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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
Acts 15:1-21
Acts 12:1-11
St. Matthew 16:13-19
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ. (Eph 1)
Who speaks to you today, saying:
Today we celebrate the Feast of Sts. Peter & Paul and hear God’s Word of rocks and churches and gates of hell. Why? Because this is reality. God knows it. You don’t, because it is reality you cannot see with your eyes the way they are now, so it must be revealed to you. That is, you must be shown where to place your hand on the Rock. You do not have to make it up.
It doesn’t take a biblical scholar to notice that Saint Peter is first and foremost among the 12, in the Bible. Not only is he mentioned the most by name, but he is also given special prominence and is always referred to, especially by Saint Paul, as someone important. We find this church history recorded in art, as well. Usually, icons of Saint Peter have him holding a set of keys, keys to the church to forgive sins, to retain sins, and to open close the gates of heaven by the forgiveness of sins.
Saint Paul would be the second pillar of the church, if we may say so, though not a part of the Original 12. He is also of significance being chosen in a special way, having been given a revelation apart from the 12 and yet no different than the 12. He may have been brought in after Easter, but he received the same word, the same gospel, and the same doctrine as the apostles themselves. Thus Saint Paul carries the sword in Church art. The sword is the sword of the spirit to convert the gentiles and bring the Jews to the one true religion of Christ Crucified.
In today’s gospel, we heard of Peter being renamed “the rock” by Jesus. However, Saint Peter is not the rock upon which the church stands or falls. Faith given gives the Rock. Jesus is the rock, the only sure foundation and the temple itself. So what is Saint Peter’s job here and why does Jesus speak this way about him?
Let me put it to you this way, when we go out to clean up our cemetery and we want to level a gravestone that has sunken or fallen askew, and we have the heavy crowbars and men leaning into lift that heavy stone that cannot be lifted by hands alone and they’re struggling and straining and almost out of strength and someone asks for a rock to level the stone. What is it that they’re asking you to give them?
Are they asking for a vote on what a rock is? Are they asking for your feelings on rocks? Maybe they want to know the current political climate around rocks or how much they are on the stock market. Those things will surely help in that situation.
No. What those men want is a rock. A piece of stone that they can grab onto, shove under the grave stone, and get the job done. They need a physical tool to help them in the work in front of them. They don’t need thoughts or opinions on rocks. They need an actual rock.
Repent. You need an actual rock. The events in your life? The world couldn’t care less. If you graduate or get a new job, maybe your mom is impressed, but the world doesn’t bat an eye. If you lose a loved one, the world doesn’t miss a beat. If your family or marriage is disintegrating or if you are struggling, life goes on, unmercifully.
Peter and Paul knew this all too well. Who cares about what 2 men are teaching in 1st century Palestine? Nobody, much less 12 men. Who was on the scene for one brown man from the Levant, convicted and punished by the death penalty? Not one reporter. Who cares what life is throwing at you? I’ve got my own problems and I don’t need yours. Keep it to yourself. Everyone is going through the same thing. Nobody cares.
Vacillating in this depression and despair, you realize the emptiness in your world. It’s like living next to a freeway. Hundreds of thousands of people pass by your house every year, but not one would stop to help you or even know you needed help. Pressed down by this weight, we find that we cannot enter into the secret places of heaven.
“Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his mind of flesh” (Col 2:18). Who is Paul? What is Cephas? Did they die for you? Were you baptized into their names? (1 Cor 1:13). St. Peter’s popery failed him every time. St. Matthew records that immediately after St. Peter’s Great Confession, in the Gospel today, he is called “satan” by Jesus.
At Gethsemane, “satan” could not be on watch for a lowly hour. Outside of the High Priest’s house, he could not even admit being associated with Jesus 3 times. In. A. Row.
St. Paul was a Jew of Jews, killing Christians as the religion was just starting, in hopes of squashing it out of existence.
The impenetrable wall between heaven and earth is not breached by intention, or opinion, or knowledge, but by thorn, nail, and spear.
