Matthew 16: 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, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of 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.”20 Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
Have you heard of the condition called, “Future Shock?” That was the title of a book that came out in 1970 (It’s hard to believe that it’s been fifty years already). In it, the author, Alvin Toffler, said that we are now expecting and experiencing so quickly such big changes in technology, science, society, values and culture, that we can get frozen in confusion, helplessness and passivity, like deer in the headlights, not only when these changes are bearing down on us, but even just thinking about them. Today’s news headlines about hurricanes in Texas, the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, fires across the Pacific Northwest, crazy-making climate change, missiles flying from North Korea, Mexico’s biggest earthquake in a century, riots in our streets, and bitter division and deadlock in our own government, tell me that Toffler’s predicted Future Shock is now our Present Shock.
And that on top of all the losses and changes that simply come with every age and stage of life. Just going to the dentist’s office lately has confronted me with some of those. Just when we were looking to the church for such stability, the latest cover of our denominational magazine, The Mennonite, features the words, “New Ways of Being Church.” And there are some good new ways there worth reading and thinking about.
But so much present and future shock is hard on us. Something in us naturally wants something stable and steady, as durable and reliable as a rock, on which to trust and hold firm. Before the days of GPS, radar and radio, ship captains used to navigate by reference to a compass and the stars, especially fixed stars like the North Star. In this day of Present and Future Shock, are there no more fixed stars by which to navigate our very lives and loves? Is there nothing left unchangeable, unshakable, steady, and foundational to hold on to? Or should we just get used to everything being in flux, unsteady, unreliable and up for grabs?
If we were to put that question to our Mennonite brothers and sisters in Ethiopia, they might take us on the same tour that they took me on, when I had the privilege of spending some time there in 2004. In the language of Amharic, they call themselves the Meserete Kristos church, which means, “founded upon Christ,” or “Christ Foundation.” My hosts took me around to see the very first Mennonite church sanctuary ever built there, in the capital city of Addis Ababa. It’s now a government depository for school books. Then we went down into the beautiful rift valley to the city of Nazareth, where we saw the government teachers’ training college. It used to be their Bible academy and seminary. After that, we visited a government-run hospital. That used to be theirs too.
But after a Soviet-sponsored coup d’état toppled the government in 1974, churches like the Meserete Kristos became targets of ruthless persecution, and the outright theft of all their properties, programs and projects. A lot of people disappeared, too. Especially pastors. When the government threatened “to empty all the churches into prisons,” the Meserete Kristos simply turned the prisons into churches. Fifteen years later, the pro-Soviet government collapsed, and the Meserete Kristos Church emerged from prison and from hiding, ten times bigger in number, and much stronger in spiritual gifts for mission and ministry. The new government promised to return all their properties, but they never did.
And so was fulfilled in Ethiopia the promise of today’s Gospel passage: “On this rock I will build my church, (remember the meaning of ‘Meserete Kristos’?) and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.” By “the gates of Hades” Jesus most likely means death itself. The saints will come and go, but not even their deaths to persecution will stop the church nor the confession, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God,” from spreading across the world and the ages. The Communist dictator of Ethiopia, Haile Mariam Mengistu, discovered to his chagrin the truth of what the bishop, Justin Martyr, said 18 centuries ago: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.”
Such courage was necessary on the day when Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” For there, around them in the region of Caesarea Philippi, stood statues to Greek and Roman gods and goddesses, and at least two temples, one to the worship of Caesar, another to the worship of the Greek god, Pan, whose sexualized rituals I don’t even want to know about, let alone describe.
In that setting, it was already courageous for Jesus to refer to himself aloud as “The Son of Man.” The name, “Son of Man” or “The Human One,” comes from the Book of Daniel. He is the glorious figure whom Daniel saw in a God-given dream, in Chapter 7. In that dream, Daniel first saw various hideous beasts contending for world dominion. They stand for idolatrous and expansionist empires, like the Babylonians, Persians and Greeks. In Daniel’s dream, the beasts of these brutal pagan empires fight and strive for “all authority, glory and sovereign power,” and for the worship of “all nations and peoples of every language.” But each in their turn fails and falls. But then Daniel sees “a Son of Man,” or “The Human One” standing before the throne of Almighty God. And the dominion, allegiance and obedience over which the vicious beasts fought, God gives to this “Son of Man.” Daniel goes on to say that, “His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.” Jews then and now understood this “Son of Man” to be the promised Messiah, also The Son of God. So then and there, in Caesarea Philippi, in the very den of Daniel’s imperial and idolatrous beasts, Jesus identifies himself as “the Son of Man” whom Daniel foresaw.
So, when Jesus asks the disciples, “Who do you say the Son of Man is?” they have to stand and deliver, in sight of these shrines and statues to hostile pagan gods and emperors, including one to Tiberius Caesar, whose worshipers call him, “Lord” and “Master.” Peter finds the courage to say aloud, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” As opposed to the dead and nonexistent gods within sight and hearing of this courageous confession.
And so all human history changed with a fisherman’s few words. The eternal and victorious kingdom and dominion of Daniel’s Son of Man entered the den of imperial, idolatrous beasts with Peter’s confession, “You are the Christ.” Such a breakthrough moment, and Jesus celebrates it with a joke. Or, at least, a pun. He says, in effect, “For that confession I will now call you Peter, or ‘Rocky,’ and on this ‘rock,’ I will build my church.”
