My form of Christianity (i.e., the Plymouth Brethren tradition)  is much less structured. This is exemplified in our weekly Breaking of Bread services when there is a little structure as possible so as to allow for the moving of the Holy Spirit. Also, our beliefs are much less systematized. We read the Word and believe what It says. We follow Christ wherever He might lead us as we seek to be dedicated followers of Him.

There is, however, a danger in this. As we read through the whole of His Word, we find many "hard sayings." There are many hard sayings of Jesus. Beyond the platitudes and calls to Christian living that we teach and are taught in Sunday School, there are many things that Jesus said that just don’t seems to make sense, and some that we may wish He hadn’t said. These are sayings that don’t fit inside a neat, structured orthodoxy. But there comes a time when we must deal with these difficult sayings if we are ever able to have a whole and thorough relationship with God through Christ Jesus.

The phrase I would like to examine today is, "I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of the Heavens. Whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in the Heavens, and whatever you release on earth will have been released in the Heavens." It was said by Jesus to His disciples on two occasions: Matthew 16:19 and again in 18:18.

The key, whenever you are faced with a difficult passage is to look at the context. This will either show you the answer or show you that there isn't one. In this case, we have two contexts for one phrase. This will (hopefully) provide us with and even greater understanding.

In both chapters the issue seems to be spiritual understanding. In fact, this seems to be the theme of the whole section. After all, Jesus, having been officially rejected in chapter 12, is preparing His disciples to take over His ministry. Spiritual insight and understanding -- or, what Jesus calls "faith" -- is a foundational necessity for carrying out God's work. And it is nothing less that the Work of God that is at stake (a fact that may prove useful in understanding the phrase in question).

Chapter 16 starts out with the religious leaders showing their lack of "faith," or understanding of spiritual things. They don't believe in Jesus and don't recognize the signs He has already given, even though they can properly interpret the weather. What Jesus is saying here is that the two are essentially the same. In fact, the Greek word translated as "heaven" is the same word translated as "sky."

You have probably heard me talk about "the Heavens" before, but here is a brief review. In both the Greek and the Hebrew originals the terms translated as Heaven are plural. There are, in the ancient cosmology, different levels of heavens. An example of this is 2 Corinthians 12:2, where Paul talks about "the third heaven." The issue seems to be proximity. The first heaven is the air we breath. The second heaven is the atmosphere. The third heaven is beyond, i.e., where God resides. (Remember that the Hebrew has no concept for Heaven as we know, but only "the skies.") Also, the original words for spirit are the same as the words for wind. So here we have movements (spirits) in the skies (the Heavens).

So what Jesus is saying here is that the Spiritual realm is as close as the air we breathe, a relates to us like the wind on our face. So it is stupid for the religious leaders of the day to understand weather in the skies and not the Spiritual movements in the Heavens.

The simple fact is that they lack Faith. To say that they don’t believe in Jesus is a simplistic explanation of the situation. They do not have Faith, they do not understand. The way Jesus uses "Faith," the spiritual insight is always related to the Truth. To see into the Truth of God’s Creation and then to live based on that insight is to have Faith. If you believe and live by the Truth, you have Faith.

Jesus tries to warn His disciples against the religious leaders’ ineptitude, but the disciples betray the fact that they are mini-faiths, as Jesus calls them. The problem with the disciples is that they have Faith, they understand to believe, only infrequently. The difference between them and the religious leaders, however, is that when they do have a brief insight, they act upon it immediately and wholly. This is the reason why His disciples are His disciples. They have an openness to the Spiritual Truth that the religious humbugs do not.

And so Peter is able to redeem himself (or rather, more truthfully, to be redeemed) by the insight into the Truth of Christ's identity. But Jesus, as ever, goes and messing things up. Whenever someone begins to understand something Spiritual, Jesus gives him more than he wanted. This is no exception. Jesus reveals to Peter (and the rest of the disciples) the Truth of the Foundation of the Church in such a way that it is still a mystery, leaving more questions than answers. What is the rock, Peter or Jesus' identity? What are the gates of Hell, and how can gates attack (to prevail) anyway? What are the keys to the Kingdom of the Heavens; Jesus, His teachings, something else? Who are the keys given to; Peter only, the Apostles only, or all of His disciples including us? What is binding and loosing? Are the keys used to bind and to loose? What is Jesus saying about the relationship between what we do and what is done in the Heavens?

It is the last question that is at hand. Everything else, I believe, comes out of the answer to this one. Let us say, for example, that Jesus is talking specifically to Peter and gives him special power over the church (the embodiment of the Kingdom of the Heavens on earth) to determine what is right and what is sin and what is forgivable and therefore who gets into Heaven and who does not. If all that is true, then we would have a Vicar of Christ on earth today to whom these keys have been passed. In other words, this would be the Institution of the Pope. And in fact this is what the Catholic Church teaches.