Our weakness follows men in hopes of bearing the glory of the majesty of God. The weakness of Jesus follows the Father and does not hope, but actually gains the glory and majesty of God. Who knew that rocks could be pierced by iron? Now we know.
“upon this Rock, I will build my Church”, but “He was speaking about the [Rock] of his body” (Jn 2:21).
1 Corinthians 10, “Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ” (v.1-4).
Deuteronomy 32:4, “He is the Rock”
St. Paul, in persecuting and murdering those in Church, was visited by Christ Who said, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” (Acts 9:4). Jesus, both God and man, inseparably and eternally joins us to Himself.
Our sinful weakness desires the hope of salvation in our own, recognizable flesh. We are not convinced by someone coming back from the dead, because we do not come back from the dead. We are convinced by magic tricks and turns of phrase, though.
Jesus chooses to battle this corruption through men and through the death of death, in order that He gain all.
Jesus does not come as a Rock, with no feelings and no resemblance to men. He arrives as a man and spends 33 or so years proving it to everyone. “When he was twelve years old…Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers”, except His parents. “Why have you treated us like this”, they said (Lk 2:41-52). As if to say, you are a child and cannot be doing these things. You are too young. You are too immature. You don’t know. “Get behind me satan”
Later on, He was simply a carpenter, a poor boy from a poor family. “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?” (Jn 6:42)
How can He say He is the Temple; He is the Tree; He is the Rock?
He is the Temple, because He can be utterly destroyed and yet return, alive forevermore, three days later. He is the Tree, because He can give His Saving Word into the mouths of men and it save just as well as if He spoke Himself. He is the Rock, because He continues to penetrate through heaven’s iron gates with His Body and Blood, for us today.
Here, now, is the true miracle of Sts. Peter and Paul being the pillars of the Church: that through them alone, God gives His gifts to men. That their example continues Christ’s preaching and teaching that causes paralyzed men to rise up and walk. Through them, the Word of the Rock that is a hammer that breaks the rock, continues to give faith to believe.
To break the Rock on Calvary, to purchase and win the faith which breaks the rock of our stony heart, the Word is preached. We look to St. Peter and St. Paul, because they are men chosen by God, empty vessels filled to the brim with God’s authority to forgive sins and preach and administer the Gospel. They are not Christ. Their authority is only in the words of Christ. When they speak contrary to God’s Word, they are no longer chosen.
This is not a papistic view, but a Christian view. St. Paul should be in St. Peter’s seat, if we are speaking of being “chosen the best”. But he is not. He, and all the Apostles, were sent to be pastors, not popes. To preach the Gospel in its purity and to administer the Sacraments according to it.
The Gospel that says your brokenness is healed. The Gospel that says your darkness is lightened. The Gospel that says your life is important, even though you are not an apostle, because you have the same Word of Promise that gave the Apostles their authority and their gifts, you are also chosen. This means that the holier, greater glory is found, not in spiritual gifts, but in belief and communion with the Lord.
It is unbelievable that Jesus would care about the Gentiles, be their Rock also, but believe it. It is unbelievable that God could be anything but “what the Jews were expecting” in themselves, but believe it. It is unbelievable that flesh and blood could house and utilize God, but believe it, because in Christ, they are remade One.
“He Himself therefore comes to us in order to lay hold upon us with that nature by which He is our Brother. And because our weakness in this life cannot bear the glory of His majesty, therefore His Word and His body and blood are present, distributed, and received under the water, the bread, and the wine.”
“Nor does He will that we wander around the gates of heaven uncertain in which area of heaven we ought to look for Christ in His human nature or whether we can find Him; but in the Supper He Himself is present in the external celebration and shows by visible signs where He wills to be present with His body and blood, and there we may safely seek Him and surely find Him, for there He Himself, through the ministry of men, distributes His body and blood to the communicants. These most sweet and necessary comforts will be completely snatched away from us if the substantial presence, distribution, and reception of Christ's body and blood are removed from the Supper.” - Martin Chemnitz
Who speaks to you today, saying:
“And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will
build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
Today we celebrate the Feast of Sts. Peter & Paul and hear God’s Word of rocks and churches and gates of hell. Why? Because this is reality. God knows it. You don’t, because it is reality you cannot see with your eyes the way they are now, so it must be revealed to you. That is, you must be shown where to place your hand on the Rock. You do not have to make it up.
