Peter’s Confession and the Gates of Hades

Matthew 16:13–20

Introduction

Sometimes people will ask me how long I’ve been a priest, and I almost never know the answer. I know it’s been more than a decade, but I can never remember the specific day of the month or the year. What I do remember is the feast day on which I was ordained as a priest. Bishop Morales ordained me on the feast day of the confession of St. Peter, which is our Gospel reading this morning. So, this passage has extra significance for me because it will forever be connected in my mind to my ordination and ministry.

So, we’re going to stay here in Matthew 16 for this Sunday and the next because there’s a straight line from Peter’s confession to Jesus’ prediction of his death and resurrection, and to his command for his disciples to take up their cross and follow him. There is what we say about Jesus — that’s Peter’s confession. There is what Jesus actually accomplished as the Messiah — that’s his death and resurrection. And then there is what it means to be the disciples of a crucified and risen Lord — that’s “take up your cross and follow me.” Today we’re just going to focus on the confession. You’ll have to come back next Sunday to hear the rest.

What Do Others Say?

As for Peter’s confession, we’re going to skip over the opening words — we’ll come back to that — and focus on the first question Jesus asks his disciples.

“Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” (Matt 16:13).

This question is fascinating because the disciples clearly understand Jesus to be asking, “Who do people say that I am?” and that is, in fact, how both Mark and Luke phrase the question. Only Matthew replaces “I” with “the Son of Man,” Jesus’ favorite self-designation. In doing so, Matthew is already coding in part of the correct answer to the question of Jesus’ identity. The title Son of Man comes from Daniel 7, where this mysterious figure, who represents Israel, is crushed and devoured by the four beasts representing four earthly kingdoms, but ultimately vindicated and exalted by God, and to him is given an everlasting kingdom greater than all the kingdoms of this earth. So, Matthew is already giving us a hint at the answer to Jesus’ identity even before the disciples have even said a word.

But when they do answer, their answers tell us quite a lot about what people understood to be happening in the ministry of Jesus. The disciples answer:

“Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets” (Matt 16:14).

All of these answers are interesting. Some say Jesus is John the Baptist come back to life, presumably because there was such a clear link between their ministry and proclamation. In fact, Matthew says as much just a few chapters earlier.

At that time Herod the tetrarch heard about the fame of Jesus, and he said to his servants, “This is John the Baptist. He has been raised from the dead; that is why these miraculous powers are at work in him” (14:1–2).

So some say he’s John because there’s a clear connection between what John was doing and what Jesus has been doing. Others say he’s Elijah because the book of Malachi had said:

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction (Mal 4:5–6).

Ironically, that’s actually the role that John played, but it shows that the people were thinking along the same eschatological timetable that we find throughout the Gospels.

Others say that Jesus is Jeremiah, presumably because his ministry of preaching against the religious establishment and pronouncing judgment on the city and temple more closely resembled Jeremiah's than that of any other Old Testament prophet. Jesus was a Jeremiadic prophet, so it is not surprising that people thought he might actually be Jeremiah. In fact, the mention of Jeremiah in the disciples’ reply is unique to Matthew and is probably a connection that Matthew himself is trying to draw out, just like with the insertion of “Son of Man” in the initial question.

Lastly, the disciples answer that some say Jesus is one of the prophets, most likely indicating a general understanding that what he was saying and doing were from God, but not much more than that.

What Do You Say?

It’s of course interesting to think about what other people say about Jesus. There are plenty of books you can read on the subject, and no shortage of television programs devoted to it either. You can sit down with someone over coffee or in a Bible study and ask them what they think.

What others say about Jesus is interesting, but what really matters for you is not what anyone else says about Jesus but what you say about Jesus. And so Jesus asks:

“But who do you say that I am?” (16:15).

For just a moment, I want you to imagine that Jesus is asking you that question this morning. It won’t do you any good if Jesus asks you, “Who do you say that I am,” and your response is, “Well, Fr. Michael said” or “N. T. Wright said” or “J. I. Packer said.” You fill in the blank. Who do you, in your heart of hearts, say that Jesus is?

Peter answers — surprisingly, miraculously, and here I’m offering my own translation:

“You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (16:16).

(The ESV renders this “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” I’ve swapped in “Messiah” — the sense is the same, but it keeps the title in front of us as a title, rather than letting “Christ” slide by as though it were simply Jesus’ surname.)

Nothing in the Gospel thus far would have prepared the reader for Peter to give this kind of answer. Of course, the reader knows it’s the right answer, but the disciples, including and especially Peter, seem to be incapable of understanding who Jesus is and what he’s doing. Just look at the immediately preceding scene, where Jesus seems flabbergasted that his disciples seem to be clueless about what he’s actually doing. He says:

“O you of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread?” (16:8–11).

