Stones, little rocks, and monoliths

Photo courtesy of Ernieski

Another interesting thing came into focus for me last night during my readings - Jesus uses stone and rock as a prominent metaphor in His teachings.

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he [John the Baptist] said to them, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father,' for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. (Matthew 3:7-9)

"Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it." (Matthew 7:24-27)

He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter replied, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." 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. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:15-18)

This is cool to me because John warns the insiders that God could even raise up Children of Abraham from the stones, and then Jesus does it! He raises up covenant children - a church of believers - from spiritually stone-dead people. And not only does the God-man animate these stones, but he uses them as an unshakable foundation for a new kind of temple.

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There's this debate about what Jesus is talking about in Matthew 16:18. The best commentary I've read on it says that Jesus is not claiming to build the church upon Simon Peter Bar Jonah (as per Roman Catholic doctrine). I'm told that the Greek text uses two words in this passage for stone, one meaning 'little rock' and one meaning someting like 'huge monolith.' Jesus appears to be gently teasing his friend, Simon, calling him by his diminutive nickname (Little Rock) while saying (you can almost see Jesus pointing to himself), "This is the monolith that I will build my church on."

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But he is not only teasing Peter, he is congratulating him for getting it right in Matthew 16:15. He is saying, "The huge, monolithic stone that I will build my unshakable church upon is Peter's confession - You are the Christ, the Son of the living God"