Everywhere we look, it seems as if the world we grew up in and know is crumbling around us. State after state is redefining marriage to include a union with people of the same gender. Abortion in our country continues unabated, where the rights of the mother override the rights of the infant to have life. And yet, even in this spiraling and out-of-control world, Jesus says, “I will build my church, and the gates of Hell will not overpower it.”
But it isn’t only what we see around us, about others or people over there. You and I as individual Christians struggle with temptation and often fail. We give in to temptation, slandering and gossiping about a fellow brother or sister in Christ. We give in to temptation and give up on our daily prayers. And when that happens, it seems as if the gates of Hell will prevail.
Despite the defeats that we see all around us, despite that we experience them in our lives, the Word of our Lord stands firm. Jesus says, “On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hell will not overpower it.” When we see the world going to Hell in a hand basket, we can thank our Lord that He builds His Church. For if it were left up to us, the gates of Hell would have prevailed long ago!
Our Lord Jesus Christ does not depend on us. It is we who depend on Him. We are not the primary builders; He builds His Church. We are not the primary workers; He is the worker and the doer, working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight (Hebrews 13:21). Jesus says, “I will build my church, and the gates of Hell will not overpower it.”
Today, we remember two builders of Christ’s Church: The Apostle Peter and the Apostle Paul. They were builders of Christ’s Church only in this way: Jesus, the Master-builder and Chief Architect, worked in them and through them. And so today, we remember Peter and Paul because our Lord used them in special ways within salvation history.
Peter stands out because of his bold confession of Jesus. We heard that in our Gospel reading for today: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
Paul stands out as the Apostle to the Gentiles. He was the preacher of the holy Gospel to those who were not born children of Abraham, so, through faith, they could become the true children of Abraham (Galatians 3:29).
Both Peter and Paul passed on the holy faith to us in their writings, which make up much of the New Testament. Peter and Paul were also witnesses and confessors to Christ, even by laying down their lives for Him who laid down His life for them.
And so, today, we remember both Peter and Paul. For, as representatives of the apostles, we remember that the Church is built, as it says in the book of Ephesians, “on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself as the cornerstone” (Ephesians 2:20).
But it is not our foundation. No matter how superb someone may be in his organizational skills, administrative gifts, or powers of speech, those abilities and skills do not build Christ’s Church. No, the Church’s cornerstone is Jesus, with the Apostles being the foundation.
But what does it mean that the Church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets? What does it mean when we hear Jesus give Simon the name “Peter,” which means “rock,” and then He goes on to say that He will build His Church on this “rock”? And what did Jesus mean?
Ah, for us to make sense of Jesus’ words, we need to go back to the original Greek. Jesus does some wordplay that we miss in the English. In English, it makes perfect sense to understand that Jesus will build His Church on Peter. And so the Roman-Catholic claim that they are the one, true Church makes sense–in English.
But Jesus says, “I tell you that you are petros”; in Greek, that’s the masculine-gendered form for “rock.” Then Jesus continues: “And on this petra [that’s the feminine-gendered form for “rock”] I will build my church.” Jesus did not, and does not, build His Church on Peter. If that were so then Jesus would have said that He would build His Church on petros, the name by which He called Peter. Instead, Jesus is referring to what Peter said, his petra, his confession.
And so, if we want to know what Jesus meant, we have to look at Peter’s confession. What did Peter confess? He said, referring to Jesus, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Peter confessed Jesus. And Jesus pointed back to Peter’s confession of Jesus. And what does that mean? It means that the rock of the Church is Jesus Christ Himself, not Peter. Jesus builds the Church on Himself as the rock, the cornerstone of the Church.
Peter’s answer answers it all–and it’s also the only answer that can help us. Jesus is not John the Baptizer, come back from the dead. He is not Elijah. He is not Jeremiah. He is not some other Old Testament prophet. He is “the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus is the One about whom the prophets of old prophesied. That means He is your King, Messiah, and Savior. And more than that, Jesus is the Son of the Living God. And since He and the Father are one (John 10:30), that means that Jesus is also the God who is life, who created life, and who gives life.
That is our comfort on the dark and gloomy day when all seems lost. When you stumble into despair, when you face disappointment, even when you stand at the grave of one you have loved, remember Peter’s apostolic words. And then confess them yourself: “Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God, and He has come to give me life.”
But how do we receive this life that Jesus gives? For if we don’t receive it, it does us no good.
Jesus told Peter, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” In today’s gospel, those keys are promised to Peter, who stands as the representative of the Apostles.
Later, when Jesus rises from the dead, our Lord gives the keys to all the Apostles–and the pastors who follow in their train. Jesus instituted the “Office of the Keys,” so every Christian can hear from his pastor that his sins are forgiven. This is so each Christian can hear it and know it, instead of going by what he feels in his heart. That’s why the Church is not something optional in the life of the Christian.
Don’t build your life on that which has no lasting value. The Apostle Paul warns us, “Each person’s work will become obvious, for the day [of judgment] will reveal it” (1 Corinthians 3:13). That’s why Paul says, “No one can lay any other foundation than the one that is already laid, and that foundation is Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 4:11).
So when Jesus says, “On this rock I will build my Church,” He is talking about Himself. Jesus is the rock on which the Church is built. Peter is not that rock. How can he be? After all Scripture says Jesus is the cornerstone.
Yes, the Church is “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, [with] Jesus Christ Himself as the cornerstone” (Ephesians 2:20). How then do the apostles and prophets fit in? In this way: The prophets are the human authors of our Old Testament; the Apostles are the human authors of the New. And all the Scriptures point to Jesus Christ, who is the “cornerstone” (John 5:39). That’s the sum and substance of what Holy Scripture has to teach us.
Of course, the Apostle Paul also said these words about Christ’s Church: The Church is “the pillar and foundation of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15). And so we find two, twin authorities in our lives as God’s people. We have the Scriptures, which are the foundation of the Church, because they are the writings of the Prophets and Apostles. And we have the Church, which is the pillar and foundation of the truth. Both the Church and Scriptures stand as authorities in the life of the Christian.
That means that as God’s people, we are to have both the Scriptures and the Church. After all, the Scriptures are the foundation of the Church. The Scriptures are to keep the Church faithful and honest, always being and preaching the truths contained within them.
Yet, the Church is to keep us from privately interpreting the Scriptures, so we can make them say whatever we want them to say (2 Peter 1:20). After all, the Scriptures themselves point us to the Church as “the pillar and foundation of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15), not back to the Scriptures. That means that we cannot dispense with the Church, for God uses the Church to preach His truth to us, even when we don’t want to hear it.
Now, why is this important? Here’s why: God’s truth brings us to the One who is Truth, Jesus Christ. So, let us be fixed on, and built on, Jesus Christ. For those who are built on Christ the Rock will survive whatever the devil may throw your way. The gates of Hell will not prevail.
Both the Apostles Peter and Paul point us to Jesus. Look to Him, the Christ, the Son of the living God, for only in Him do you have God’s forgiveness and eternal life. And receiving His gift of forgiveness, we have, as our Lutheran Confessions tell us, “a certain and firm consolation against the terrors of sin, against eternal death, and against all the gates of hell” [Ap IV, 85]. Amen.
