NT Journey--Matthew 16

I want to talk a little about two sections of Matthew 16.  First is verse 13-20.  An interesting note here is that this is the primary passage Catholics use for their practice and doctrine of the pope.  Notice that it's Peter who answers the question Jesus asks.  After he answers, Jesus says this: "...I tell you that you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church...I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."

Catholics take this to mean that Jesus' church is built on the rock--Peter (which means "rock").  He is given the "keys" to heaven and the power to "bind and loose" things.  The pope throughout history has been seen as the successor to Peter--what they call apostolic succession.  Each pope that follows Peter also has the keys.

The Protestant answer to this is that Jesus' did not intend to build the Kingdom on Peter (the rock was only a play on words) but on the confession that Jesus is "the Christ, the Son of the living God."  The church is all about Jesus, He's our foundation and we, as the church hold the keys to the Kingdom.  We can help walk people through that door.

What we also see in this passage is the nature of the church.  Notice, Jesus says it's the gates of hell that we're fighting.  Gates are a defensive weapon, which would mean the church is on the offensive.  Too often, churches think the reason they exist is to just study the Bible or hold our worship services or just to care for each other.  All these things are fine, but the church's primary task is to advance the Kingdom of Heaven.  But how we do it makes all the difference in the world.

There have been times--many times, I'm afraid--that the church has tried to do that through non-Kingdom means like power, violence, and coercion.   But when it does that, it ceases to be the Kingdom.  Starting in verse 21, the story moves to Jesus predicting His death.  Again, it's no coincidence that Matthew places this story immediately after the account of the giving of the keys.

The power of the Kingdom is the power of the cross.  Rather than coercing people into faith (or a false copy of faith), we draw people to faith through self-sacrifice.  Notice again that it's Peter who takes Jesus aside to say he'll never let Jesus be killed.  Jesus rebukes him, essentially telling him that the way the Kingdom works is that its citizens are willing to lay down their lives for the Kingdom and for others.  And then we have the famous words in verse 25, "Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.  What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?"

As I mentioned before, salvation is more than just a one time decision to pray a prayer.  But according to Jesus, salvation is an on-going way of life where I put Kingdom things before my own desire to chase after the things the world offers.  The Kingdom is an upside-down kingdom where the last is first and the first is last.  We are tempted to think that if we live that way, life will be a drag.  But what Jesus says is that if we buy into the Kingdom way and we lay down our life--it's only then that we will actually be living.  That's real life.