Roman Catholics believe that one bishop, the pope, has authority over all others because he is the linear spiritual successor to Peter, the first bishop of Rome. The scriptural basis for this, according to the Catholic Church, is Matthew 16, where Jesus declares to Peter that he is “the Rock” and upon that rock Jesus would build his church.
I certainly mean no offense to the Roman Catholic Church or to our Catholic sisters and brothers. But I respectfully disagree with this interpretation. I think this is one of the rare stabs at humor in the New Testament, or at least irony. Jesus was making a play on words – Peter or petra means “rock” – and we all know that Peter was anything but solid. When Peter wanted to walk on the Sea of Galilee, like Jesus, he stepped out of the boat, did okay for awhile, but then took his eyes off of Jesus and sank below the waves. Like a rock.
And after all of his protests that he would never betray Jesus, Peter got all wobbly when the authorities arrested Jesus. Sure enough, he denied knowing Jesus not once, but three times, as Jesus had predicted.
So Peter was anything but solid. He was hardly a rock, not by any stretch of the imagination. He dithered. He was spineless – anything but solid.
And yet – and yet! – Jesus decides to entrust his Church, his entire legacy, into the hands of flawed human beings like Peter. That’s the beauty of the Matthew passage. Not as a warrant for the exercise of power, but as an exercise in humility because we all understand the limits of our humanity. Jesus understands those limits as well. Yet he’s prepared to take his chances.
That's what I find so compelling about the keys-to-the-kingdom passage. Jesus was willing to entrust the gospel, the whole of his earthly ministry, to flawed human beings like Peter.
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