He was trying to use bread as a metaphor for something else, and they thought he was talking about how much actual bread they had. Jesus goes from exasperation in one scene to Peter nailing it on the head in the next, and his response, I think, comes from that same exasperation. Peter says:

“You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (16:16).

And Jesus says, “Well, you certainly didn’t figure that out on your own! You’ve gotten everything wrong up until this point! That must have come from God!” That’s my interpretation of what Jesus actually says, which is:

“Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven” (16:17).

For a moment, even if only in broad outline, Peter recognizes who Jesus is. He is more than a prophet. He is more than a healer. He is more than John the Baptist, more than Elijah, more than Jeremiah, and more than all the other Old Testament prophets. He is the Messiah, the promised King, the one for whom Israel had been waiting, the one who would deliver them from their bondage and set them free. He was the one, the only one, who, in a way that Peter could not yet even possibly have fathomed, was worthy to be called “the Son of the Living God,” and remember, Peter makes this confession standing in Caesarea Philippi.

Caesarea Philippi

And what’s truly remarkable about this moment isn’t only that Peter’s confession seems to come out of nowhere — that he gets everything right all at once. It’s also where Peter says it. The opening words of this scene, which we skipped over, tell us that Peter is standing in Caesarea Philippi. Matthew is not merely interested in the patch of ground where Jesus and the disciples happen to be standing. There’s a reason he tells us this.

Part of Caesarea Philippi, long before the region bore that name, was named Paneion, after the Greek god Pan. The city was said to have a cave with an underground spring so deep that, despite attempts to measure its depth with weighted ropes, the bottom could not be reached. This led many to believe that this cave was an entrance to the underworld — to Hades, the realm of the dead, the place from which there was no escape because the gates were locked. The cave was known as the “gates of Hades” because pagans believed their gods used it to travel to and from the underworld.

And then Herod the Great — Herod, king of the Jews — built a temple to Caesar Augustus at the foot of this cave, because he had just been made king and wanted to honor the man who had made him king. Herod’s successor in the region, Herod Philip, then renamed the city Caesarea Philippi to honor the current Caesar, Emperor Tiberius.

Tiberius, like most rulers of the day, had coins minted to solidify his rule, and around his image the coins read: “Tiberius Caesar, Son of the Divine Augustus.” Note the parallel to “Son of the Living God,” and Don’t miss that the “divine” Augustus was most certainly no longer living.

On this Rock

So Peter is standing in the place where pagans thought the very gate of death stood, the same place where Israel’s rulers had erected a pagan temple and renamed a city after Caesars who demanded absolute loyalty, and he replies to Jesus, “You are the coming king we were promised. You, not Tiberius, who was the son of a dead emperor — YOU are the Son of the Living God.”

To which Jesus says, “Only God could have revealed that to you,” and then he adds:

“And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (16:18).

(This is my own translation at this point too. The ESV actually reads “gates of hell” — but the word here isn’t hell, and it isn’t even Gehenna. It’s Hades.)

To say that the rock on which the church is built isn’t Peter does violence to the text, but so does pretending that the rock is Peter apart from what he confesses about Jesus. The church — the church of Jesus Christ, of which we are all a part — is built on the foundation of what Peter confesses about Jesus in this particular location. Jesus, and Jesus alone, is the promised king. He and he alone is the Son of the Living God.

In short, he is Lord and everyone else is not. Not pagan gods. Not emperors. Not kings, queens, or presidents. Surrounded by all these would-be gods, with temples and cities built in their honor, and a long tradition of people coming to this cave to offer sacrifices for their loved ones, Peter’s confession, in this place, amounts to this:

Jesus is the promised, coming King, the unique and only Son of the Living God, and therefore he is Lord, and everyone and everything else is not. That is the confession on which the church is built.

Gates Do Not Attack

And we could just leave this here, but I have one more thing to say: despite how so many people talk about this passage, gates do not attack. Gates defend. Gates keep out.

If Jesus promises that the gates of Hades will not prevail against the church, then his understanding of the church is that its primary mission is a full-frontal assault on death.

Death in ancient times was thought to be an unconquerable power guarded by the strongest gates. These gates prevented escape and barred access to invaders. Jesus understands the church as those invaders who, rather than engaging in a culture of death, will say to death:

“You do not get to write the last words in the story of humanity, for there is one who is even more powerful than death, and by confessing who he is and what he’s done in the midst of a pagan world, in the midst of people prone to treat mere mortals like gods, death itself will be defeated.”

