Many miracles of Jesus, his central teaching the sermon on the mount, precede the
event in today’s gospel, including the feeding of a multitude with seven loaves and a
few fish. People had mixed thoughts and feelings about Jesus! Jews believed that
prophet Elijah would return before the coming of Messiah; they considered John the
Baptist a prophet, so the talk in market place was that this Jesus is one of the
prophets. Pharisees and priestly class accused him of blasphemy and that he drives
out demons by the chief of demons etc. Now it is the disciples’ turn to answer Jesus’
question, who do you say I am? What impact his teachings and actions had on the
disciples? Peter says: you are Christ [Messiah=the anointed one], Son of the living
God! Every age, hearers of the gospel must answer, who is Jesus?
In the bible, knowing a person is relationship with that person. Jesus chose his
disciples to embark on an adventure, a kingdom of God adventure, to get to know him
and share that knowledge with the world! In Tolkien’s Hobbit: the wizard Gandalf invites
Bilbo to embark on an adventure. Gandalf: ‘I am looking for someone to share in an
adventure that I am arranging and it is very difficult to find anyone. Bilbo: I should think
so-in these parts! We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures; very
disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner! I can’t think what anybody
sees in them. But he could not resist, he and his nephew Frodo became the heroes in
Tolkien’s enchanting stories, instrumental to end the forces of darkness! The disciples
must have thought like Bilbo at first, ‘if we follow this Jesus, our lives will be turned
upside down!’ Peter perhaps thought: ‘how my wife is going to react, if I say, I am
going to be late most of the nights and that I abandoned fishing to follow Jesus? They
couldn’t resist and they embarked on an adventure with Jesus and turned the world
upside down; they were blessed with divine secrets. Peter and the other apostles
became the foundation of the way of Christ, the church. We are church because we
confess with Peter that Jesus is Christ, Son of the living God!
To know Christ is a daily encounter with him, letting God’s love enter our space and his
gospel change us, then embark on an adventure/mission to change the world of
violence, greed and hatred by the gospel of love. Until Christ came, there was no room
for public sinners, tax-collectors, outsiders, physically and mentally challenged people
in Jewish society; now they are welcome, Jesus saying to them, your sins are forgiven;
you are healed, go your way. People knew only God can forgive sins, so who is Jesus?
Jesus says to Peter, it is not flesh and blood or human reasoning, that helped him
confess Jesus as Son of the living God; it was divinely inspired revelation. Jesus says, I
and the Father are one; it is the Father who reveals the Son; heavenly voices at Jesus’
baptism and transfiguration says, ‘this is my beloved Son, listen to him’!
Peter is given authority to bind and lose; Peter’s successors the Popes have same
authority in union with fellow bishops. It is power to declare a given teaching correct or
false; power to decide if someone is in conformity with the good news of Christ or not.
Its immediate reference was that many teachings of the pharisees, their legal system
were not binding for the followers of Christ. It is also applied to the power to forgive
sins in church, sins as our actions not in conformity with the gospel. Jesus says: Peter,
you are rock; I give you the keys to the kingdom. Christ is the one who builds the
church upon Peter and the apostles as foundation; Christ perfects faith. Church has
been through many scandals, wars, schisms throughout centuries. Christ the builder of
the church comes to us in the calm after every storm! Key or authority in church is to
serve, to open human hearts to Christ and his gospel, open the door of mercy to all.
Our knowledge of Christ, wisdom he shares in the gospel and our encounter with him
in the Eucharist must guide the church and our often tossed about lives! Jesus says to
us, are you ready to embark on an adventure with me?