Petra: Rock & Blocks
“And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell (Hades) shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18)
Rabbi Yeshua and his apprentices had arrived in Caesarea Phillippi, a city just under 30 miles north of the Sea of Galilee.
The city was known for its worship of the god Pan, along with Baal and Caesar himself.
Caesarea Phillippi was a unique city that sat near the bottom of Mount Hermon, and in the middle of the city they had built a temple into the cliff which they called, wait for it… the Gates of Hades.
It was a dark place where people were believed to have access to the underworld and where fertility gods were thought to live. Heinous and detestable things took place in the shadows of this pagan portal.
And it was here, likely right in front of this temple, that Yeshua spoke to his apprentices, including Peter directly (whose name in Greek is petros, meaning “a piece of a rock or stone”) saying “on this rock I will build my church.”
I’ve often heard people refer to Peter as this rock, as if he - not Christ - were the foundation of the church.
But when Yeshua makes his following statement, he uses the word petra to describe that which the church will be built upon, and Petra means a “large stone, cliff, ledge, or firm ground of rock.”
Christ is actually implying that Peter is too small, too weak, and too breakable to be the foundation - that the Church would in fact not stand with him as the base.
But, the liberation that comes with this statement is that Peter - who is a rock - can and will be a part of the structure of the church as a building block. Rather than man building its own foundation of divinity into a cliff (such as the temple before them), God is saying that He alone is the substructure and cornerstone that can carry eternal life.
The church is not an edifice. It’s the people of God connected to one another and upheld by God.
When we know who we are and walk in the love and power of the one true Elohim, even the darkest gates cannot withstand the light we carry.
Other gods seek to accuse, deceive, and oppress, but we the Church extend the way of justice and mercy, the truth of identity as children, and the life of joy and shalom.
None - not even the mountain-temple of Hades - can prevail against this Rock.