My personal belief is that the Truth of Jesus identity and that one's relation to that Truth determines whether one enters into the Kingdom of the Heavens or through the Gates of Hell. I believe that the Satan wants to set of the gates of Hell in front of the Kingdom of Heaven so that, without knowing it, people miss Heaven because of lack of Faith/spiritual understanding.

It is therefore Peter and the Apostles who determined, originally, who had access to the truth about Christ. This can be seen in Acts 10, in which it is through Peter's preaching that the Kingdom of the Heavens is finally opened up to all Gentiles. In a lesser sense today, we determine who in our worlds hears the Truth about Christ's Identity and thus who has access to the Kingdom of the Heavens.

What Jesus is teaching is that what we do here and now really does have eternal significance in the Spiritual Realm. Eternal, we must always remember, has no beginning as well as no end. This is why the verse may be translated, "Whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in the Heavens, and whatever you release on earth will have been released in the Heavens." It is not really that we decide who gets into Heaven and who goes to Hell. God determines what is acceptable for people’s relation to Him, and people choose to abide by this or not. However, we do have the power to give people access to the Spiritual Reality that they would not otherwise see.

This Truth is further expressed in chapter 18, where once again the issue is spiritual understanding (i.e., Faith), and once again the disciples don't have enough. After Jesus predicts his death and is transfigured on the mount, the conversation comes up among the disciples, "Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of the Heavens?" And Jesus answers, "Peter." No, wait – He could have taken this opportunity to name a successor, His vicar, if that’s what He was trying to do. But once again, Jesus’ goal is to increase their Faith, to expand their spiritual insight. And once again, He goes about it in the most unexpected way. He takes a child and sets him in the middle of their group and says "Change to be like a child, capable to humbly receive me, then you’ll be the greatest." Jesus uses the living illustration of a child to show that the greatest in the Kingdom must be the humbled to receive as a child. This means so much I couldn't even begin to discuss it here.

But then Jesus goes on to give harsh warning to anyone who would offend and backs it up with the Parable of the Lost Sheep and follows that up with some instruction on how to deal with sinners. It is within this context that Jesus once again tells His disciples, "Whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in the Heavens, and whatever you release on earth will have been released in the Heavens." Especially when it is done in agreement with other believers.

Peter, as always thinking he understands more than he does, asks Jesus how many times he should forgive and is generous in suggesting more than twice the legal limit of forgiveness. But, as always, Jesus takes it further by telling them the Parable of the Unforgiving Forgiven Servant.

When we take a step back and look at this chapter as a whole, this is what we may see. Children humbly receive what they are given by their Providers because they have no pretensions that they could survive otherwise. They need what they are give and they know this truth and live based on it. It is therefore a horrendous crime to destroy or in any way hinder this humility because in it is their salvation, their access to Abundant Life, and once they lose it, it is so hard to get back.

What Jesus says in this passage is that the "greatest" is a person of Faith, who will do ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING to bring a person into the Kingdom and ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING to not keep anyone out. Even if that mean self-sacrifice (quite literally). The "Greatest" would do ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING to forgive this brother, even if it means getting others involved (which may embarass the sinnee as much as the sinner). But if even this does not work, he should "let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector." Now, many often take this to mean that the unrepentant sinner should be shunned. But it is the heathen and the tax collector that need the most ministry, not the least! (Remember, Matthew is in the crowd) This simply means let the sinner be ministered to and not minister to others.

So here the phrase in question about binding and loosing is a warning to the disciples (including us). If we keep someone out the Kingdom of the Heavens, they will be kept out. If we let them in, they will be let in. But who are we to keep ANYONE out? Are we not sinners, too? Have we not been let in by the grace of God and the compassion of others? And yet as children of God and heirs of the Kingdom we do have the power to decide who has access to Glory. This is a weighty responsibility that necessitates compassion by all means and by all of us, since we should not decide this alone (vv19f).

On the contrary, one who understands the Spiritual Truth, i.e. one who has Faith, will do anything in this power to prevent this. Or to put it actively, it is your responsibility to do everything in your power to see anyone who is lost, including someone who is sinning against you, saved. And there is in fact power to be had, the very power of binding and loosing. But this responsibility is the ability to respond to the forgiveness and salvation that you have received. An ability that the Unforgiving Forgiven Servant did not exercise, and we can see how it turned out for him.

By telling this Parable, Jesus solidifies everything about the power of responsibility and the responsibility of power and says, "DON'T BE THAT PERSON!!! PLEASE!" Have compassion as compassion has been had on you. After all, if you keep others out, what's to say that you won't be kept out as well (v35; 7:1-5; 5:14f)?

Be people of Faith, who will do ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING to bring a person into the Kingdom and ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING to not keep anyone out. You have the Power.