This is a salutary commemoration of the confession we share, and an opportunity to give thanksgiving to Jesus for choosing this holy man of God to receive, believe, and share the gospel of our salvation!
There is no other name under Heaven by which we must be saved. You are the Christ. I intend to remind you always of these things. Peter the bold, Peter the brash, Peter who rushes to put his foot in his mouth, and Peter who rushes to his knees in regret, remorse, repentance. The Sunday is set aside to celebrate the Church’s confession of Christ, Peter’s confession of Christ, Peter as spokesman for the apostles, Peter as spokesman for all Christian disciples of all times and places as he, blessed by the heavenly Father, confesses Jesus the Christ, the Christ of God, the Christ, the Son of the living God.
What would convince you to set aside this Sunday in your own celebration calendar? I happen to serve a congregation called Holy Trinity, and whatever date it was that the foundation stone of our building was actually laid, our church “anniversary” defaults to the Sunday of the Holy Trinity (the Sunday following Pentecost) as a special day to celebrate in the church. I betcha’ there are a few churches out there that go by the name Saint Peter’s such-and-such. Therefore, here is a good Sunday to mark the occasion of your church’s anniversary or a good opportunity to reinforce for your congregation members and other hearers why we remember our namesakes and proclaim them as examples that point to Christ, their salvation and ours. No need for an allergy to Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox tradition to sway you away from a saint’s day, I have no doubt the saints intercede for us in the Church triumphant (I simply have no command from scripture that bids I ask them to do so!). But in celebrating the confession of Saint Peter, there is no hagiographical magic going on. Much to the contrary, it is a salutary commemoration of the confession we share, and an opportunity to give thanksgiving to Jesus for choosing this holy man of God to receive, believe, and share the gospel of our salvation!
Fun fact on this from the inside of a particular tradition (I happen to be a Lutheran sort of person): The Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) from which the Three-Year Series my church body mostly follows is derived, as well as the Roman Catholic three-year lectionary which was in turn one of the early sources for the RCL we use, list the gospel lesson for the Confession of Saint Peter as Matthew 16. My Lutheran hymnal alters this to Mark 8 (I suppose it could just as well have gone with Luke 9, the other synoptic parallel). Why does it do so? You can bet your bottom dollar it was to avoid the scandal Lutherans have with popes. One important primary passage happens to be Matthew 16:18-19, “On this rock I will build My Church... I will give you the keys of the Kingdom.” No need to attempt a protestant workaround on this, though, by trying to defend the notion that Jesus was addressing all of the twelve, or was lauding the confession over the man, or something like that. Just let the text speak for itself, whatever synoptic you choose, and remember that the focus of your message is Christ dead and raised. That is the stuff the Holy Spirit will use to bring your hearer to faith! As for me, I will be treating Mark 8 as I walk in step with my brothers in our historic confession here in America this century, as well as 2 Peter 1 for the epistle (Peter’s swansong; the assigned epistle also varies by church tradition) and Acts 4:8-13 (the “no other name under Heaven” confession after the miraculous healing of the lame man in Acts 4).
The point of Peter’s confession at Mark 8:29-30 (as well as Luke 9:20 and Matthew 16:16), which is consistent across the synoptics and remarkable in comparison with the other answers possible, is the confession of who Jesus is, that He is the “Christ.” Matthew says Simon did not come up with this himself. It was revealed by the Father. Mark has Jesus shush the disciples at this point; the “secret Messiah” motif of the shortest gospel revealing its reason here: The overwhelming significance of Jesus’ identity and mission. All three synoptics, of course, follow the confession of, “You are the Christ,” with Jesus then revealing to the disciples what the Christ must do: Suffer, be rejected, be killed, and be raised on the third day. Mark and Matthew both include Peter’s response and Jesus’ “Get thee behind Me Satan” rebuke. Having in mind the things of God, having in mind the things of men, this dichotomy, this realness, humanness, and ultimately humility and faith, is what makes Peter such a dynamic character study, and a blessed brother to examine, imitate, and celebrate.
Having in mind the things of God, having in mind the things of men, this dichotomy, this realness, humanness, and ultimately humility and faith, is what makes Peter such a dynamic character study, and a blessed brother to examine, imitate, and celebrate.
Mark’s gospel, in particular, casts the disciples in a less than favorable light when it comes to cognitive function. They do not see what Jesus plainly shows them. They are slow to understand, so slow that Jesus gets frustrated with them. Mark depicts the most human Jesus of the synoptics, and, therefore, at times the angriest Jesus. On a basic level, this matches what we hear from the Acts 4 lesson: “When they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated (agrammatoi), common (idiōtai) men, they were astonished” (Acts 4:13). It matches what Peter reveals about his own abilities even at the end of his life (2 Peter 1:13-15), when he tells his readers and hearers in the conclusion of his letter that he finds Paul difficult to understand in some passages (2 Peter 3:16).
The sermon that suggests itself based on this observation is one which catalogues a bunch of times Simon Peter failed, with the aim of demonstrating how his confession is a prophesy delivered through him, inspired by the Father Himself, that he is a sinner who stands in Christ forgiven. This is not because of his own success or efforts but on account of the grace of the Christ he confessed, and that Simon Peter, like all saints of God in Christ, believe in their heart and confess with their mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord. God only ever chooses to use broken tools in his toolbox, and Peter is a great example of one.
Simon was not bright. He was the one who held back from worshiping Christ as the son of God when he walked on the water, if it is really you, Jesus... He is the one who rashly promises a second and third time, even if all abandon you, not me, Jesus! And the Lord has to tell him, directly, calling him out, special notice. You will deny me three times, Peter.
Simon was not bright. We do not have evidence that the identity of the Christ, the Messiah of God, the king of Israel, is on the mind of Simon or the other eleven disciples any more or less than on that of the peoples they have been wandering amid and among for the last several weeks, from Jerusalem’s Pharisees to the Samaritans and gentiles of Galilee and Phoenicia, to the places they are at now in Caesarea of Philip, the farthest away Jesus has ever been from Jerusalem. So, we should not imagine a Simon who has been journaling the various interviews, excursions, miracles, and teaching moments, triangulating them and comparing them with written prophecy and religious tradition. I do not know (no one does know) what kind of Messiah or Christ or King Simon was expecting, or Philip, or Bartholomew, or Judas, or James, or John. Maybe he was similar in their own heads, maybe as many ideas as there were hopeful disciples. But Simon is not reasoning it out. He is not giving us a clear reason to consider Jesus the fulfillment of David’s glory days, whether he is thinking it out from a social systems perspective, or military, or political, or religious, or whatever. He just says it.
Simon was not bright. Which is why his confession is so shocking. But then again, perhaps it should not be. Because the evidence the text lays out says that bright or clever, ingenious or shrewd was exactly what Jesus would not have commended or honored here. Jesus suggests by His response in both Matthew’s and Mark’s gospel that Peter’s confession is bang-on, right on the money. You got the Christ, but what a Christ you have. All three synoptics point to what this Christ will do, that Jesus is it, and this Jesus will die and rise.
This is because the point about celebrating the confession is not the confession itself, but the object... whom Peter confesses. The point is the Christ, the one who suffers and is rejected, the one who dies and rises. No matter if you are bright or dull, no matter if you are one of the apostles or one of those many who come to faith because of the mission work of those apostles later on, no matter if you see and believe like Thomas or do not see and yet believe through his words, through John’s words, through Bartholomew’s words, or through Simon Peter’s confession, the point is you have the Christ, the real one, the dead and risen one. Confess Him. Confess that name. Have in mind the things of God! Because there is no other name under Heaven given to men by which we must be saved.