Get it? Out of “Rocky’s” mouth comes the “Rock” on which Jesus will build his church. Now there’s been a lot of controversy over the centuries about what that playful pun means. Our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters believe that Peter himself is the rock on which Jesus is building his church. But for reasons of grammar and theology, I believe that the rock on which Jesus is building his church is “Rocky’s,” or Peter’s, confession, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”. If Peter himself were here, he would probably say, “Why are you all even arguing about me, when my confession is about Jesus? He is the cornerstone of his church.” And with Forrest Gump I’ll say, “And that’s all I have to say about that.”
Instead, I’d like us to remember three things that Peter’s confession does for us: 1) it reminds us whose church this is, and whose church we are; 2) it opens the gates of the kingdom of heaven for us; and 3) it thwarts and defeats the gates of Hades, or hell.
As for that first thing, Peter’s Confession reminding us whose church this is, whose church we are: that’s where Jesus went immediately upon hearing that confession. He said, “On this rock [of that confession] I will build MY church.” But how easy it is to slip into ownership amnesia, to forget just whose church we are. Whenever we think and act as though the church’s job and mission is simply and only to please us, to serve us, to reflect on us and make us look good, and to feel good, or whenever we tout our church to the world, rather than Jesus, we have forgotten who owns the church. As pastors and leaders, we can also become too anxious and over-responsible in our service, for the best of reasons and intentions, and worry too much about our tasks, our limits, our imperfections and our image. How easily we can forget that the church already has a Savior who is our all and everything, and that he is not us. The surest way to kill a congregation or a denomination is to worry about our numerical growth and our survival, thinking that we alone are responsible for that, if we just get the technique, the programs and the presentation right, because then we are acting out of fear, instead of faith.
By contrast I would draw our attention to a ministry partner whom many of us support, a mission support agency which demonstrates its faith in Christ’s ownership of his church. That is the Maranatha Ministries supporting Cora native churches in Mexico. A century or two ago, European and North American mission agencies sent evangelists, church planters and Bible translators to foreign lands, like parents starting families. Then, over time, they transitioned to partnering with these churches, as local leadership grew in faith and number, and began providing their own evangelists, pastors, Bible translators and started their own mission work. Some of those leaders then come here to teach Europeans and North Americans a thing or two. That’s a relationship like that of siblings in a family. And it’s a sign of success, that the prayers and sacrifices of the first mission workers are bearing fruit.
Some denominations and mission agencies made that transition more easily and naturally than others. Some, unfortunately, have fought tooth and nail to stay in the parental role over new national churches. Our partners in Maranatha Ministries did not, I’m glad to say, and any one of their reports contains inspiring accounts of what Cora Christian leaders are doing to share, to spread and to live the confession of Peter, as Christ builds an authentic Cora church, with our prayers and partnership. They have a few things to teach us, I’m sure.
Through all the changes of life and the world, let’s proceed not in fear but in faith, that the church of Jesus Christ will survive, thrive and grow throughout all centuries, cultures and countries, whatever the cost, until all the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. Let Peter’s confession ever remind us who owns the church.
As for the second point, how Peter’s confession opens for us the gates to the kingdom of heaven: When Jesus said, “To you I give the keys to the kingdom of heaven,” I don’t believe that he was giving Peter a bouncer’s job at the Pearly Gates. He was saying to all of us that the Kingdom of Heaven is already here, wherever and whenever the confession, and the trust, that Jesus is the Christ, is in our hearts and minds and mouths. Isn’t that confession then what all our programs and projects and ministries and classes and sermons and services and small groups and Sunday School finally come down to? Whether by word or by deed, by example or expression or education, are we confessing, declaring and demonstrating the Lordship of Christ Jesus? If so, the gates of God’s kingdom are open to us and we to it.
As for that third thing, the church thwarting and defeating the gates of Hades, or of hell: I’ve already said that Peter’s confession is what guarantees that the church of Jesus Christ will endure in spite of the deaths of saints and congregations, sometimes even because of them, and through them. But there’s another way in which we can understand that phrase, “the Gates of Hades,” or hell. In the ancient Near East, a city’s gates were the place where markets were held, as well as city council meetings, court sessions, and other important city business and discussions. When Jesus said that “the gates of Hades would not prevail against the church,” might he have been talking about the plans, projects and purposes hatched in hell against the church and our confession by Satan, the Accuser and the Confuser, who had tempted him in the desert? Was Jesus saying that whatever hell throws at his church by way of persecution, opposition, accusation, seduction, distraction, confusion and temptation, his church will survive and thrive, endure and overcome, as long as at the very least there is still that confession in someone’s heart and mouth, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God?”
Six centuries ago, Martin Luther captured this understanding of “the gates of Hades” in his famous hymn, “A Mighty Fortress,” especially the last two verses:
- And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us;
The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him; His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him. - That word above all earthly pow’rs, no thanks to them, abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours through Him Who with us sideth;
Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also; The body they may kill: God’s truth abideth still,
His kingdom is forever.
In a world of constant change, when even the forms and ways of doing church are changing, the truth that Peter confessed, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God,” is our rock that never rolls. Whatever else changes, whatever else we lose, nothing and no one can shake the foundational truth of Peter’s confession, that Jesus is the Christ, promised by Israel’s prophets, prayed for in her Psalms, and foreshadowed in her laws, sacrifices and ceremonies. Hold on to that confession, let nothing and no one steal it or charm it from you, and make it if you’ve never done so before, because of the three things it does for us: one, it reminds us of whose church this is, so we don’t have to clutch onto forms and ways of doing church with a death grip; two, it opens the gates to the kingdom of heaven for us; and three, it thwarts and defeats death and all the plans and purposes of hell.
And that’s the good news today.