"Now when Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" And they said, "Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah, or one of the other prophets." He said to them, "But who do you yourselves say that I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon bar-Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it." (Matthew 16:13-18, NASB)
I've read this many times - heard it preached on many times, this is a very familiar verse to any believers who has been in the Church for any length of time. Today, however, I have a new understanding of this verse and I wanted to share it with you. Before I add any more commentary though, let's go left in our Bibles.
"For I proclaim the name of the Lord; and ascribe greatness to our God! The Rock! his work is perfect, for all his ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, righteous and just is He." (Deuteronomy 32:3-4, NASB)
"While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were all broken to pieces and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth." [...] "In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and brings them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands - a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and gold to pieces." (Daniel 2:34-35, 44-45, NIV)
"So this is what the Sovereign Lord says: "See, I lay a stone [rock] in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who relies on it will never be stricken with panic." (Isaiah 28:16, NET)
"The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold." (Psalm 18:2, ESV)
And one NT verse:
"For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our father were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ." (1 Corinthians 10:1-5, ESV)
I'm probably not saying anything here that has not been said by someone else (I haven't done any research to see what others have said) - so I'm not claiming to have some special revelation here. It was this morning, specifically when looking at Deuteronomy 32 and Isaiah 28, that this all occurred to me.
Look at the Matthew 16 passage again. Jesus is not calling Peter the rock. Jesus says, "you are peter", then comma, "and upon this rock I will build my church." Rather than calling Peter the rock, I believe Jesus is calling Simon Peter's statement, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God", the rock. In light of the passages I shared above, this all fits together nicely. God is the rock - Moses refers to God as the rock, David refers to God as the Rock - it stands to reason that Jesus, through Simon Peter's statement, is associating himself with this rock language that would have been familiar to his disciple's ears. As further evidence that the interpretation I've presented here is accurate, even Peter himself later refers to Jesus as the stone/rock. We find that in Acts 4 where Peter says, "He is the stone (rock) which was rejected by you (the Sanhedrin/religious leaders) the builders, but which became the chief cornerstone." (Acts 4:11)
Just a couple of other remarks - remember the end of the sermon on the mount. The one who is wise builds his house where? On the rock. Consistent with Jesus being the rock...not Peter.
This passage in Matthew 16 (corollary story in Luke 9, which mentions nothing about a 'rock' by the way) is fairly central to Church doctrine, particularly for Catholics...and as I've talked about in this blog before...that word, church, tends to come with a lot of baggage. The word Jesus uses, in the Greek, is 'ekklesia' which means 'gathering', or some translate it as 'called out ones'. If I were to venture to re-translate Matthew 16:18 using words that don't carry baggage, I would say something like, "and upon this rock, I will build my following". When said that way - Jesus is making a pretty simple statement - 'I am the rock [or God, if you want to make it literal] and those who are being saved will put their faith in me."... which is exactly what Isaiah and David and Paul were saying.
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