But what about you?

The disciples must have known it was coming.   Jesus had been asking them, rather uncharacteristically, about the views of other people, about the speculation swirling over the identity of the Son of Man.  And the disciples had been very happy to oblige, giving a colourful update on the hottest topic of local gossip.  But then, suddenly, the tone shifts, the warmup is over, and Jesus turns the spotlight right onto them.  Now it is not about other people, or the anonymous rumour mill.  Now it is about them.  Jesus asks to each of them that straight, direct, piercing question, ‘but what about you?’  Who do you say that I am?

Peter is of course the first to jump in with his answer, no doubt to the relief of the others.  And his are words spoken right from the heart.  You are the Messiah, he says – and these are important, life-changing words, words which enable that powerful moment of bravery, of recognition and of encounter.  Peter has found in Jesus the promise of new life, of relationship with God and with his fellow human beings; he has come to experience in Jesus’s life and words the deepest meaning of love.  As the gospel unfolds we will see how that changes his own life, and by the time we meet him in Acts it is Peter who stands before the crowds in Jerusalem and offers to them as well this invitation to life with God.  For Peter knows that Jesus’s challenge is not the end but only the beginning.   And from Peter’s own encounter with Jesus and his honest, courageous response will flow the possibility for others too of finding salvation, forgiveness, and the joy of peace.

This, at least, is how I read this passage, or perhaps how I want to read the passage as a Christian.  But I am deeply conscious that it has not always been understood in this way.  For this is also a story of Peter’s empowerment by Jesus, and stories of empowerment are usually double-edged.  As the passage continues, Jesus tells Peter he will give him the keys of the kingdom of heaven, in words that have been recited down the centuries to connect Peter’s original confession to a unique responsibility.  Peter’s actions here on earth will be so significant that they will be reflected in heaven – those he condemns will remain condemned and those he frees and forgives will be loosed from their sins.  Upon these words a whole structure of confession and absolution and authority have been built for later generations, whole doctrines of church government have been constructed.  In empowering Peter, Jesus has been seen to empower as well a particular set of Peter’s successors, making them guardians of the gates of heaven.  

But without diminishing the bravery and the centrality of Peter to the Christian community, I wonder whether these words were really meant for him alone.  Yes, Peter’s recognition of Jesus’s unique, divine identity gives to Peter’s own life, and to his actions, a status and significance that is remarkable.  On Peter’s faith the church will be built, and when Peter forgives those around him they will find the path to heaven opens up and new life becomes possible.  Yet did Jesus mean this only for Peter, or was he inviting all who believe in him to share in this work of forgiving each other, bringing reconciliation to each other, helping each other find the repentance and peace that we all need - on earth as well as in heaven?  After all, as Jesus makes clear, it is not anything special about Peter which has led him to this moment, to the faith which he has and which he has just expressed.  It is God and God’s spirit which makes all this possible, which shines in Peter’s heart and flows through his words and his actions.  

For as Peter finds in Jesus the divine love he has been searching for, he finds too the possibility of loving his fellow humans also.  In these moments the way becomes open for him to share in the work that Jesus has been doing, the work of building the church and building the kingdom, the work of binding the forces of destruction and exploitation that diminish God’s children, the work of loosening the ties of oppression and shame that hold us back.  And Jesus is telling Peter that what he does matters, that the ways in which he treats those around him have consequences, that they can be a source of rich and wonderful grace if only he will allow himself to follow where Jesus is leading him.  For Peter that will be a rocky road, and there will be times – even in this very same chapter – when he gets it wrong, misunderstands Jesus, and Peter will even deny Jesus in those bleakest of moments before the crucifixion.  But each time Jesus will meet him with compassion, draw him back into the light, and release him from the guilt that would otherwise consume him.   So Peter learns what it means to be free both in earth and in heaven, and so he too can bring that freedom to others.

To me, then, we best celebrate and remember St Peter when we find in him not the faraway saint, and not the unquestionable leader, but when we see him simply as Jesus’s disciple.  He is an everyday person who is transformed as he learns from his friend and teacher what it means not only to love but also to bring the love and forgiveness he has found in Christ to the lives of others as well.      As his relationship with Jesus deepens, as he comes to see just who it is that stands before him, Peter discovers not that his own actions are meaningless and insignificant in the face of one with such authority – but instead absolutely the reverse.  When Peter confesses Jesus’s divinity he is not stepping back into the sidelines, for Jesus will not let him.  Instead Peter is invited to share too in the life Jesus brings, and soon he will be preaching fearlessly across Jerusalem of the depth and the abundance of God’s love in Christ, the love that makes possible all our freedom and reconciliation.  And though, like Jesus, he will find that love leads him to the agony of a cross, he knows too that such love can never be overcome.

In our gospel reading this morning, it is Peter and Jesus who take centre stage, Peter who responds so fast to Jesus’s question – and Peter whose feast we mark this morning.  But the other disciples are all still there too, some surely relieved that Peter has given his answer, some annoyed that he has taken the limelight again.  Yet Peter’s answer does not replace theirs, instead it inspires and encourages, even as Jesus makes space for all those disciples too.  Later they will see Peter grow in strength and wisdom as he follows Jesus and as he comes, sooner than any of them, to see the true meaning of God’s love in the cross and the resurrection.   And at Pentecost it is Peter who will tell of the gift of God’s spirit for all, and invite all in Jerusalem to share his commitment to Jesus and to the work of love and freedom and reconciliation made possible in Christ.