Text: Matt 16:13-20
Introduction
At the start of the service I announced absolution following the public confession something like this, “…by virtue of my office as a called and ordain servant of the word, I announce the grace of God unto all of you, and in the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ I forgive you all your sins…”
The fancy term for that act is the exercise of the office of the keys. Office is used in the slightly archaic sense of a position – like the office of the presidency or an officer of the law. An office is not just a place and it is not reducible to a single person. A person holding an office has rights and responsibilities associated with that office and they are accountable for how it is carried out.
In the absolution I – and most ministers across the globe – claim the right and authority to announce absolution, to forgive sins. Jesus claimed that same authority one time when four friends lowered their crippled compatriot through a roof – and he backed it up by telling the man to pick up his mat and walk. Needless to say I doubt that many ministers today are healing the lame as proof of that authority.
So why are we confident of this? Why am I confident enough to stand in front of everyone and say I forgive you all your sins? And why do you believe me when I say it?
What we have here in today’s gospel text, and I’m going to support it referencing a few others is a deep question of authority and knowledge and ultimately truth. And it is the truth – expressed by Peter in the gospel for today – that everything rests upon.
Absolution
There are two places in the bible where Jesus says something very similar. Here in Matthew, Jesus, speaking to Peter uses singular yous – “I will give you (Singular) the Keys of the reign of heaven. What you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven. What you loose on earth, will have been loosed in heaven. In the Gospel of John – the pronouns are plural – John 20:23 – “If you – plural and possibly including a much larger group, all those who have received the Holy Spirit – If you forgive the sins, they have been forgiven. If you retain, they have been retained.”
And forgive me for being a 5th grade grammar snob – but our proclamation of absolution gets the order right. We naturally think of the power associated with forgiveness – but that is the old Adam operating in us. We put the power in the first half of the if…then. If someone here forgives, then heaven is bound. But both gospel readings are reversed. The power is in the then. If I forgive or bind, then it has already been forgiven or bound. Heaven acts first. Our absolution proclamation has it right. By virtue of my office I announce the grace of God. God has already been graceful. I just announce the truth. The office is the means that God has chosen to give his grace. It happens in your hearing, because God has already secured you.
That is why a sinner like me can have this office. God’s grace is not dependent upon the holder of the office. The church in modern times might seem to have been plagued with poor holders of this office. The warnings against being that guy are horrific – large millstones and better not to have been born - but that false prophet within the church can’t stop the grace of God to his children. The absolution is Christ’s. The body and blood are Christ’s. The baptism is Christ’s. He’s promised to be present. The holder of the office does not have the power – only the privilege of announcing what God has done and being the means.
Peter – Papacy
A couple of weeks ago there was a small tempest in the Presidential primaries when it was discovered that a Lutheran doesn’t always agree with the Pope. Fast breaking news from the 16th century.
We agree on much more than we disagree on. But today’s gospel is one of those fault lines. The Lutheran understanding of the office of the keys. The Roman view is that Peter – the first pope – received those keys and it is his office that has the authority to forgive and bind sins. The heirs of Peter wish to separate themselves from the other apostles. Instead of being the representative of the apostolic band – to lift themselves above it. So, when the reformers would call the papacy the anti-christ – which is what started the Presidential kerfuffle – what they were saying is that the pope of that day was placing something between God’s people and God’s grace. Christ wanted his ministers to proclaim the good news, the absolution. The pope’s of that day would put things like indulgences or pilgrimages – which might be good pious acts in themselves – but they would put them as requirements of receiving grace. And they would claim that this text – the granting of the keys to Peter – is what gave them the authority. There have been more words of commentary written on today’s text than any other NT passage. Much of it overlooking the plural yous in the parallel in John.
But I want to direct your attention to the other two points in the Gospel of Matthew where the original Peter attempted to list himself above the church or above his fellow apostles. One we read just a couple of weeks ago. When all the disciples are in the boat – often a symbol for the church – and Jesus is walking on the water, Peter wants a special privilege. He wants to set himself apart and he steps out of the boat. And ends up sinking in the waves until Jesus puts him back in the boat among the apostles. The other account is during the last supper leading up to the passion. Jesus predicts that all the apostles will flee. Peter is not content with that – proudly boasting that “if all others flee, I will stay”. We know where that story ends…with all fleeing but Peter loudly denying Jesus. Even within the Gospel of Matthew where Peter is the first of the apostles, when he tries to claim privilege greater than them it ends miserably.
The authority of the keys is not with any one person. It is given to the confessing church – the one holy catholic and apostolic church.
So What is the Rock and Why Believe
But all of that is somewhat inside baseball. Who has been given the keys and who has authority to use them presupposes they exist. I haven’t attempted to answer why you should be confident of them…or why they are true.
Jesus answered and said to Peter, “You are blessed…because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father in heaven.”
The truth is based on the revelation of the Father. Natural flesh and blood doesn’t get you there. All our logic and reason can’t bring out the truth that Peter confessed. Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God. God is living. God is active in this world. Active in revealing himself through his son. And that son is the Christ – the anointed one. That son has been placed into an office – with rights and responsibilities and accountabilities.
By confessing that Jesus was The Christ, Peter was saying he wasn’t just John the Baptist or Elijah or Jeremiah or a prophet. Jesus was also the Royal King - the anointed one – with a work to perform. Accountable to the Father for that office. This Christ would pray for that work to be removed from him in Gethsemane, but he would carry it. He would carry the cross. He would carry the sins of the world. He would receive the authority to forgive because of his work on that cross.
And he would choose to exercise that right through the church that confesses him. Peter was the first. The first confessor. The church reduced to one. The apostles reduced to one. On that confession, on the exercise of the keys, the church would be built. A church that the gates of hell could not overcome.
Because God’s grace is exercised by God. Jesus has already defeated sin, and death and the devil. Those three have no claim on the resurrected and ascended Christ. Steeples might fall, holders of the office might have feet of clay, we might be pressed hard in persecutions, or wandering in doubt – but God’s word is true. It doesn’t depend upon us. He has forgiven us. He has set the prisoners free.
The church at all times and in all places joins Peter in saying the crucified one is the Christ of the Father. In baptism is opens the Kingdom to all nations. It proclaims the Father’s grace in absolution and pulpit. It offers the body and blood of Christ at the table. And it does so in the stead and by the command of her Lord.
And she lives right now by Faith. For these things have not been revealed to natural sight but by the Father. God is still at work through his Christ – to those who have the eyes to see and the ears to hear. Amen.