Mt 16:13-19
13When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16Simon Peter said in reply, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” 17Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. 18And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. 19I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
SIMON’S CONFESSION: Mediterranean people like the Israelites are said to have “dyadic” personalities. Dyad means “pair.” Besides having a sense of individuality, a person in Jesus’ time carried the personality that people ascribed to him or her. This ascribed personality—what people thought of the person—was often considered to be more important than what the individual thought about himself.
Stereotyping was common. A person was known by the village he was from, the family he belonged to, and the trade he carried, usually inherited from his father.
Jesus’ stereotypical identity would be: “Jesus of Nazareth.” This would not give him much honor because the stereotypical image of that village’s inhabitants would be: worthless or of not much consequence. In fact, Nathanael from nearby Cana remarks: “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Even Jesus’ occupation was humble: he was a carpenter (Mk 6:3), a carpenter’s son (Mt 13:55). The Israelites stayed close to the adage: “Like father, like son.” Both Joseph and Jesus were tektonai, “stone or wood workers.”
Still, Jesus did not conform to these stereotypes. He became an itinerant preacher instead of staying home and getting married.
Hearing him preach and seeing his mighty works, people soon began to attribute to Jesus honorable opinions. In the Gospel, the disciples tell him that people perceive him as John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or another of the prophets. These are all honorable perceptions, but these are not enough. Simon Peter then confesses Jesus to be “the Christ (Messiah), the Son of the living God.” No human being (flesh and blood) arrives at this knowledge, unless specially revealed to him by God. Peter gives Jesus’ true identity: not ascribed to him by human beings, but by the Father himself.