That’s the promise. That’s the mission of the church — a full-frontal assault on death and all the power it continues to exercise in this world — and it’s directly tied to Peter’s confession, which Peter speaks even though he doesn’t yet fully understand it.

How to Defeat Death

Peter, like everyone else, wanted the coming king to bring more death. Death for the enemies, death for the people who oppressed us. “Jesus, go to the city, take up your sword. Bring death if you have to, but bring us liberation at all costs.”

But you can’t defeat death by killing others.

You can win a war like that, but you can’t defeat death that way.

So Peter says, “You are the Messiah.” And Jesus says, “Yes, I am. Do you want to know what it means that I’m the Messiah? It means I’m going to Jerusalem, not to fight, but to die, but I will rise again, and if you want to be my disciples in this assault on the gates of Hades — in this war on death and its continued influence in this world — then you must take up your cross, and follow me.”

Amen.

---

Life Group Study Guide

Intro Prayer

Heavenly Father, we come before you today as your gathered people, asking that you open our hearts and minds to hear what you would say to us. As we reflect on your Word and the bold confession of Peter, quiet the noise of our own assumptions and preconceptions. Grant us the courage to wrestle honestly with the question Jesus asks each of us: “Who do you say that I am?” May your Holy Spirit guide our conversation, draw us closer to one another, and above all, draw us closer to you. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Ice Breaker

If you could visit any historical or ancient site in the world, where would you go and why?

Questions

• Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” (Matt 16:13). If someone in your community were asked that question today, what kinds of answers do you think they would give?

• Jesus then makes it personal: “But who do you say that I am?” (Matt 16:15). How would you answer that question in your own words, not borrowing someone else’s answer?

• Peter’s confession seems to come as a surprise, maybe even to himself, and Jesus says that “flesh and blood” did not reveal this to Peter, but God the Father (Matt 16:17). What does it mean to you that recognizing Jesus for who he truly is requires divine revelation rather than human reasoning alone?

• Matthew 16 places this exchange in Caesarea Philippi — a place of pagan worship, imperial power, and the supposed gates of Hades. Why do you think Jesus chose this particular location to ask his disciples about his identity? What does that setting add to the meaning of Peter’s confession?

• Peter confesses that Jesus is “the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matt 16:16) in a place where coins bore the inscription “Tiberius Caesar, son of the divine Augustus.” How does this contrast shape your understanding of what it means to confess Jesus as Lord in today’s world?

• Gates defend rather than attack — so when Jesus says the gates of Hades will not prevail against the Church (Matt 16:18), he’s describing the Church as an invading force against death, not a fortress under siege. How does this image challenge or expand your understanding of what the Church is called to be and do?

• Peter’s confession is directly tied to the Church’s mission to confront death and its power in the world. Where do you see death exercising its influence in your own community or culture, and how might the Church respond faithfully?

• Jesus redefines what it means to be the Messiah — not through conquest and violence, but through dying and rising again. How does this shape the way you think about following Jesus and “taking up your cross” in your own daily life?

Life Application

This week, set aside a few quiet minutes each day to sit with the question Jesus asks: “Who do you say that I am?” (Matt 16:15). Write down your honest answer in a journal or on a piece of paper, in your own words, without borrowing language from a book or another person. Then consider one area of your life where you are tempted to give ultimate loyalty or trust to something or someone other than Jesus. Bring that area before God in prayer, and ask him to help you live out Peter’s confession more fully in that specific place.

Key Takeaways

• Peter’s confession that Jesus is “the Messiah, the Son of the living God” is the foundational declaration on which the Church is built, and it demands a personal, not merely inherited or secondhand answer from every believer.

• The location of Caesarea Philippi is theologically loaded: surrounded by pagan worship, imperial power, and the supposed gates of Hades, Peter’s confession amounts to a bold proclamation that Jesus Christ is Lord and no one else is.

• Jesus’s promise that “the gates of Hades will not prevail” against the Church reveals that the Church’s primary mission is an active assault on death and its power, not a defensive retreat from the world.

• True messiahship, as Jesus defines it, is not achieved through violence or conquest but through his own death and resurrection, which is the only way death itself can ultimately be defeated.

• Discipleship in the way of a crucified and risen Lord means taking up one’s cross, following Jesus into the world, and participating in his ongoing mission against the powers of sin and death.

Ending Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the gift of this time together and for the truth of Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God. As we leave this place, remind us that we are not called to retreat from the world but to carry his light into it, trusting that the gates of death do not have the final word. Strengthen us by your Spirit to answer Jesus’s question honestly in our own hearts, to give him our full loyalty, and to follow him even when the way is costly. May our lives together as your Church be a witness to the world that he alone is Lord. In his holy name we pray. Amen.