The Role of Peter Part 3: The Shepherd

The third role and title of Christ that he delegated to St Peter was the role of Shepherd. Not just any shepherd, but the Chief Shepherd (1 Pt 5:4). I'm sure Protestants and Catholics would agree that Jesus is the Chief Shepherd of the flock, or the people of God. He calls Himself "the Good Shepherd" (Jn 10:11), which is a divine title, in the sense of supreme Good which is an attribute of God alone (Mk 10:18). It is important, however, to read John 10:1-6 carefully and realize that it is a self contained parable, in which Jesus identified Himself not as the shepherd, but the gate: "Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber. But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice, as he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out…Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate." (Jn 10:1-9) Here we see that Jesus will call a shepherd to lead His whole flock, and he will open the gate for him. A few verses later He gives himself as the example for the shepherds to follow, since He is the Good Shepherd.
       The nature of this ministry was described and foretold in the Old Testament. We learn that Moses was the great shepherd of the nation of Israel (Is 63:11). When Moses died, he passed on this ministry to Joshua, his successor, through the laying on of hands: "May the Lord, the God of the spirits of all mankind, set over the community a man who shall act as their leader in all things, to guide them in all their actions; that the Lord's community may not be like sheep without a shepherd.' And the Lord said to Moses, 'Take Joshua, son of Nun, a man of spirit, and lay your hands upon him." (Num 27:15-18). By this act, Joshua received Moses' own authority and dignity. This authority passed down even into the time of Christ: "The scribes and Pharisees sit in the seat of Moses. Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice." (Matt 23:2-3). The chair of Moses represents the seat of his authority, which was the guiding authority until the new Israel, when it was given to Peter and the Apostles. It is significant to realize that from Jesus' own mouth comes the command to submit to the appointed religious authority regardless of their personal sanctity. Their own hypocrisy as leaders does not negate the duty of obedience owed to them.
        God promised he would give new and better shepherds to His flock: "I will appoint over you shepherds after my own heart, who will shepherd you wisely and prudently." (Jer 3:15). We find this prophecy fulfilled in the New Testament, when Jesus appoints the Apostles and their successors as the shepherds of the expanded People of God: "From Miletus had the presbyters of the church at Ephesus summoned. When they came to him he addressed them,…'Keep watch over yourselves and over the whole flock of which the Holy Spirit has appointed you overseers, in which you shepherd the Church of God that he acquired with His own blood." (Acts 20:17, 28). Christ Himself is identified as a Shepherd and a Bishop: "For you were as sheep going astray, but now are returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls." (1 Pt 2:25). We see clearly in Scripture that the Bishop exercises the role of shepherd over his particular flock.
       But what of Peter? Christ gave Bishops as shepherds for His churches, but what of the Church as a whole? Jesus promised, "There will be one flock, one shepherd." (Jn 10:16). Who will exercise the ministry of shepherd over the whole flock in Jesus' absence? The answer to that we find at then end of John's Gospel, right before Jesus' ascension: "When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, 'Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?' He said to him, 'Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.' He said to him, 'Feed my lambs.' He then said to him a second time, 'Simon, son of John, do you love me?' He said to him, 'Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.' He said to him, 'Tend my sheep.' He said to him a third time, 'Simon, son of John, do you love me?' Peter was distressed that he had said to him a third time, 'Do you love me?' and he said to him, 'Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.' Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep'." (Jn 21:15-17). There are a number of key things to take from this. First, Jesus is giving to Peter His own identity as the one who feeds the lambs, tends the sheep, i.e. the Shepherd of the Flock. Second, it is specific to Peter: Jesus addressed these word to Peter alone, calling him by his proper name and family name. Third, it is something more significant than the ministry of the other Apostles - "do you love me more than these?" He tells Peter this in the presence of the other Apostles, specifically singling Peter out and telling him that he must give more than the others. Jesus is here very explicitly commissioning Peter to be the Chief Shepherd of the people of God after His ascension.
      Just as Moses' authority did not die with him, but was passed down through the ages, neither does Peter's authority or ministry pass away after his death. Christ would not leave His people without a shepherd to guide them. Peter even alludes to his ministry being ongoing, ever present in the Church: "I shall also make every effort to enable you always to remember these things after my death." (2 Pt 1:15). We can be assured, then, that the successor of Peter, who is the Rock, the Key-holder, and the Shepherd, will always be with the One Flock on earth to guide them; the Holy Spirit will preserve him from teaching error by the promised Spirit of Truth (Jn 16:12-13) so that the people of God will never be like sheep without a shepherd. As St Cyprian summed it up:

"On him he builds the Church, and to him he gives the command to feed the sheep (John 21:17), and although he assigns a like power to all the apostles, yet he founded a single chair (cathedra), and he established by his own authority a source and an intrinsic reason for that unity. Indeed, the others were that also which Peter was (i.e., apostles), but a primacy is given to Peter, whereby it is made clear that there is but one Church and one chair. . . . If someone does not hold fast to this unity of Peter, can he imagine that he still holds the faith? If he should desert the chair of Peter upon whom the Church was built, can he still be confident that he is in the Church?" - On The Unity of The Catholic Church, 251 AD

The Role of Peter Part 2: The Key-Holder

In the verse following Simon's renaming as "Kepha", the Rock, Simon is given a very unique gift from Christ. Remember, Jesus just promised to build his Church on the "Kepha", the Rock, and promised that the gates of hell would never prevail against that Church. Then he says, "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." (Matt 16:19) So Simon Peter received from Jesus Himself the keys to the kingdom of heaven. What does that mean, exactly? Protestants believe that unclear verses of the Bible should be read in relation to other verses that speak more clearly about the same subject (see Westminster Confession, ch 1, par IX). So, we will apply their own principle and see what we can find out about the meaning of this verse.
     First, we read in Rev 3:7 that Jesus is the one who holds the key to the house of David in heaven. "The Holy One, the True, who holds the key of David, who opens and no one shall close, who closes and no one shall open…" Sounds nearly identical to the verse in Matt 16, doesn't it? Once again, just as Jesus delegated his position as the rock and foundation of the Church to Peter, he also delegated his position as the key-holder and the one who opens and closes or binds and loosens in heaven and on earth. By this we can see that Peter alone among the disciples possesses a unique role and authority, which is from Christ, and is the earthly counterpart ordained by Christ to exercise on earth what Christ exercises in heaven. While it is true that all the disciples collectively received the power of binding and loosing in Matt 18, it is to Peter alone that the keys of the kingdom of heaven were entrusted, and to him first and primarily the power of binding and loosing were given.
     What exactly does the position of key-holder mean, though? Scripture tells us: "Up go to that official, Shebna, master of the palace…I will clothe him with your robe and gird him with your sash, and give over to him your authority. He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. I will place the key of the House of David on his shoulder; when he opens no one shall shut, when he shuts no one shall open." (Isaiah 22:15, 21-22) In these verses God removes an unfaithful steward, Shebna, and appoints a new Steward over the House of David. This Steward of the Kingdom is the holder of the key. He is the master of the palace, or High Steward, whose job it was to administer the house and wield the king's authority in his absence. Although this verse was written about the earthly Davidic kingdom, it is this verse that Jesus quoted when he appointed Peter as the key-holder, the master over the heavenly Kingdom. From the various elements of the verse of Isaiah, we see that this position includes:

1. Administering the king's household, which is the Church in the New Covenant.

2. Wielding the king's ruling authority in his absence, as Peter did when Christ ascended to heaven.

3. Fatherhood over all of Jerusalem and Judah in the old kingdom, and thus in the New Covenant fatherhood to all the Heavenly Jerusalem and New Israel, which is the Church. This is why the whole Church calls Peter's successor "the Holy Father". In fact, the word Pope means "Father".
     So we see that Jesus' words, very clear and well-known to 1st century Jews because of their familiarity with Isaiah, unmistakably made Peter the first Steward of the Kingdom of Heaven, which is the Church, and also the first "father" over the the people of God. It could hardly be more clearly expressed. Thus we see the second way in which Peter fulfilled a unique role of Christ, the Master of the Household of God.

