I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

This is one of those gospel readings that ties in directly with an old testament prophet (Isaiah 22:19-23). So, I will start by examining what we can learn from this passage of Isaiah. He introduces us to the role of the steward, or master of the house, in the davidic kingdom. the steward litterally wore the keys to the kingdom on their shoulder, They controlled access to the king and no one had more power in the kingdom except the king. The steward with the keys, would open and shut all of the things of the kingdom. Litterally the doors, but also the laws, and edicts of the kingdom. But very importantly, this postition in the kingdom, was a continuous position. It was not a role that was ever left unfilled. After it was established by the king, the position did not die with the holder of that role. Finally, the role of sweward is thought by some scholars to also be a priestly role. The steward wore a girdle, which is a priestly garment, and carried the title “father”, and was of a son of the line of the Levites. So there is good reason to believe that this position was not only a political role but also a preistly one.

Now we move forward to Jesus and today’s reading. We are told that this reading takes place at Caesarea Philippi, why is this location important? This geographical region has several really important features. First it is the Source or Headwaters of the Jordan river, the same river that Jesus was baptised in. Second, It is a ruin of a pagan roman temple devoted to the worship of the god Pan. Pan was the god of fertility, nature, and the wild. These are all things that Satan loves, and Jesus wants to put under his feet. Finally this place was believed by the Jews of that time, to be a location that contained an opening to hell. So it is very fitting that Jesus chooses this place to establish His kingdom. It will be the place that the baptismal waters will litterally flow from, the place where the pagan worship of sex and nature lies in ruins, and His new church will rise above it, and it will litterally cover the opening to hell, and the sin that sprouts from there. Nothing that Jesus ever did, and nothing in the bible, is there as just filler, it all leads us to more and more understanding.

With all that background established, We now turn to Jesus, the new King of the line of david, and in this moment he is restablishing the long lost Davidic kingdom. Every Davidic king needs a steward, who can bear the keys to the kingdom, and open and shut. That person is Peter. In the Catholic church we teach that the position of the steward is the pope, and Peter here is ordained as the first pope…, who will watch over the kingdom while the king was away, and whatever he binds and looses, would have the authority and impimatur of the king. As we learned from Isaiah, it is clearly also not a role that dies with the holder of the keys, it is a perpetual role that must always be filled until the king returns, and thus we have the long line of bishops and popes that have always held this role even until today.

Next we should discuss Jesus’ question to His diciples. He asks who do the people say that the son of man is? As with all questions Jesus asks, you should ask your self this question as well. it is a good examination of conscience. But there is also another really important reason for this question. Jesus starts by asking about others, they say He is elijah or a prophet, Jesus does not like this answer, so He asks who they say that He is. Peter fills the silence and says that He is god. The jewish people were all waiting for the return of Elijah, and the subsequent coming of God, so Jesus did not want them to think that He was just another prophet in a long line of prophets. He wanted them to understand very clearly that John the baptist was the return of Elijah, and that Jesus was the one that Elijah would prepare the way for…. That is God! A wise teacher, or a prophet is the only thing that Jesus cannot be. Jesus claimed to be God, and He litterally proved it in the ressurection, so if He was not God, that would make Him either a liar or lunatic. So if He claims to be God, then proves it with miracles and the ressurection, then that means He is actually God. That is an important thing for these men to know, even if they will not understand it until after His death and ressurection.

Finally we need to discuss what binding and loosing actually mean? These were technical terms in the jewish world that related to the deciding of matters of halakhah (litterally: “how one behaves”), and with the application of divine law. This teaching of Jesus litterally means that when our popes teach on the matters of faith and morals, that their edicts will have the affect of actually being the law in heaven. Jesus also says that the holy spirit will protect the church from ever teaching error. So we rest assured that the king has appointed a good prelot to lead us, and that if that prelot is ever actually bad, and tries to embark on teaching error that the holy spirit will be there to prevent it from happening.

So why does the chruch need an ultimate leader, and why cant we go straight to god? Because the evil one is constantly injecting himself and corrupting and detroying everything. For example, Imagine a church with two great leaders, both highly respected, both admired for their wisdom, and understanding, but at some point find themselves at odds with each other over a teaching or a doctrine. The argument may be over interpretation, or pride, or simply being actively caused by the temptation of the devil. What are they to do, how do they reconcile this difference? In the protestant church they split, and create two new churches. to the end that now we have over a 100 protestant denominations, and 100,000 non-denominational churches across the world. In the catholic church, the dispute is taken to the priest, and then the bishop and in some cases all the way to the pope, and a final decision is made. And in the case of our two leaders, you either agree with the pope, and stay in the church, or you disagree, and are excommunicated from it. But the goal is always unity, and reconcilliation, not division (that is the realm of the evil one). And that is why there is still one Catholic church 2000 years later.

This reading is full of super interesting things to consider, but the most important part of this reading is the question, “Who do you say that I am?”, that is a question for all people then and now, because the answer to that question will determine your eternity. Think about it, ponder it…, the answer to it, is everything!

Oh, lord, grant me the wisdom and understand to humbly accept the teachings of the church and your vicars in this world. Amen.