NOTES for Mat 16:15-16

It is hard to take responsibility for one’s choice. It is hard to state a definite opinion, hard to make a decision, because you bear responsibility for all its consequences and fruits. And if this choice, this decision, belongs to the religious or moral sphere, then one has to answer for it with one’s whole life. And in general it is hard to make decisions: can a person really know anything for certain?

That is why the moment is so important when the apostle Peter, whether on his own behalf or on behalf of all the Twelve, resolves to say the words: “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” Through this confession Peter receives the Lord Jesus as Savior. Everything that follows, witness, preaching, the weight of the night in Gethsemane, and the gift of Pentecost, is founded on this decision of Peter, on his personal act and confession. Becoming the foundation of the Church, he is joined, if not to the divine nature, for the Last Supper is still far off, then to Christ’s divine authority.

Peter himself appears to have experienced this moment deeply. In his letter, written around the year 63, when speaking about the essence of faith and life, he mentions precisely the readiness “to give an account of the hope” (1 Pet. 3:15). Strictly speaking, the apostleship of the Twelve consists first of all in their confession and only afterward in preaching over the whole face of the earth. And this applies in full measure to all their disciples.