It doesn’t take a biblical scholar to notice that Saint Peter is first and foremost among the 12, in the Bible. Not only is he mentioned the most by name, but he is also given special prominence and is always referred to, especially by Saint Paul, as someone important. We find this church history recorded in art, as well. Usually, icons of Saint Peter have him holding a set of keys, keys to the church to forgive sins, to retain sins, and to open close the gates of heaven by the forgiveness of sins.
Saint Paul would be the second pillar of the church, if we may say so, though not a part of the Original 12. He is also of significance being chosen in a special way, having been given a revelation apart from the 12 and yet no different than the 12. He may have been brought in after Easter, but he received the same word, the same gospel, and the same doctrine as the apostles themselves. Thus Saint Paul carries the sword in Church art. The sword is the sword of the spirit to convert the gentiles and bring the Jews to the one true religion of Christ Crucified.
In today’s gospel, we heard of Peter being renamed “the rock” by Jesus. However, Saint Peter is not the rock upon which the church stands or falls. Faith given gives the Rock. Jesus is the rock, the only sure foundation and the temple itself. So what is Saint Peter’s job here and why does Jesus speak this way about him?
Let me put it to you this way, when we go out to clean up our cemetery and we want to level a gravestone that has sunken or fallen askew, and we have the heavy crowbars and men leaning into lift that heavy stone that cannot be lifted by hands alone and they’re struggling and straining and almost out of strength and someone asks for a rock to level the stone. What is it that they’re asking you to give them?
Are they asking for a vote on what a rock is? Are they asking for your feelings on rocks? Maybe they want to know the current political climate around rocks or how much they are on the stock market. Those things will surely help in that situation.
No. What those men want is a rock. A piece of stone that they can grab onto, shove under the grave stone, and get the job done. They need a physical tool to help them in the work in front of them. They don’t need thoughts or opinions on rocks. They need an actual rock.
Repent. You need an actual rock. The events in your life? The world couldn’t care less. If you graduate or get a new job, maybe your mom is impressed, but the world doesn’t bat an eye. If you lose a loved one, the world doesn’t miss a beat. If your family or marriage is disintegrating or if you are struggling, life goes on, unmercifully.
Peter and Paul knew this all too well. Who cares about what 2 men are teaching in 1st century Palestine? Nobody, much less 12 men. Who was on the scene for one brown man from the Levant, convicted and punished by the death penalty? Not one reporter. Who cares what life is throwing at you? I’ve got my own problems and I don’t need yours. Keep it to yourself. Everyone is going through the same thing. Nobody cares.
Vacillating in this depression and despair, you realize the emptiness in your world. It’s like living next to a freeway. Hundreds of thousands of people pass by your house every year, but not one would stop to help you or even know you needed help. Pressed down by this weight, we find that we cannot enter into the secret places of heaven.
“Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his mind of flesh” (Col 2:18). Who is Paul? What is Cephas? Did they die for you? Were you baptized into their names? (1 Cor 1:13). St. Peter’s popery failed him every time. St. Matthew records that immediately after St. Peter’s Great Confession, in the Gospel today, he is called “satan” by Jesus.
At Gethsemane, “satan” could not be on watch for a lowly hour. Outside of the High Priest’s house, he could not even admit being associated with Jesus 3 times. In. A. Row.
St. Paul was a Jew of Jews, killing Christians as the religion was just starting, in hopes of squashing it out of existence.
The impenetrable wall between heaven and earth is not breached by intention, or opinion, or knowledge, but by thorn, nail, and spear.
