Looking to the rock from which we were hewn

Sunday 23 August 2026

Lectio Divina:*

Isaiah 22:19-23 Psalm 138(137) Romans 11:33-36 Matthew16:13-20

(See also Mark 8:27-33 and Luke 9:18-22)

Meditatio:

 ‘Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. (Isaiah 51:1)

Commentary:

Every so often we may stop and wonder; stare and think; appreciate and move on.  The gospels contain one such ‘stop and wonder’ moment when Jesus asks what seems like a very simple question. It ran something like this:

I have been with you some time. We have had great times together and we have had hard times together. I never promised you that it would be easy.  You heard my call and you followed me.  Others did likewise.  News about us spread throughout the country. Some said I was a great prophet – even the greatest, others said I was a trouble maker and a fraud while others, still, said I was from the Evil One.  But, you – what do you think?  Who do you say I am? Why are you still following me? Who am I to you?

For today on this God-given Sunday, we are asked the same question.  ‘Who is Jesus Christ for you?’ ‘What does Jesus Christ mean for you today?’ ‘Does it matter?’ ‘What difference does Jesus make to my life today?’

This Sunday’s Gospel passage is very timely and very meaningful. We need, each of us, to ask the question.  And, perhaps for now, not seek to answer the question in a hurry or in a way that is tidy, exact and definitive. Rather, let God speak to us in the question with every passing moment and breath.

After all, it was not ‘flesh and blood’ that revealed this to Peter but his Father in heaven. It was a work of grace. Peter received a calling and a trust that would be the rock foundation (the Kephas to use the Aramaic term that Jesus gave to Simon at the time of his calling) on which the early Christian community would be founded.  It is possible that the word ‘Church’ or ekklêsia in the Greek was added later than the initial oral reporting by the writer of Matthew of Jesus’ words).  Some scholars have suggested that Matthew's use of the term ekklêsia reflects the experience of the early Christian community as the Gospel took shape. It may be noted that the much contested ‘conferring of the keys’ verse (Matthew 16:19) is unique to this Gospel and is not found in either Luke or Mark which are, in other respects, mirrors of Mathew 16:13-16.

While we can interpret these verses as indicative of what we now call a petrine papal ministry we need to pay attention to two verses placed two chapters on in this same gospel of Matthew.  The conferring of the ‘keys of the kingdom’ with the use of the rabbinical ‘binding and loosing’ instruction anticipates the very same words in Matthew 18:17-19):

 If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax-collector. Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.

Matthew 16:18 and Matthew 18:18-19 need to be read together.  ‘Where two or three gather in my name…’ is the essence, meaning, source and destination of the ekklêsia  - literally a ‘gathering together of people’ in the ancient Greek. This is the idea of ‘walking together’ as the disciples did on the road to Emmaus. We need to keep the ‘all in’ in harmony with the ‘over and above’ implicit in hierarchy.

The word ekklêsia  appears over a hundred times in the New Testament but hardly ever in the Gospels except in the Gospel of Matthew where it appears only here and in Matthew 18:17.  By contrast, the word ‘kingdom’, as in heavenly kingdom or kingdom of God, arises over 100 times in the four Gospels with the Greek word, basileia or some grammatical variation on basileia).

Both passages (Matthew 16:18 and 18:18-19) have been cited by Christians through the ages to strengthen a particular emphasis or latter-day arrangement for Church authority and governance. The Primus inter Pares (first among equals) of Peter is clear to most.   However, we should not jump to conclusions about modern-day patterns of church governance on foot of sweeping generalisations or extrapolations from one or two sentences of the Gospel taken in isolation (whatever Tradition and Magisterium have said on this matter). Neither should we ignore or dismiss the actual and historical evidence about the key unifying and leadership role of Peter and those who came after him in that place (Rome) where, by tradition, he was martyred and on whom the visible communion of disciples was built.

Our eldest brother in faith, Peter and those who came after him – for all their faults and errors – were and are important signs of potential (and actual) communion. The Church breathes with two lungs – East and West and is founded on the rock of Peter as well as the brotherhood of equals called in Christ.

Was it on the person of Peter that the Church was built or simply on his faith and that of the community of disciples of whom Peter, apparently, was the lead spokesperson or actor? I suggest that both understandings are not mutually exclusive.  Roman Catholics have appealed strongly to these verses when explaining the development of the papal office. Catholic teaching, however, sees the papacy as rooted not only in Scripture but in Tradition together with the lived experience of the Church across two millennia. 

On the other side there has been a tendency among those outside the Roman Catholic Church as well as many within to ignore the key role of papacy in helping the universal church to reach consensus in matters of faith and morals.  Historically, the role of Peter and his successors to this day remains crucial to Christian unity and diversity.  The petrine ministry is an essential part of what it means to be catholic and when we walk away from it we risk throwing caution to the wind with all of the disastrous and chaotic consequences that ensue.

In any case, the Church universal as well as the Church local was and is built on the blood of martyrs – even today in Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Pakistan. Let us never forget that.  

For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 3:11)

For us Christ is the way, the truth and the life. This is the answer to the question of who is Jesus for us today.

Some extras:

Collect of the Word for this Sunday (Church of Ireland)

 O God, fount of all wisdom, in the humble witness of the apostle Peter you have shown the foundation of our faith: give us the light of your Spirit, that, recognising in Jesus of Nazareth the Son of the living God, we may be living stones for the building up of your holy Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

Post-Communion prayer (Roman Catholic missal of 1970)

Lord, you gave Peter the keys of the kingdom and made him head of the Church, make me an active and faithful member of your Church.

Private prayer after Holy Communion

(from The Family Missal and Prayer Book of the Church of the Holy Spirit, Ballyroan, Dublin, 1976)

Lord Jesus, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.  How is it that the Son of God, to whom be glory forever, should come to me? Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof: but it is your wish, and I obey.  I welcome you; I reverence you; I need your strength.  May the Father in heaven enlighten my mind to acknowledge you, with Peter, as the Christ, the Son of the living God.