Wednesday after the Fifth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on July 12, 2023 by under
Scripture: St. Matthew 16:13-26 (NKJV)
16:13 When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?”
14 So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
17 Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.
18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. 19 And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
20 Then He commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ.
21 From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.
22 Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!”
23 But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”
24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”
Devotion
The most important doctrine in the theology of the Roman Catholic Church is the doctrine of papal supremacy. That is, that the bishops of Rome have universal jurisdictional authority over the entire church on earth. Of course, no one outside the Roman Catholic Church agrees with this teaching, primarily because there isn’t a shred of biblical support for it. The one passage that Rome uses to try to defend it is Matthew 16:18-19. They try to argue that the “rock” in this passage refers to Peter and to all subsequent bishops of Rome.
Not only does this require reading into the text a fantasy about the bishops of Rome, but there has been no agreement in the ancient Church on who the “rock” is. The “Christological” interpretation has been supported by St. Augustine. He said that the ????? (petra) of this passage referred to Christ, not Peter. St. Ambrose of Milan championed the “faith/rock” interpretation. He did not see Peter the man as the ????? (petra) of Matthew 16. In agreement with Ambrose is St. John Chrysostom, who clearly and repeatedly refers to the ????? (petra) of Matthew 16:18 as Peter’s confession of faith, not the man himself. Lutherans are on very solid ground when we look to faith in Christ as the foundation of the Church, and not the papacy. Quite a few of the early Church fathers agree with us.
Prayer: O God, Who hast prepared for them that love Thee such good things as pass man’s understanding: Pour into our hearts such love toward Thee, that we, loving Thee above all things, may obtain Thy promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