Our weakness follows men in hopes of bearing the glory of the majesty of God. The weakness of Jesus follows the Father and does not hope, but actually gains the glory and majesty of God. Who knew that rocks could be pierced by iron? Now we know.
“upon this Rock, I will build my Church”, but “He was speaking about the [Rock] of his body” (Jn 2:21).
1 Corinthians 10, “Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ” (v.1-4).
Deuteronomy 32:4, “He is the Rock”
St. Paul, in persecuting and murdering those in Church, was visited by Christ Who said, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” (Acts 9:4). Jesus, both God and man, inseparably and eternally joins us to Himself.
Our sinful weakness desires the hope of salvation in our own, recognizable flesh. We are not convinced by someone coming back from the dead, because we do not come back from the dead. We are convinced by magic tricks and turns of phrase, though.
Jesus chooses to battle this corruption through men and through the death of death, in order that He gain all.
Jesus does not come as a Rock, with no feelings and no resemblance to men. He arrives as a man and spends 33 or so years proving it to everyone. “When he was twelve years old…Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers”, except His parents. “Why have you treated us like this”, they said (Lk 2:41-52). As if to say, you are a child and cannot be doing these things. You are too young. You are too immature. You don’t know. “Get behind me satan”
Later on, He was simply a carpenter, a poor boy from a poor family. “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?” (Jn 6:42)
How can He say He is the Temple; He is the Tree; He is the Rock?
He is the Temple, because He can be utterly destroyed and yet return, alive forevermore, three days later. He is the Tree, because He can give His Saving Word into the mouths of men and it save just as well as if He spoke Himself. He is the Rock, because He continues to penetrate through heaven’s iron gates with His Body and Blood, for us today.
Here, now, is the true miracle of Sts. Peter and Paul being the pillars of the Church: that through them alone, God gives His gifts to men. That their example continues Christ’s preaching and teaching that causes paralyzed men to rise up and walk. Through them, the Word of the Rock that is a hammer that breaks the rock, continues to give faith to believe.
To break the Rock on Calvary, to purchase and win the faith which breaks the rock of our stony heart, the Word is preached. We look to St. Peter and St. Paul, because they are men chosen by God, empty vessels filled to the brim with God’s authority to forgive sins and preach and administer the Gospel. They are not Christ. Their authority is only in the words of Christ. When they speak contrary to God’s Word, they are no longer chosen.
This is not a papistic view, but a Christian view. St. Paul should be in St. Peter’s seat, if we are speaking of being “chosen the best”. But he is not. He, and all the Apostles, were sent to be pastors, not popes. To preach the Gospel in its purity and to administer the Sacraments according to it.
The Gospel that says your brokenness is healed. The Gospel that says your darkness is lightened. The Gospel that says your life is important, even though you are not an apostle, because you have the same Word of Promise that gave the Apostles their authority and their gifts, you are also chosen. This means that the holier, greater glory is found, not in spiritual gifts, but in belief and communion with the Lord.
It is unbelievable that Jesus would care about the Gentiles, be their Rock also, but believe it. It is unbelievable that God could be anything but “what the Jews were expecting” in themselves, but believe it. It is unbelievable that flesh and blood could house and utilize God, but believe it, because in Christ, they are remade One.
“He Himself therefore comes to us in order to lay hold upon us with that nature by which He is our Brother. And because our weakness in this life cannot bear the glory of His majesty, therefore His Word and His body and blood are present, distributed, and received under the water, the bread, and the wine.”
“Nor does He will that we wander around the gates of heaven uncertain in which area of heaven we ought to look for Christ in His human nature or whether we can find Him; but in the Supper He Himself is present in the external celebration and shows by visible signs where He wills to be present with His body and blood, and there we may safely seek Him and surely find Him, for there He Himself, through the ministry of men, distributes His body and blood to the communicants. These most sweet and necessary comforts will be completely snatched away from us if the substantial presence, distribution, and reception of Christ's body and blood are removed from the Supper.” - Martin Chemnitz
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