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THE ECCLESIAL DISCOURSE
At Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asks his disciples about the views circulating about him. Caesarea Philippi is located in northern Israel. The evangelist Matthew recounts this movement, in which Jesus leaves the land of Israel and goes north into a pagan region. It marks a break with Israel’s ancient structure, and at Caesarea Philippi, Jesus promises to build his Church.
In chapter 16, we are almost at the center of the gospel, according to Matthew, when the evangelist presents this critical fact. The other synoptics also describe Peter’s profession of faith, but it is, above all, Matthew who gives this event particular importance. Peter acknowledges that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. In the texts of Mark or Luke, this profession of faith is much simpler; it refers only to Jesus’ messianism. Instead, Matthew wanted to place the entire profession of the Christian faith at the very center of this criticalmoment. Jesus is Christ, but Jesus is also my God. The first, functional title refers to the messianic function Jesus is called to perform, but the second title is the most important. It reveals the essence of his nature as the Son of God. Peter fully recognizes this in Christ, and Jesus responds with a promise to him.
First, a beatitude: “Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah (Bar-Jonah). Bar is an Aramaic expression meaning ‘son.’ He calls him by his first and last names to identify him clearly. “Blessed are you because no one of flesh and blood has revealed it to you but my heavenly Father!” Flesh and blood are typical Semitic expressions that indicate a person’s natural weakness as a creature. ‘It is not your strengths that have allowed you to understand who I am; only the Father knows the Son.’”
Jesus has already said it, and Matthew has reported it with particular emphasis: only the Father knows who Jesus is, and therefore Peter’s knowledge is not the result of his intuition or ability but a gift; it is the heavenly Father who revealed it to him. This is the verb of the book of Revelation; this is the revelation to Peter. God has revealed to Peter who Jesus is, opened his eyes, and given him the gift of revelation. “Blessed are you, Simon.”
Consequently, Jesus makes a promise: “I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my Church.” ‘Petros’ is a name created by Jesus, a nickname, an initiative of his own. We know from other New Testament texts the original Aramaic form. We read ‘Cephas,’ but we should read it as ‘Kefas,’ the term Jesus used to refer to Simon among the disciples. It means rock, not just stone, and is synonymous with rock; he is ‘rock,’ that is, a great ideal base for solid construction.
Jesus draws on the image of the rock to give the disciple a nickname, a new name. He characterizes him as ‘rocky’ and solid, a typical characteristic of faith, because faith is solidity, not opinion, but a solid and stable foundation upon which a life can be built. The intelligent man builds on rock. Jesus presents himself as such and proposes to build his community on the rock of Peter.
Starting with that man, Jesus, a man of faith, is committed to building a community. The image of a spiritual and vital building recalls the construction of the new temple: a community, not a material building, but a group of people. The word ‘church’ is uncommon in the gospels. It appears only three times in Matthew, and the first mention is here. With the possessive adjective, Jesus calls him “my” Church. The word ‘ecclesia’ corresponds to the Hebrew ‘Kahal’ and indicates an assembly, a gathering of people, or a set of people. Your church is your community.
In ancient times, there was the tradition of the cultic assembly of Israel; the book of Numbers, for example, speaks of it at length. In a time closer to Jesus, there was the assembly, or the great assembly, of the ‘casidim,’ the environment that corresponded to a spiritual movement among these people, especially those who were devoted and loyal. Jesus proposes ‘his’ Church, his community, which will be built over time, and promises that the gates of hell will not prevail over it.
In this formulation, we find many typically Semitic elements, therefore archaic, from an ancient tradition and linked to the words of Jesus himself, with original images: the gates of hell symbolize the force of death; it does not prevail over the community that Jesus will build; it is the power that destroys everything: death. It is a community that will resist the ruin of death. Jesus continues with the promise: “To you, Peter, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.”
Handing over the keys is a symbolic gesture that signifies the investiture of the butler, in the sense of superiority in the house, to the community administrator. Still, here, he is not simply responsible for the group but for the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom that Jesus inaugurated is entrusted to Peter as administrator. “Everything you bind on earth will be bound in heaven; what you untie on earth will be untied in heaven.” The image also changes. These are not the keys that tie or untie; to continue the image, they were necessary to open and close.
Another typical Jewish formulation used by the teachers of the law is added. ‘Bind and unbind’ has a double meaning. On the one hand, it indicates the interpretation of a norm: a master binds, and another master unbinds, in the sense that these two authorities interpret by saying: it can be done; it cannot be done; it is lawful; it is not lawful. In the legal language of the time, binding and unbinding meant interpreting a norm. Peter is given this interpretive authority over the gospel.
The second sense is the most ecclesial, and to bind and unbind means to accept or exclude; to admit into the group or send out of the group; to recognize who belongs to the Church of Jesus and thus to exercise authority over the community regarding identity and the possibility of preserving it over time, while maintaining fidelity to Jesus.