The Role of Peter Part 1: The Rock

     In Scripture, St Peter is given several different "titles" or roles, all of which derive their unique position from their relation to Christ. The first one is the title of "Rock", which name Peter was given by Jesus. Jesus named him "Kepha" (Jn 1:42), which is Aramaic for "Rock" and is translated into Greek as "Petros", from which name we get "Peter". This title is significant for two reasons, which become apparent when we look at the circumstances of this renaming. Matt 16:13-18 give us the details of this event: "When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples…'But who do you say I am?' Simon Peter said in reply, 'You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.' Jesus said to him in reply, 'Blessed are you, Simon bar Jonah. For flesh and blood have not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter (Rock) and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
      Many Protestant maintain that the Rock that Jesus is talking about here is not Peter, but rather his inspired confession. They would say that "Petros" really means "little rock" and "Petra", the rock on which the Church would be built, means boulder or cliff, so they couldn't be the same.Textually, though, this isn't tenable for a number of reasons. First, the Aramaic word translated was Kepha, which just means "Rock" in Aramaic. The Gospel of John explicitly tells us that this is the name given to Peter by Jesus. The Aramaic word for "little rock" is "evna", so such an interpretation doesn't make any sense with what the Gospel tells us. When it was translated into Greek, it was written "Petros", which is the masculine form of the word "Petra", meaning rock. It is only appropriate that since Peter was a man he was not called "Petra". Second, the only reference to any rock in the text is to Peter. Christ didn't say anything about Peter's confession being a rock and him also being a rock and then left us to figure out which one he was referring to. The only thing called "Rock" in the text is Peter. The Protestant interpretation would have Scripture read: "And I say to you, you are the little rock, and on this projecting large Rock of Revelation I will build my Church." Clearly, not only does that sentence not make sense, it reads a great deal into the text that isn't there. The bottom line is that Christ only called one thing a Rock, and that was Peter. So the first significant thing to realize is that Jesus gave Peter the title of "the Rock", and promised to build an everlasting Church on that rock.
     The second significant thing is to realize why Peter's identification as "the Rock" is important. It is important because "the Rock" is a title and role of Christ as Lord. 1 Cor 10:4 tells us "…for they all drank from a spiritual Rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ". The Bible tells us more about Christ as a Rock: "Come to him, the living stone, rejected by human beings but chosen and precious in the sight of God…For it says in Scripture: 'Behold, I am laying a stone in Zion, a cornerstone, chosen and precious, and whoever believes in it shall not be put to shame'." (1 Pt 2:4, 6) So Jesus is identified by Peter as fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah, which identifies him as the cornerstone on which the edifice of faith shall be built. 1 Cor 3:11 further makes this explicit: "For no one can lay a foundation other than the one that is there, namely, Jesus Christ."
     Jesus is very clearly identified as the Rock, the cornerstone, the foundation on which the faith is built. In Matt 16 we see him very clearly delegating this exalted role to Peter: "You are the Rock, and on this Rock I will build my Church." It is Christ's Church, not Peter's, and it is Christ who builds it, not Peter. Yet Peter has become, by the grace of God, the one who bears the very role and authority of Christ himself, and it is through him and his successors after him that the Church Jesus built and swore to protect maintains its stability. As Hebrews 12:28 tells us: "Therefore, we who are receiving the unshakeable kingdom should have gratitude, with which we should offer worship pleasing to God in reverence and awe." We have received the unshakeable kingdom, and it is the Church. It is unshakeable because it has a sure foundation: Jesus Christ working through the ministry of Peter the Rock.