The Confession of St. Peter, 18 January, anno Domini 2,022

COLLECT OF THE DAY

Heavenly Father, You revealed to the apostle Peter the blessed truth that Your Son Jesus is the Christ. Strengthen us by the proclamation of this truth that we too may joyfully confess that there is salvation in no one else; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Confession of St. Peter:  The confession of St. Peter did not arise in the imagination of Peter’s heart but was revealed to him by the Father. The reason this confession is important is seen in Jesus’ response: “You are Peter [Greek Petros], and on this rock [Greek petra] I will build My church” (Matthew 16:18). As the people of God in the Old Testament began with the person of Abraham, the rock from which God’s people were hewn (Isaiah 51:1-2), so the people of God in the New Testament would begin with the person of Peter, whose confession is the rock on which Christ would build His Church. But Peter was not alone (the “keys” given to him in Matthew 16:19 were given to all the disciples in Matthew 18:18 and John 20:21-23). As St. Paul tells us, Peter and the other apostles take their place with the prophets as the foundation of the Church, with Christ Himself as the cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20). The confession of Peter, therefore, is the witness of the entire apostolic band and is foundational in the building of Christ’s Church. Thus the Church gives thanks to God for St. Peter and the other apostles who have instructed Christ’s Holy Church in His divine and saving truth. (The Treasury of Daily Prayer, Concordia Publishing House)

Readings: Acts 4:8-13 Psalm 118:19-29  2 Peter 1:1-15  St. Mark 8:27-9:1

St. Matthew 16: 17: “ἀποκριθεὶς δὲ ὁ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν αὐτῷ· μακάριος εἶ, Σίμων Βαριωνᾶ, ὃτι σὰρξ καὶ αἷμα οὐκ ἀπεκάλυψεν σοι ἀλλ’ ὁ πατήρ μου ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς.”

And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

The Greek word for “revealed” is the basis of our English word:  apocalypse.  Courtesy of the Word of God, “apocalypse”  has been part and parcel of English, except it is more known more as the adjective “apocalyptic”, as in the third definition from Merrian-Webster:  foreboding imminent disaster or final doom, as in an “apocalyptic event”.  Apocalypse means revelation and the Father in heaven revealed (‘apocalypsed”) His Son’s identity to Peter. Peter’s Confession is based upon the Father’s revelation/apocalypse. The Lord reveals His truth to little children and to St. John on the island of Patmos.  But compared to the Book of Revelation, how is the confession, Jesus is the Son of the living God, apocalyptic, portending a “final doom”?  This comes in the next exchange between Peter and the Lord:

³¹ And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. ³² And he said this plainly.

The Cross and the Resurrection is the apocalypse, the revelation of the final doom of sin, death and the power of the devil as His risen Body who gives us eternal life and the hope of the new creation.  The apocalypse today fulfills the revelation on Mt. Sinai, Golgotha divides man’s history. God’s own Son in the flesh is apocalyptic in the joy of the Resurrection that Christ conquers death and sin.  This is St. Paul’s sermon and the sermon of the whole church that we preach Christ and Him crucified (cf. .1 Corinthians 1:23). That our Baptism is into His death and resurrection (Romans 6: 1ff) and in the Holy Communion, For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes (1 Cor. 11), is likewise revelatory, apocalyptic. Holy Communion is intimately related to the completion of His apocalypse when He comes again in glory. It revelatory that as we follow Christ we bear His Cross, dying to the world and it’s treasure store and walking in the newness of life in Him (St. Mark 8: 34-38). Confession of sin and His forgiveness of it is likewise apocalyptic as the Law reveals us doom of sin and the Gospel the joy of forgiveness.  The Lord calls His Church to confess that there is salvation in Him alone and upon Christ the Rock, the Lord builds His Church.  We do not build it, the Lord does and we are living stones by which He builds His Church. He loves us whom He builds our faith to be holy and acceptable to Him our true spiritual worship.

The blessed Apostle Peter heard Jesus say to him, I will build My Church and Peter heard again the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and wrote for our edification (literally, building up) our life today awaiting His final apocalypse:

1 Peter 2 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. ² Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— ³ if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

⁴ As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, ⁵ you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ⁶ For it stands in Scripture:

“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone,
    a cornerstone chosen and precious,
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

⁷ So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe,

“The stone that the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone,”

⁸ and

“A stone of stumbling,
    and a rock of offense.”

They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

⁹ But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. ¹⁰ Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

¹¹ Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. ¹² Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.