Today’s Gospel August 21, 2011 The Keys to the Kingdom

13 ᾿Ελθὼν δὲ ὁ ᾿Ιησοῦς εἰς τὰ μέρη Καισαρείας τῆς Φιλίππου ἠρώτα τοὺς μαθητὰς αὐτοῦ λέγων· τίνα με λέγουσιν οἱ ἄνθρωποι εἶναι τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου; 14 οἱ δὲ εἶπον· οἱ μὲν ᾿Ιωάννην τὸν βαπτιστήν, ἄλλοι δὲ ᾿Ηλίαν, ἕτεροι δὲ ῾Ιερεμίαν ἢ ἕνα τῶν προφητῶν. 15 λέγει αὐτοῖς· ὑμεῖς δὲ τίνα με λέγεται εἶναι; 16 ἀποκριθεὶς δὲ Σίμων Πέτρος εἶπε· σὺ εἶ ὁ Χριστὸς ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ τοῦ ζῶντος. 17 καὶ ἀποκριθεὶς ὁ ᾿Ιησοῦς εἶπεν αὐτῷ· μακάριος εἶ, Σίμων Βαριωνᾶ, ὅτι σὰρξ καὶ αἷμα οὐκ ἀπεκάλυψέ σοι, ἀλλ᾿ ὁ πατήρ μου ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς. 18 κἀγὼ δέ σοι λέγω ὅτι σὺ εἶ Πέτρος, καὶ ἐπὶ ταύτῃ τῇ πέτρᾳ οἰκοδομήσω μου τὴν ἐκκλησίαν, καὶ πύλαι ᾅδου οὐ κατισχύσουσιν αὐτῆς. 19 καὶ δώσω σοι τὰς κλεῖς τῆς βασιλείας τῶν οὐρανῶν, καὶ ὃ ἐὰν δήσῃς ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, ἔσται δεδεμένον ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς, καὶ ὃ ἐὰν λύσῃς ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, ἔσται λελυμένον ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς. 20 τότε διεστείλατο τοῖς μαθηταῖς αὐτοῦ ἵνα μηδενὶ εἴπωσιν ὅτι αὐτός ἐστιν ᾿Ιησοῦς ὁ Χριστός.    Matthew 16:13-20

Today’s Gospel lesson is that familiar passage the Roman Church uses to justify Petrine supremacy and thus superior status of the Roman Church and the Vatican, as successor of Peter.  Protestants of course have a different take on the passage, after all they are loosed from Peter’s church and would not want to be thought of as cut off in Heaven, καὶ ὃ ἐὰν λύσῃς ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, ἔσται λελυμένον ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς.

What is interesting in this lesson is verse 18 where Jesus tells Peter that upon the rock He will build His church,  καὶ ἐπὶ ταύτῃ τῇ πέτρᾳ οἰκοδομήσω μου τὴν ἐκκλησίαν.  One may note that Πέτρος is masculine but ἐπὶ ταύτῃ τῇ πέτρᾳ is feminine and therefore the reference is not to Peter the man, but to something else, perhaps the proposition (ἡ πρόθεσις) Peter asserts: σὺ εἶ ὁ Χριστὸς ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ τοῦ ζῶντος. Jesus speaks highly of Peter and his thesis here calling Peter  μακάριος.

However, I find it very curious that if one reads the Gospel beyond today’s passage we come to a passage where Jesus rebukes Peter and quite clearly refers to him as Satan, after telling the disciples what will happen to him and Peter saying that it will not so happen.  ὁ δὲ στραφεὶς εἶπε τῷ Πέτρῳ· ὕπαγε ὀπίσω μου, σατανᾶ· σκάνδαλόν μου εἶ· ὅτι οὐ φρονεῖς τὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἀλλὰ τὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων.
  

It is doubtful that the author of the gospel is trying to portray Jesus as some sort of Manic-Depressive.  Clearly something else is going on here, perhaps Jesus is trying to explain that what must be must be and to deny that it will be is a form of sin, coming from man’s desires rather than God.  To deny God’s plan here is to deny the work of God and therefore a form of disobedience.   

Perhaps the lesson here is that we ought to live up to the proposition (ἡ πρόθεσις) of Peter, and treat Jesus as the Son of the God of the Living.  We too often see Jesus as that to whom we are to go after death, but Jesus is clearly the Son of God in this life: ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ τοῦ ζῶντος.  And perhaps that is the key (ἡ κλείς) to the Kingdom here.

Perhaps ἡ πρόθεσις of Peter is no proposition in that sense at all, but a hypothesis, ἡ ὑπόθεσις upon which the Church of Jesus stands, namely that Jesus is ὁ Χριστὸς ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ τοῦ ζῶντος.