St. Peter’s Chair at Rome
by the Revd Dr Robert Wilson PhD (Cantab), Old Roman Apostolate UK
And Jesus answering, said to him: Blessed art thou, Simon bar-Jona, because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in heaven: and I say to thee: that thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Today we celebrate the great feast of St. Peter’s chair in Rome. We hear from St. Matthew’s account of how when Jesus came into the quarters of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples about who men said that he was. “They said: Some, John the Baptist, and other some, Elias, and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.” Jesus then asked them specifically for their view. “Simon Peter answered and said: Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus responded by blessing him for his great confession of faith and said that he would now be called Peter and upon this rock he would build his Church “and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it; and to thee I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth it shall be loosed also in heaven.”
Simon had originally been introduced to Jesus by his brother Andrew when they were both followers of St. John the Baptist. Andrew said that he had found the Messiah, and when he had brought Simon to Jesus he said that he would be called Cephas, which is interpreted Peter, meaning a rock or stone (John 1). They had both found in Jesus the Coming One to whom John the Baptist had pointed. Subsequently, after the Baptist’s imprisonment, Jesus had gone into Galilee proclaiming that the Kingdom of God, when his will would finally be done on earth as it is in heaven, was now breaking into history in his own person and ministry. The hope of the prophet Isaiah about the coming messianic age in which the eyes of the blind were opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped was now coming to fulfilment (Matthew 11). This could mean none other than that Jesus was himself the promised Messiah, the anointed deliverer of Israel. At the climax of the Galilean ministry after the Feeding of the Five Thousand, the people wanted to make him king by force (John 6). But Jesus withdrew from the crowds, for the world could not be won by the world’s own methods. Messianic destiny, enthronement and rule could only come through reversal, repudiation, suffering and death.
Since there was a danger of the inner circle of disciples themselves being caught up by this sense of manic excitement, Jesus journeyed outside of Galilee to Caesarea Philippi. He sought to school his disciples into the true nature of his ministry. He began by asking them who he was popularly supposed to be. They responded that many saw him as a prophet like John the Baptist, Elijah or Jeremiah. But when Jesus probed further, it was characteristically Simon who was the first to speak. He confessed that Jesus was more than simply a great prophet, but in fact the promised Messiah. Jesus responded by saying that he would now be called Peter, the rock on which the Church would be built. He would be given the keys of the kingdom of heaven, whatever he bound on earth would be bound in heaven and whatever he loosed on earth would be loosed in heaven.
It has often been asked whether Jesus specifically intended to establish the Church. But this common question is misplaced as it stands. Jesus did not so much intend to establish a new religion ex nihilo, for there already was one, the faith of Israel. This dated back to the call of Abraham who had been promised that in his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Though the people had often fallen away into idolatry, a faithful remnant had always persisted. Hence, when the nation as a whole did not receive his message, Jesus turned to focus his attention on schooling the faithful remnant of his followers. The present Jewish establishment was doomed, but Israel could now be reconstituted under new leadership. The Twelve disciples symbolised the twelve tribes of Israel and Peter was their leader. This would be the rock on which Israel would be built. The community was still Israel, but it was now defined by faith in Jesus. It was not so much a matter of replacement as of resurrection.
There was considerable irony in calling Simon a rock, for he was an impetuous and unstable character. He responded angrily when Jesus explained that his ministry was to be seen not in terms of another warrior and conqueror like King David, but rather that of the suffering servant of Isaiah, who was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Simon Peter did not fully grasp this then and he remained resistant to the idea. The day finally came when Jesus no longer taught, but acted and suffered. Despite protestations to the contrary on the night of Jesus’ betrayal, Peter denied him in the end and Jesus went to his cross alone, the one true faithful Israelite.
But the good news of the gospel is that this is not the end of the story. Jesus’ resurrection showed that Peter’s confession of faith at Caesarea Philippi had not been in vain. Jesus reinstated him and commanded him to feed his flock, when he appeared at the Galilean lakeside (John 21). It seems that this incident made a deep impression on Peter, for he re-emerged as the leading figure in the early Church. He now openly proclaimed the very message that he had previously found so difficult to accept, namely that the true nature of Jesus’ messiahship was not as a warrior and conqueror but a suffering servant. Instead of winning a military victory against the pagans, Jesus had defeated the forces of evil by turning the other cheek and going the second mile. He had not rebuilt the physical temple, but rather he spake of the temple of his body, that of himself and his followers who had been incorporated into him through baptism for the remission of sins and were sustained by his risen and glorified body, which they now received in the Eucharist.
It is important to emphasise that the authority which Jesus conferred first on St. Peter and then to the other Apostles to bind and to loose was not one to devise new doctrine, but rather to guard the deposit of faith once delivered to the saints. That was as true in the time of St. Peter and the earliest age of Church as it is today.
Let us pray for grace that we will be faithful in our proclamation of that same faith, both in word and in deed, in our own time and place.
Leave a Reply