Who do we say he is

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

WHO DO WE SAY HE IS

Matt 16:13-20

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 Christ, the Son of the living God." 17 Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, 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 warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.

NIV

This is a passage of scripture which has given rise to much discussion with many various views. There are three main views held by some denominations. First that Jesus referred to Peter as the rock which he would build his church upon. This view has been adopted mainly by the Roman Catholic Church making Peter the first Pope, so to speak. He was the first head of the early church. However if he was actually head or authority in the early church then Paul would not have confronted him as he did.

Gal 2:11-13

11 When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. 12 Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. 13 The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.

NIV

We would also have to include the whole of Chapter fifteen of the Acts of the Apostles to clearly see that the church followed the advice of James in this matter of the gentiles. Peter spoke first, but then James spoke up and asked the brothers to listen to him and they did, as they followed his advice. If Peter was the singular undisputed head of the Church neither of these situations would have happen.

The second main view is that Jesus was referring to himself as the Rock.

Isa 28:16

16 So this is what the Sovereign LORD says: "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed.

NIV

Although Jesus has been referred to as the Rock of our Salvation this may be a forced interpretation in an effort to dismiss Peter being the rock upon whom Jesus builds his church.

The other view also includes Peter, however not him per say, but his confession. Jesus will build his church upon that type of confession of those who believe. When people confess that Jesus is the living Son of God, the Christ, they become part of his church. This is a fact, but it is not the most plausible interpretation of this passage about the rock. If we look throughout the Acts of the Apostles we would find that Peter did indeed preach the good news to first the Jews and second to the Gentiles.

Acts 2:14

14 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: "Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say.

NIV

On the day of Pentecost Peter preached to all those Jews who were in Jerusalem celebrating Pentecost. This was Shavuot which occurs 49 days after the first day of Passover (i.es the 50^th day, including Passover itself) According to our scholars the Jewish tradition, Pentecost commemorates God’s giving of the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai, 49 days after the Exodus.  So Jerusalem was filled with God fearing Jews from all over. Peter preached to them and thousands accepted, confessed that Jesus was the Son of the living God, the Christ. Then we would jump to Acts chapter ten where Peter gets the vision of the sheet full of animals which is God calling him to preach to the Gentiles as well. So Peter is in fact the foundation upon which the church is built preaching both to the Jews and the Gentiles. But he is not the infallible authority of the first church. The idea is that the church, is built upon the solid foundation of being for all men, excluding none.

The basis for all this discussion is on the two words for Rock, Petros and Petra. They mean the same thing, except one is the feminine gender of the other. So the word rock is not the point of the meaning of the passage for neither Jesus nor Peter were feminine.

As interesting as all this is it would seem all the point is about the foundation of the church is universal salvation for all mankind. “Whosoever believes will not perish but have everlasting life” John 3:16. In all reality the main point here is in the words of Jesus when he asks, "Who do you say I am?" This is the question he asks all people. This is the question he asks us. What our answer is carries a great significance for our life. When we answer, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living the God”, we are saved, we will not perish, we are now on solid ground, we now have a firm foundation for the rest of our life. Everything we do is based on this foundation. We build the rest of our life on that one truth. All the rest of scripture may help us to discover ways in which we may correctly think and behave, but it all hinges on the foundation of confessing who Jesus is. Who do we say he is?