Matthew 16:13-20

There are these moments of profound connection that we experience every so often in life. Like the first time you see your own child and it dawns on you that your lives are now connected in an unspeakable way. Or when it occurs to you that the woman or man you are looking at is going to be your spouse forever. Or even just that silent moment of connection sitting across the table from a close friend, when you realize that there is a deep connection here, even if you can’t quite express it, you’re connected and that relationship makes a deep imprint on your life.

The moment of connection between Peter and Jesus that we read about today was one of those profound moments. There is a connection made here that changes Peter’s life forever. And in fact this moment is so powerful that it becomes the foundation or the “rock” on which to build not only for the rest of Peter’s life but for literally billions of people around the world since that day—including you and me. This moment is the foundation of the Church.

So what’s going on here that’s so powerful? What is it about this interaction between Jesus and Peter that is worth Jesus making such a fuss about? After all, he reacts pretty strongly to Peter’s answer about who Jesus is. When Peter says that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of God, Jesus says that this was revealed to him directly from God the Father and that on the basis of this, Peter will be the rock upon which Jesus will build his Church, never to be overcome by the forces of hell. And through the ministry of this Church, God will bind evil and loose people from the power of death forever. That’s a pretty strong reaction to Peter’s simple statement about who Jesus is! So what’s going on here?

We can become desensitized to how powerful of a thing Peter is saying when he confesses Jesus to be the Christ and the Son of the living God. Christian faith is so familiar to us in our culture that it doesn’t even occur to us what a powerful thing it is to say that Jesus is the Christ. Western culture is so familiar with the claim that Jesus is the Son of God that even if people don’t believe that claim, it still doesn’t sound like that extreme of a thing to say, because we’ve heard it said so much. But it was an extreme thing for Peter to say. For the first time in history, Peter was confessing out loud that Jesus was the savior of the world, that he was the One the world has been waiting for throughout all of history, God himself in the flesh, come to save us. Now that is a pretty powerful thing to say when you stop to think about it.

But this connection between Jesus and Peter isn’t so foundational for the Church just because Peter happened to understand a certain point of doctrine. It’s not like this moment was so powerful just because Peter recited part of the Creed correctly. What’s going on here is way more personal than that, and that is what I think we most often miss in this story. This moment between Peter and Jesus is very very personal, intimate even. I mean picture Peter looking into Jesus’ eyes and saying what he does. “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” That is not just reciting a Creed; this is Peter confesses his complete trust in Jesus. “I trust you completely,” that is a profoundly vulnerable thing to say to someone. “You are my Savior; you are my God.” That isn’t something you just say with your head; that’s a heart thing. And that profound connection between Peter and Jesus becomes the example for the rest of the Church through the ages. That kind of personal trust in Jesus is the rock upon which the Church is built.

This is all as true today as it was on that day when Peter made his confession of faith. The living Church today, the global community of billions of Christians, rests upon the foundation of a personal trust in Jesus as the Christ. Almost all churches recite the Creed, but many Christians experience no personal connection to Jesus. Churches are strong and vibrant where people are personally, unashamedly connected to Jesus, and, on the other hand, churches wither and die where people no longer connect in a personal way to the faith that they confess. The foundation of the Church has always been a personal, life-changing trust in Jesus like what Peter expressed that day so long ago.

And this should come as really good news to us. It means that our vitality as a church does not depend upon us. Our life flows from the connection that we share with Jesus through faith. Simply by confessing our heartfelt, personal faith in Jesus as the Christ, who died and rose again for our sake—simply by being built upon this rock, we find ourselves forever secure, regardless of any appearances to the contrary. God has been gracious enough to send us his Son to accomplish everything necessary for us, and if we decide personally to put our trust in that gift, then he has promised us that no force of hell or sin or death will ever prevail against us, for in the gift of Jesus the Christ, we have been given the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Amen.

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