Our Gospel reading for this week takes us to the passage where Jesus asks His disciples a very important question. As we read the responses that they gave, we need to also consider what our response to that question is, for this is a question that will one day be asked of each and every one of us, as well. Let’s open our Scripture passage, and see what we can learn from God’s Word.
Shortly prior to this event, Jesus and His disciples had returned from a brief excursion to the Gentile area of Tyre and Sidon, where He had cast a demon from a woman’s daughter. Jesus performed more healings to many sick folk in Galilee, and also fed a second large group with a few loaves and fishes. After further harassment from the Pharisees, Jesus took the disciples and journeyed to the city of Caesarea Philippi, which was about 25 miles north of the Sea of Galilee. This was a Roman city that was very heavily influenced by both Greek and Roman culture, and was extremely steeped in pagan worship, particularly to the Greek god Pan, the god of wild areas, fields, groves, and shepherds. There were multiple shrines and temples there for worship of that pagan god. It was here, in the midst of this pagan idolatry, that Jesus asked His disciples two questions.
First Jesus asked the twelve who people were saying He is (vs. 13-14). This brought several responses, including that He might be a reincarnation of John the Baptist, or Elijah, Jeremiah, or some other prophet. These were common beliefs and ideas that were filtering through the people and general population. Jesus then asks them who they think He is (vs. 15). Jesus didn’t ask this question because He had any doubts about Himself or His mission. Jesus knew who He was, who His Father was, and what His mission was. Since Jesus was building His Church, He wanted the disciples to know exactly who He was.
Peter was the first to speak up and declare his belief that Jesus was the Messiah (vs. 16). During the many months that Peter had spent in the company of Jesus, listening to His teachings, God had opened Peter’s eyes, and revealed to him who Jesus really was (vs. 17), the Savior of the world. He opened Peter’s heart to a deeper knowledge of Christ by faith.
The name Peter, “Petros” in the Greek, means a “small stone”. Here Jesus called him “Petra”, which in Greek means a “large foundation stone “, more like a boulder, not a pebble (vs. 18). A boulder-like truth came from the mouth of one who had initially been called a small stone. The rock or foundation of the church is the confession that Peter had just made, and which ultimately became the doctrine of the apostles, and that is that Jesus is the Son of God and the Messiah sent to be the Savior of the world. Peter would later become one of the main leaders of the early church.
Jesus then spoke about the keys to the kingdom of heaven (vs. 19). Jesus gives the keys to His kingdom to those who acknowledge Him as Lord of the kingdom, and who submit to His Lordship within that kingdom, to those who believe and make the same statement that Peter had just done. To be a citizen of His kingdom, one must be born again. When we are given the keys to a house, we have access to all of its resources, and we are responsible to take care of them. The power of the Holy Spirit, and His fruits are some of those resources. As a citizen of God’s kingdom, we have protection from the enemy. We have the authority to defeat evil in the Name of Jesus.
As our passage closes, Jesus instructs the disciples to not proclaim Him as the Messiah yet (vs. 20). This was because they did not yet fully understand the kind of Messiah He was. Jesus was not going to be a grand military leader, as many of the Jewish people wanted their Messiah to be. Instead, Jesus was the Suffering Servant that Isaiah had prophesied (Isaiah 52:13-53:12).
In closing, as I mentioned above, one day each of us will be asked, when we are face-to-face with God, who we think that Jesus is. What will your answer be? Do you think that Jesus was just a good teacher and philosopher? Someone who went around doing good deeds for people? Do you feel that He is just one of many acceptable gods? Or do you believe that Jesus is the only begotten Son of the one true God, Yahweh, the second Person of the Trinity, who came to earth to die for our sins, rose again, and ascended into heaven where He is seated at the right hand of the Father? This is something that we each must settle before we pass from this life, and our answer will determine where we spend eternity. Be sure to choose wisely!
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