which Jesus’ Church is built.  This is the Rock no storm can shake, no demon can assail, and no brood of vipers can overthrow.  This is the Rock of our Salvation.

 

Let the words of false teachers and the leaven of hypocrites fall away, and hear once again the sounding trumpet of heaven to mankind:  Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of the Father, in the power of the Holy Spirit, has come to save sinners like you and me, and calls us all to eternal life by grace through faith in Him alone.  Hear Him today, gather together with His people where His Keys are rightly administered according to His Eternal Word, that repentance and faith might bring to your hearing the declaration that your sins are forgiven for His sake, and that the gates of heaven are open to you.  Amen.