Just what kind of rock was Peter?

When I visited St. Peter's in Rome, it was hard for me to imagine that this was what Jesus meant: "You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church."

St. Peter's is so massive my head was only level with the base of the columns. And when I sat down on the marble floor to rest my weary feet, a uniformed guard dressed in a costume Shakespeare would have loved scooted me away. I think Peter the fisherman would have been a lot more gracious.

Protestants have long objected to the Catholic interpretation of "upon this rock I will build my church."

It's a play on words, we Protestants protest.

Jesus said: "You are Peter (petros = a small rock, a pebble), and upon this Rock (petra = a massive, immovable rock cliff) I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."

Peter, we Protestants say, was the small rock you can kick around. That's not the rock Christ builds his church on. That rock is Christ himself, the petra, the massive immovable rock cliff.

And this remains obvious to me as the main thrust of what Jesus said.

The main thrust.

But in my old age I am more attracted to the subtlety of the play of the words. Jesus didn't have to use this play on words that has stirred so much controversy.

(By the way, for all the hoopla about church-this and church-that over two thousands years of church history, Jesus himself only used the word "church" two times) ...

Anyway, Jesus didn't have to use this play on words when he said what he said about his church.

No, He didn't mean for them to go and build an edifice like that thing in Rome.

But by the end of his life, Peter was one solid guy, with a faith that did not fail, and a joy unspeakable and full of glory.

Maybe that transformation was included in Jesus' vision for all who are in his church: small pebbles coming into their own in the immovable Rock which is the Christ.

Logos2Go

Matthew 16.18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. κἀγὼ δέ σοι λέγω ὅτι σὺ εἶ Πέτρος, καὶ ἐπὶ ταύτῃ τῇ πέτρᾳ οἰκοδομήσω μου τὴν ἐκκλησίαν, καὶ πύλαι ἅδου οὐ κατισχύσουσιν αὐτῆς.

πέτρος (petros 4074) stone [noun] a piece of rock;

πέτρα (petra 4073) the rock itself, which is Christ.

1 Peter 1.6-8 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, [being] much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see [Him], yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory ...

The only other recorded time Jesus used the word church is found in Matthew 18.17.