The Keys Entrusted to Peter

Today, when we have too much to do, we often delegate authority to someone else to act on our behalf. We see this in the workplace. A manager might give an assistant authority to make certain decisions in his name. We see it in families and organizations as well.

And this was true in the ancient world.

In the book of Isaiah, we hear about the steward of the royal palace. The steward was not the king, but he acted with the authority of the king. He had been entrusted with responsibility over the king's household.

But the steward had not lived up to that responsibility, and so the Lord removes him from office and gives his authority to another man, Eliakim.

The language Isaiah uses is striking. God says that he will place the key of the House of David upon Eliakim's shoulder:

“When he opens, no one shall shut; when he shuts, no one shall open.”

The key represents the authority of his office. Eliakim does not become king. The authority is not his by right. He exercises the authority of the king because it has been entrusted to him. He is the king's steward.

Isaiah also says that Eliakim will become “a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.” That tells us something important about authority. Authority is not given simply so that someone can exercise power over others. It is given for the sake of those who have been entrusted to his care. The key is both a sign of authority and a burden of responsibility.

That background helps us understand what happens in today's Gospel.

Jesus has taken his disciples into the region of Caesarea Philippi, largely pagan territory, and he asks them a question:

“Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”

They give him all kinds of answers. John the Baptist. Elijah. Jeremiah. One of the prophets.

Then Jesus makes the question personal.

“But who do you say that I am?”

Simon Peter answers:

“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Peter recognizes that Jesus is not simply another prophet. He is the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One. And he is the Son of the living God.

Jesus tells Peter that he did not arrive at this conclusion simply through human reasoning. “Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.”

Then Jesus goes a step further.

“You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church.”

And then we hear something that should immediately remind us of Isaiah:

“I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.”

The keys.

Jesus is deliberately using the language of authority and stewardship. Just as the king of Judah entrusted the key of his household to his steward, Christ the King entrusts the keys of his kingdom to Peter.

Jesus continues:

“Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

Peter's authority is real, but it remains Christ's authority. Peter does not replace Christ any more than Eliakim replaced the king. Peter participates in an authority that belongs ultimately to Christ.

And considering what we know about Peter, we might reasonably wonder: Why Peter?

Peter is not exactly the obvious choice.

He often speaks before he thinks. Almost immediately after this passage, Peter will rebuke Jesus and have to be sharply corrected. Later he will fall asleep when Jesus asks him to keep watch. He will draw a sword when he should not. And, most famously, he will deny three times that he even knows Jesus.

If we were assembling a leadership team, Peter's résumé might raise a few questions.

And yet Jesus chooses him.

That brings us to the words of St. Paul:

“How inscrutable are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways!”

God's perspective is very different from ours. His wisdom and knowledge surpass ours in ways that we cannot fully comprehend.

We tend to judge people according to what we can see right now. We look at their abilities, their weaknesses, their successes, and their failures. God sees all of those things too, but he also sees something we cannot see: the whole of his plan.

Peter is imperfect. But Peter is also capable of repentance.

After the Resurrection, Jesus does not pretend that Peter's denial never happened. Instead, he asks Peter three times, “Do you love me?”

And each time Peter answers him, Jesus gives him responsibility for the flock:

“Feed my lambs.”

“Tend my sheep.”

“Feed my sheep.”

The man who denied Christ becomes the shepherd of Christ's flock.

Peter's failure mattered. It wounded his relationship with Christ, and it required repentance and restoration. Shebna reminds us that stewardship is serious and that authority can be abused.

But Peter reminds us of something else.

Failure does not have to be final.

Peter is not chosen because his weaknesses do not matter. He is chosen because God's grace is greater than his weaknesses. Peter fails, but he returns. He allows Christ to forgive him, correct him, restore him, and change him.

And eventually this impulsive fisherman will become the man who strengthens his brothers, shepherds the Church, and gives his life for Christ.

Perhaps that tells us something important about the way God works.

God does not wait until people are perfect before he gives them a mission.

Abraham had weaknesses. Moses had weaknesses. David had weaknesses. Peter certainly had weaknesses. And yet God worked through them.

God's standard of success is not always ours.

We tend to think in terms of efficiency, talent, influence, confidence, or immediate results. God looks deeper. He looks for faith, humility, repentance, love, and a willingness to be formed by grace.

That is why St. Paul ends not by explaining God's plan, but by praising him:

“For from him and through him and for him are all things.”

We will not always understand why God chooses a particular person, permits a particular difficulty, or leads us down a particular path.

Peter himself probably did not understand why Christ chose him.

But God's plan did not depend upon Peter already being everything he needed to be.

God chose Peter, and then, through grace, made Peter capable of becoming the man he had called him to be.

And perhaps that is the most encouraging part of these readings for us.

We may never receive the keys of Peter, but each of us has been entrusted with something. We have responsibilities within our families, our work, our parish, and our community. There are people whom God has placed within our care and people whom our choices affect.

The question is not whether we are flawless. We are not.

The question is whether we will be faithful stewards: willing to repent when we fail, willing to be corrected, and willing to let God's grace accomplish more through us than we could accomplish by ourselves.

Our task is not to understand the whole plan.

Our task is to be faithful with whatever part of it God has entrusted to us.