These words of promise to Peter are unique to the first evangelist. They demonstrate a particular attachment to these traditions and to Peter’s role as the cornerstone of the community being built. Immediately after this moment of confession of faith and the announcement of the Church’s constitution, the painful series of passion announcements begins. In this case, Matthew follows the traditional scheme, documented above all by Mark. There are three announcement moments at three successive times. Jesus tells the disciples that he will go to Jerusalem and reveals that the end will be tragic, yet it will also herald the final glorious moment of the resurrection.
Thus, we come to chapter 18, where the evangelist Matthew has collected a series of ‘loguia’ on ecclesial life. As he has done for other discourses, the evangelist is a compiler who has gathered elements of tradition, drawing on the hypothetical collection of sayings known as “Q,” present in Matthew and Luke, as well as other sources of his knowledge unknown to us, and has compiled a discourse on life within the Christian community.
We remember that five discourses mark the structure of the Gospel of Matthew. The first, the programmatic discourse on the mountain, corresponds to the last, the eschatological one. The second, the mission discourse in chapter 10, corresponds to the fourth, which is this. In chapter 18, about the Church, there are two perspectives on the Church: from the outside and from the inside. The parables at the center of chapter 13 communicate the mystery of the kingdom of God.
In chapter 18, the evangelist Matthew collected Jesus’ teachings on life within the Church and presented some facts about humility. The disciples should not think they are more significant or plan a career of superiority over others. They must be open to the little ones;they must value the little ones, the weak ones who do not count. He seriously warns them against scandal and the danger of harming people who are weak in faith.
By small, we mean not small in stature or age, but weak people with few skills. If the intelligent ones, trained in Matthew’s school of scribes, understand the law well and how to interpret it, they must help and respect the path of weak people who understand it with more difficulty. No one must be lost.
The Father does not want anyone to be lost, so in this context, Matthew places the parable of the Lost Sheep slightly differently from how Luke presents it. For example, he changes a verb: it is not the ‘lost’ but the ‘strayed’ sheep. It is only a nuance, but it is significant. Luke is a ruined person, wholly lost and estranged; Matthew, by contrast, is a brother on the wrong path. It is derailing. The task of finding the brother who is taking thewrong path and is likely to lose the good path is entrusted to the disciples. Immediately after the parable of the Lost Sheep, Matthew narrates the teaching on fraternal correction: “If your brother offends you, go and correct him.”
It explains how to search for the lost sheep and help him recover safely. And gently insist with respect, “Take two witnesses; if he doesn’t listen to you, tell the community.” These are the other two cases where the word “ecclesia” appears. In this case, it has not even been translated as ‘church’ but as ‘community.’ In Chapter 16, it is translated as ‘Church’ with a capital letter; in this context, it is translated as ‘community,’ written in lowercase, but the concept is the same; the same original word is used. “If he ignores them, inform the community. And if he doesn’t listen to the community, consider him a pagan or a tax collector.”
Let us be attentive, for we must read these words from an evangelical perspective. The pagan and the tax collector are not rejected, and harmful elements are to be discarded and despised. Matthew was a tax collector, and the pagans were recipients of the evangelical preaching; they were the ones the Lord wanted to save, those he came to save. Therefore, the competence of binding and unbinding, recognizing that a person is no longer in the community, does not mean throwing them out with contempt and forgetting them; instead, it means helping the person understand that salvation must begin anew.
“Consider him a pagan or a tax collector.” With a simple, explanatory joke, Saint John Chrysostom says, “Be for you like the pupil of your eyes.” He deserves even more attention and needs affection and prayer to recover from the situation and return to the right path.
Immediately afterward, in verse 18, we find that the same promise made to Peter alone is extended to the disciples. “I assure you that what you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and what you unbind on earth will be unbound in heaven.” In this context, ‘binding and unbinding’ refers to keeping that person within the community or considering him outside it. From this perspective, we also understand what follows: “If two of you agree on earth to ask for anything, my Father in heaven will grant it.”
Asking for something together in harmony is the way to build community. The preceding ‘logion’ suggests what is requested: the conversion of the sinner and the possibility that the one who has left will be reinstated. If there is firm consensus and the community lives in harmony and with one heart, prayer can unite others and draw the person back into the community. “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there, in their midst.”
Let’s not trivialize this phrase. It is not enough to be in the shadow of a steeple to meet in the name of Jesus. These meetings are different from those we hold in the parish. To be united in the name of Jesus means to be one with him. It means that two or three people are profoundly united with Jesus, and among them there is an authentic community of affection, relationship, collaboration, and friendship.
Where there is a small community truly united in Jesus, he is at the center. Jesus is the center of the Church. Everything revolves around him and is based on him. He is the center of the community because he is the center of everyone’s heart. From this, Jesus, who is at the center, derives the strength to build good relationships, beginning with forgiving offenses.
How many times do I have to forgive? Peter asks. He thinks he’s exaggerating by saying seven times, and Jesus multiplies it to an infinite number: seventy times seven. The parable tells us that God’s mercy grants forgiveness at the beginning, but the forgiven Christian canact like his Lord, that is, to forgive. If the forgiven Christian does not exercise forgiveness, he risks losing what has been given to him. Thus, the ecclesial discourse concludes with the danger of losing God’s forgiveness if we do not exercise it or live like our heavenly Father.