When I was a teenager, I had no interest in driving. So, my parents couldn’t take away my keys when I misbehaved because that wasn’t really a punishment for me. For my brother, though? There was nothing worse in the whole world than losing his keys, and along with them, his freedom. All my parents had to do was threaten to take his keys, and he shaped up in a hurry. There is power and freedom in having the keys. My brother knew that, and he didn’t want to lose them. Being given the keys is being given power and trust. The keys provide entry into something–in the case of car keys, they provide entry into personal freedom. But what about the keys of the kingdom? That is a far more confusing concept.

Usually when I read this passage from Matthew, I focus on the question “Who do you say that I am,” and the answer that Peter gave. I think I tend to focus on this part of the passage because it’s the easier part, at least in my mind. It’s the part that makes sense to me. But what’s the deal with Jesus telling Peter,  “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” What are the keys of the kingdom? And what does it mean that whatever he binds on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever he looses on earth will be loosed in heaven? Does this really mean that Peter has the power to decide who is forgiven and who isn’t? Does he have the ability to prevent people from entering heaven, or to open wide heaven’s gates for them? After all, this passage is a large part of the reason we imagine Peter at the pearly gates allowing people into heaven or denying them access. 

Just for fun… A minister dies and is waiting in line at the Pearly Gates. Ahead of him is a guy who’s dressed in sunglasses, a loud shirt, leather jacket, and jeans. Saint Peter addresses this guy, “Who are you, so that I may know whether or not to admit you to the Kingdom of Heaven?” The guy replies, “I’m Joe Cohen, taxi driver, of Noo Yawk City.” St. Peter consults his list. He smiles and says to the taxi driver, “Take this silken robe and golden staff and enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” The taxi driver goes into Heaven with his robe and staff, and it’s the minister’s turn. He stands erect and booms out, “I am Joseph Snow, pastor of Calvary for the last forty-three years.” St Peter consults his list. He says to the minister, “Take this cotton robe and wooden staff and enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” “Just a minute,” says the minister. “That man was a taxi driver, and he gets a silken robe and golden staff. How can this be?!” “Up here, we work by results,” says Saint Peter. “While you preached, people slept; while he drove, people prayed.”

So, what does Jesus mean when he tells Peter he is giving him the keys of the kingdom? What does it mean to bind and loose things on earth? And is it true that we really have the power to bind and loose things in heaven, too? I’ll be honest, when I first sat down with the Scripture readings in the lectionary for this week, my initial instinct was to go with the story from Exodus. Who doesn’t love the story of the Hebrew midwives who found a creative way to stand up to Pharaoh’s unjust order? And who can’t feel moved with compassion to think about Moses’s mother putting him in a basket to save him, and to imagine the compassion of Pharaoh’s daughter who couldn’t allow anything bad to happen to the little Hebrew boy she found in the river? Add to that the confusing part about the keys of the kingdom in Matthew 16, and when I went to our pastor’s text study group on Tuesday, I already had my mind made up that the passage from Exodus was the way to go.

But at text study, one of the pastors shared his thoughts on this passage, and they changed the way I thought about it. The first question he asked had to do with the word “you.” “I will give you the keys of the kingdom.” He wondered to our group if this word was singular or plural in the Greek. Unlike in English, Greek has two words for “you” – one is directed at just one person, whereas the other is directed at a group, kind of like the English slang word “y’all.” Up to this point in the text, Jesus has been using the plural word “you,” “Who do you all say that I am?” But here, he switches to the singular. “You” is directed just at Peter, the one who is the rock upon which Jesus would build his church. In other words, Jesus is telling Peter that the way he leads this new church will have the power to either introduce people to the forgiveness, love, and grace of Christ, or to turn them away from it. In this way, Peter is being given the keys to the kingdom. He can open the door for people, or he can shut it in their faces. What a huge responsibility! 

If Jesus originally said this statement to Peter, what does it mean for the rest of us? I think it’s a stern word of warning and responsibility to anyone who holds a position of leadership in the church. We are serving as representatives of Christ in whatever leadership roles we hold. The way we conduct ourselves, the way we talk about God, the things we teach can either lead a person closer to God, or farther away. I think this is one reason why James writes in James 3:1 that not many should become teachers. When you teach others, you have the potential to lead others astray in a unique and powerful way. Teachers and leaders have the ability to bind people up or set them free in a unique way. Jesus cautions Peter to think about this as he becomes the leader the early church would follow. 

