Two Rocks
Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of earth shall not prevail against it." Matt. 16:17, 18, RSV.
Peter's sensitive ears must have been overjoyed to hear such a promise coming from Jesus. A real blessing indeed. Simon Bar-Jona translates as Simon son of Jona, Peter's formal name. And Jesus has no doubt that the Father through the Holy Spirit had revealed Jesus' true identity to His disciple.
At that point the blessing moves into one of the most contentious passages in Christian history: "You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it."
The question is, who or what is the rock that forms the foundation of the church? Was it Peter the man or Peter's confession that Jesus is truly the Christ?
In beginning to answer we need to realize that the text makes a play on words in the rock statement. The Greek text reads, "you are petros, and upon this petra I will build My church." Josephus uses petra to describe the massive stone blocks in the towers of Jerusalem (Wars 6.140). Petros, on the other hand, represents an ordinary rock that one can carry. That understanding lines up with Ephesians 2:20, in which Paul describes Christ as the "corner stone" and the prophets and apostles forming the rest of the foundation of the church.
Then again, if Jesus had made Peter the chief disciple, that would have put an end to the ongoing argument about which of them was the greatest. That may have been what Peter wanted to hear, but as we shall soon see, Peter wanted to hear a whole lot of things that Christ never intended.
What he did hear is that his confession that Jesus is the divine Christ is the very foundation on which the Christian church is built.
And even the powers of death would not be able to stop Christ's church. His power over death in the Resurrection (first introduced in Matt. 16:21) would make even shaky little rocks strong as they realized that as long as they were with God, people could do nothing to harm them. They (and we) have nothing to fear. We serve a risen Lord.
Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of earth shall not prevail against it." Matt. 16:17, 18, RSV.
Peter's sensitive ears must have been overjoyed to hear such a promise coming from Jesus. A real blessing indeed. Simon Bar-Jona translates as Simon son of Jona, Peter's formal name. And Jesus has no doubt that the Father through the Holy Spirit had revealed Jesus' true identity to His disciple.
At that point the blessing moves into one of the most contentious passages in Christian history: "You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it."
The question is, who or what is the rock that forms the foundation of the church? Was it Peter the man or Peter's confession that Jesus is truly the Christ?
In beginning to answer we need to realize that the text makes a play on words in the rock statement. The Greek text reads, "you are petros, and upon this petra I will build My church." Josephus uses petra to describe the massive stone blocks in the towers of Jerusalem (Wars 6.140). Petros, on the other hand, represents an ordinary rock that one can carry. That understanding lines up with Ephesians 2:20, in which Paul describes Christ as the "corner stone" and the prophets and apostles forming the rest of the foundation of the church.
Then again, if Jesus had made Peter the chief disciple, that would have put an end to the ongoing argument about which of them was the greatest. That may have been what Peter wanted to hear, but as we shall soon see, Peter wanted to hear a whole lot of things that Christ never intended.
What he did hear is that his confession that Jesus is the divine Christ is the very foundation on which the Christian church is built.
And even the powers of death would not be able to stop Christ's church. His power over death in the Resurrection (first introduced in Matt. 16:21) would make even shaky little rocks strong as they realized that as long as they were with God, people could do nothing to harm them. They (and we) have nothing to fear. We serve a risen Lord.
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