Week 7 - Matthew 16:13-18:35 - But who do you say I am?

This section is huge and important, but must be consumed a whole or the story will be lost.  It contains the following:

• While we are at a turning point in Christ's ministry on earth, where Simon-Peter confesses Jesus to be the Christ and Jesus in-turn declares that His-own destiny and the destiny of a true disciple is self-sacrifice, Peter takes Christ aside and opposes that plan (Matthew 16:13-28).

• While Jesus calls out his disciples as "faithless and twisted", unable to grasp the power at their disposal through faith and prayer (Matthew 17:14-21), and without compassion for those they could help, they still argue over their ranking in the kingdom.  (Matthew 18:1-5; Matthew 19:27-30)

• While the keys of the kingdom are first given to Peter, they are also given to the whole church, via forgiveness. 

What should surface are the following teachings of Christ:

Matthew 16:24-28

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. 

When pressed by the rich young man as to "which commandments", Jesus did not focus on the first tablet (our relationship with God), He listed the later commandments that focus on our relationship with our fellow man and summarized them from Leviticus 19:9-18, by saying ". . . you shall love your neighbor as yourself . . .".

Matthew 17:19-20

Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”

We must learn the lesson that faith must be planted as is a seed by prayer (See also Mark 9:29).  The image of Jesus in the tomb as the ultimate act of faith and the ultimate seed should not be lost to the reader.

Matthew 18:18

Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

What does it mean to be bound/loosed?  This is rabbinical language declaring what is a breach of the Law and, therefore, requires atonement.  Historically see Josephus “The Wars Of The Jews” Book I chapter 5 section 2 and in scripture see Christ’s contempt for the practice in Matthew 23:2-4.

Earlier (Matthew 16:19) Peter was given the keys to the kingdom.  Some say our text spreads that power to the Twelve.  It appears instead, however, that it spreads this power to all the church.  

A sin committed against you, if forgiven by you, will not require atonement (“loosed”) and will not be punished by God.  As played out in the parable (Matthew 18:21-35), a debt forgiven is already paid by the lender.  If it is forgiven, it need not be atoned.

Conversely, sin that you do not forgive, will require atonement.  If that sin was committed by a believer, it will be atoned for by Christ (John 20:19-23).  This sobering thought is echoed (even reverberated) by Matthew 6:14-15, where our lack of grace with others, digs deeper our own debt with God, as he declares "You wicked servant!". 

In Matthew 18:21-35, we see this played out in the parable of the unforgiving servant.