In many stained glass window images of Peter, he is pictured holding a key. The key is there as a symbol to let us know this is Peter, and to remind us of this conversation between Jesus and Peter. In many ways, this was a specific instruction given to Peter who was being called in a specific way to lead the church after Jesus had ascended into heaven. But, in another way, this instruction applies to all of us here. We, too, have the power to bind and loose in heaven and on earth, even if we do not consider ourselves leaders. So, what does that power look like for the people of God?

James Boyce, professor emeritus of New Testament and Greek at Luther Seminary, writes this: “Matthew uniquely calls attention to the signal and central mission of this community.  This community is endowed with the promise of a rich gift, the ‘keys’ of the kingdom, which both here and especially in 18:10-35 is identified as this community’s invitation and mission to exercise the power of forgiveness in the binding and loosing of sin in the name of God.” In other words, as members of the community of God, we have been given the privilege of sharing the good news of forgiveness and grace with others. We can either bind a person up, like tying them up in knots with guilt and exclusion, or we can loose a person and set them free. We can also bind up or loose ourselves when it comes to forgiveness and grace in Christ. We can help others and ourselves to be built upon the rock, or we can place stumbling blocks in the path that cause us to stumble and fall.

Every day we have the opportunity to ask ourselves whether we are centered on the rock of Christ or whether we are setting up stumbling blocks. The word “stumbling block” in Greek is the word “skandalon,” which is where we get our word “scandal.” A skandalon can be a trap, or it can refer to a rock that naturally comes out of the ground along a path and causes the traveler to stumble. Have you ever gone on a walk or a hike and been sure the ground in front of you was level, but then you caught your foot on a rock and stumbled? Those rocks that seem to come from nowhere are the stumbling blocks along our paths. Are we focused on the rock, or are we setting up stumbling blocks? 

Sometimes, we help others see the freedom in Christ. Other times we set up stumbling blocks. And still other times, we are held back from receiving freedom and forgiveness in Christ by the fences we put up around ourselves. Sometimes we put fences up that keep ourselves away from the love and freedom of Christ because we feel unworthy of God’s love. Maybe we struggle to believe that God would love us. Perhaps we even had someone else tell us that we are unlovable, and that person’s voice took up residence in our minds, and now we repeat their words to ourselves over and over.

Other times, those fences that prevent us from embracing true freedom in Christ were placed there by others. Church trauma is a real thing for many people. If you find yourselves struggling to encounter the freedom and forgiveness of Christ because of something that was said or done to you, I’m so sorry, and I hope that today can be a first step towards receiving the welcoming love of God again.

What would it look like if we found the courage to fling wide the gates of the kingdom for others, to live our lives in such a way and speak our words in such a way that others have no doubt that God’s love is for them? I wonder if we would change the way we interact with a co-worker, or if we might be more patient or compassionate with a difficult person in our lives. I wonder if we might be more generous to others, or quicker to listen and slower to get angry.

What would it look like if we found the courage to bind up anything that is contrary to what God wants for us and for this world? I wonder if we might be quicker to speak up for others who are being harmed, rather than standing silently by. Perhaps we would decide not to participate in something that is dishonoring to God, even if by sitting it out we might face some consequences. Maybe we would find the courage to silence those voices in our minds that tell us we couldn’t possibly be God’s beloved children because of what we’ve done in our pasts. There’s so much power in binding and loosing, and Jesus entrusted this to us in the church. I wonder how this world might be transformed and changed if we found the courage to use this power to bless others and to embrace for ourselves the love of God in Christ.

Do you remember the first time you were given the keys to the car? How did it feel? Did you feel a surge of excitement? A wave of anxiety? A moment of wonder–is it true that someone is trusting me with something as wonderful and powerful as this? Imagine now, that you are being handed a key by Jesus, a key that has the potential to open wide the door for others and for yourself to experience the transforming love of Jesus. Will you take hold of it?