Summary: We are still in a fascinating part of Matthew’s Gospel, and next week continues from the same chapter. This Jesus of Nazareth is still on the loose (so to speak) ignoring every boundary and boarder. He has moved from Pagan Caananite territory to Pagan Roman territory today as Matthew situates this powerful scene in a most unlikely place. This is an important detail. Even the fact that this event is located “in the region of Caesarea Philippi is important. It does not say that he was in the city, because in the city of Caesarea you could not see that it was built upon a huge rock escarpment in what is now called the Golan Heights at the base of Mount Hermon. So in that region one could see that great 100 foot high rock wall upon which was built a temple and a city around it....I hope you are beginning to get this connection of images. Caesarea Philippi was a new name given by the Romans for an ancient place where earlier the Greeks had built a temple to their Shepherd God, “Pan”. The Romans came and named it for their god: Caesar. Now Jesus comes to this place, to this enourmous rock out of which, by the way flows a spring that is one of the major sources of water for the Jordan River! Let your Catholic imagination work on those images. Now in the place of the god Pan and in place of the god Caesar comes the God and Father of Jesus Christ. In the region of Caesar’s city comes the City of God built on a different rock, a human rock. In this place that stands for so much earthly power in the minds of those apostles, a new power is handed to them; a greater power. In that place Jesus handed to them the one tool, the one power, that opens the way to peace and gives access to the divine. It is the power of forgiveness. Human kind has never in all its history found a way to bring peace. Nations have built up armies and arsonals, and armed themselves with every conceivable tool and never found peace until this moment when Jesus handed over the one tool that opens the way to peace: forgiveness. Work your way through the levels of this Gospel as I have taught you so often. With these images, you can understand the first level: what Jesus was doing. By the time Matthew wrote his Gospel, the Romans had unleashed a devistating and crushing blow to Israel from that very mountain, and everything was in ruin. Matthew’s church looks at the devistation as says: “We have a new rock upon which to build the city of God, the church, the source of life and forgiveness.” At the time Jesus asks Peter the question of his identity, things were quite the opposite of our time. Nowdays people seem to think that their identity is found by being different, disconnected, individualized. It’s as though we can’t seem to find out who we are until we are seperated from everyone and everything that in truth gives us an identity. At the time of Jesus, one’s identity was clear and established by one’s connection to others. Outside the family, outside the tribe, ourside the clan, one did not exist. Jesus is looking to see if Peter and the Apostsles have gotten it right about the identity of Jesus; and they are close. Not close enough, but that gets cleared up later. At the second level of this Gospel, after Pentecost, it is now clear to them who Jesus is, and now it’s time to establish who they are. The gates of this netherworld have been opened, but they hold the keys to another world; and the key is forgiveness. Today we have to live in the thrid level of this Gospel, and the question is still asked: “Who do people think we are?” “What are they saying about us?” The answer to that question lies in the way we use the key we have been given, the tool to peace. Who do people think we are? PEACEMAKERS! What are they saying about us? SEE HOW THEY LOVE ONE ANOTHER! We still hold the key and we know in our hearts that forgiveness is the only way to peace, and that the lack of it is all that can keep us from passing through that gate. We can see that the refusal of others to forgive us just as devistating as our refusal to forgive others, and so the gate of peace is still closed to us. Peter is not the only one who knows the identity of Jesus. In fact, evil spirits and A Caananite woman had said if first. Peter is not the only one who receives the blessing, and in two more chapters, the authority to bind and loose is given to the whole church. This is about who we are, and what we have been given. This Gospel raises more than the question of the identity of Jesus. It raises the question of our identity. It will not be found by individualized private persuits. The very identity of Jesus is found in his relationship to the Father, Moses, the prophets, and the Holy Spirit. The identity of Matthew’s Church is found in their relationship to one another and to Peter and his companions. Our identity is found in this place around this altar. For us who are alive in the spirit, Peter is not like some after-life security officer who hears and judges our request for entrance. Peter is the new human being revealed in Jesus, and he discovers best who he is by experiencing forgiveness after his cowardly denial. We must stop thinking about power, and begin to discover our weakness. We may not hold unforgiveness over any others. We must loose and we must bind. This loosing we are called to might well mean getting free of the force of this earth, or the force of evil and death so that we might be free to engage or bind ourselves in whatever gives life and loosen ourselves from whatever contributes to death. Think big, people of God. Think about who we are. Think about what this Church is and what great power has been given to us. Think about the blessing Jesus has spoken over us. No earthly power has revealed this to us. What are we going to become because of it, and when we understand that, what are we going to do with it except celebrate the Reign of God that begins when we open the gate of forgiveness and peace.
