Love Matthew 16. What a powerful message!
There is a depth in these scriptures that is wonderful. As Jesus often did He used the backdrop of where He was speaking from to give clarity and depth to His words.
Jesus took the disciples to Caesarea Philippi to a site where sacrifices where made to the Greek idol Pan (and before that Ba’al). It was on Mt. Hermon and the opening was called, “The doorway to Hades”.
With that backdrop I read the following scripture as Christ saying that His Church would be built upon the fact of what Peter spoke, not on Peter himself.
Reasoning? Would Jesus build His Church upon man whom is fallible? No. Would He build it upon the fact that He is the Messiah? Yes.
What was the subject at hand? Peter’s revelation that Jesus was the Messiah, not that Christ had changed Peter’s name from Shim‘on Bar-Yochanan to Shim’on Kefa, or on Peter himself.
Peter Declares That Jesus Is the Messiah
13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter,[b] and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades[c] will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be[d] bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be[e] loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
Jesus Predicts His Death
21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
22 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”
23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life[f] will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.
28 “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
Powerful!
Yes, it IS powerful.
Thanks for that additional insight to the passage.
Jesus did not entrust Himself to any man because He knows the hearts of all men. (John 2:24)
It’s interesting how the focus of the passage is so often on Peter and his name change and not on Jesus and His being the Messiah. It elevates Peter to a position that is not warranted, and diminishes Jesus.
But that would be like the enemy to take the focus off Jesus and what He did for us, and put it on a man instead.
ANY teaching that diminishes Christ and His work on the cross is from the enemy. He simply does not want people to go there because Jesus told us that if He were lifted up, He would draw all men to Himself.