Let us consider one of the
most striking parallels between Jesus Christ and the good King Hezekiah. We read in 2 Kings 20 that the King is
mortally ill and that he prays to the Lord.
Then the Lord speaks through his holy prophet Isaiah that the king is to
go up to the temple on the third day and his life will be saved and the city
will be saved as well. Thus, Christ’s
own resurrection on the third day was foreshadowed and how He brought His own
Body back to Life and saved the city, the New Jerusalem, the Church.
A very important thing
happened in the life of King Hezekiah that Jesus Christ later alludes to.
Isaiah 22:19-23
“I
will thrust you from your office and pull you down from your station. On that
day I will summon my servant Eliakim, son of Hilkiah; I will clothe him with
your robe, and gird him with your sash, and give over to him your authority. He
shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. I
will place the key of the House of David on his shoulder; when he opens, no one
shall shut, when he shuts, no one shall open. I will fix him like a peg in a
sure spot, to be a place of honor for his family”
Compare Isaiah 22 with
Matthew 16:18-19 which states:
“And
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. I 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."
This
title, or position was also known in non-Jewish governments and we can see that
the power that the holder of the keys actually has can be determined by reading
Gen 41:39-40 “So Pharaoh said to Joseph: ‘…You shall be in charge of my
palace,…Only in respect to the throne shall I outrank you.’” Gen 41 seems to suggest that he ruled not by
exercising his own private judgment, but rather was in charge of executing the
will of the king.
We
see this confirmed in Isaiah 22:22 when we read that the Master of the palace
will rule such that when “he opens, no one shall shut, when he shuts, no one
shall open.” This passage presupposes
that he will just be executing a judgment in keeping with the will of the king,
or else it would have said, “what he opens, no one shall shut, except for the
king.” The Master of the palace is, so
to speak, the agent or mouthpiece for the king.
One important point in Isaiah
22 is that it is the transfer of the keys that designates Eliakim as the new
master of the palace, “I will place the key of the House of David on his
shoulder…” King David had been dead many
years when this took place. Therefore,
this verse shows that the office of key holder/master of the palace, was an
office with successors just as the office of king was. It was the transferring of the keys that
denoted the transfer of power to the new successor of this office as the king’s
representative, his regent, the master of the palace.
It was God the Father who had picked Peter to
be the one to proclaim Jesus as the Messiah. And it was upon hearing this
that Jesus alludes to that passage in Isaiah 22 above and gives the keys
to Saint Peter. Matthew 16:13, 19 “‘You
are the Messiah, the Son of the living God... , you are Peter, and upon
this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not
prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.
Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and what you loose
on earth shall be loosed in heaven.’”
The keys represent
absolute power to rule. They are owned by the King of Israel who entrusts
them to his representative the "master of the palace."
Christ is the true King of Israel. Just as in Isaiah 22 above where
the keys are handed down to the successors of the king’s prime minister we see
Christ giving His keys to his designated "master of the
palace," his chief minister, his vicar, St. Peter.
That
the "gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against
it" also implies succession for Peter’s office just as the holders of
the keys of David had successors. Peter died. Yet, Christ’s promise is
true. Peter who became the Bishop of Rome has a
successor. The future tense used in Matthew 16, "will
build" and "will give you the keys," refers to
what Christ will give to St. Peter after the Resurrection.
We find many
instances Jesus comparing the kingdom of heaven to a field, a mustard seed,
leaven, and a net (Matt 13:24-52). This demonstrate
that the kingdom Jesus is talking about the universal Church on earth, not the
eternal state of glory. Jesus comparing the kingdom of heaven to ten maidens,
five of whom were foolish (Matt 25:1-2), further shows that the kingdom is the
Church on earth. This kingdom cannot
refer to the heavenly kingdom because there are no fools in heaven! Again, the “kingdom of God” is like the seed
which grows and develops (Mark 4:26-32).
The heavenly kingdom is eternal, so the kingdom to which Peter holds the
keys of authority is the earthly Church.
The one Jesus Himself founded.
Let’s put it all
together with what we’ve learned today. God promises to establish the Davidic
kingdom forever on earth (2 Sam 7:16; Psalm 89:3-4; 1 Chron 17:12,14) and
Matthew clearly establishes this tie from David to Jesus in the first lines of
his Gospel when he describes the genealogy from David to Jesus Himself. Jesus is the new King of the new House of
David, and the King will assign a chief steward to rule over the house while
the King is in heaven. We see that the
keys of the kingdom pass from Shebna to Eliakim (Isa 22:22). Thus, the keys are used not only as a symbol
of authority, but also to facilitate succession. We see in the early Church that successors
are immediately chosen for the apostle’s offices (Acts 1:20). Just as the Church replaced Judas, it also
replaced Peter with a successor after Peter’s death. The keys of Christ’s kingdom have passed from
Peter to Linus all the way to our current Pope with an unbroken lineage for
almost 2,000 years.
God Bless
Nathan
