Matthew 16:13-20 - The Kingdom of Heaven has Keys! - September 6, 2020

The text before us presents an enormous challenge to any pastor. Do you know what that challenge is? How do you fit all of the doctrinal and theological gems found here into one sermon? You don’t. This text deserves a lifetime of study and a lifetime of sermons. So today we’re going to focus only on one verse of this text, verse 19. Verse 19 contains a very simple, yet incredibly profound truth: there are keys to heaven. The problem with keys, though, is that they can get lost. Who hasn’t lost their keys? Losing keys can ruin your day, your week, and your mood. It can be expensive to replace them. It can lead to fear that a bad guy may now have access to your car and your home. And, sadly, the keys of the kingdom of heaven can be lost, too.

The keys are lost in the Catholic Church. Jesus says that I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and yet the official Catechism of the Catholic Church says that these keys are not enough to open the gate to heaven. I quote: “Absolution takes away sin, but it does not remedy all the disorders sin has caused. Raised up from sin, the sinner must still recover his full spiritual health by doing something more to make amends for the sin: he must “make satisfaction for” or “expiate” his sins. This satisfaction is also called “penance.””[1] According to official Catholic doctrine, no one – not a priest, not the Pope, not even Jesus himself – can open heaven’s gates to you unless and until you pay for your own sins. Whether by purchasing an “indulgence” as in Luther’s day or saying a set number of “hail mary’s” or doing an act of charity in ours – you must do something to pay for your sins in order to open the gate of heaven. The keys in Catholic doctrine are like an Indiana Jones movie – they may get you through one door, but once through that door, you’ve got a bunch more hoops to jump through. They lose the keys in a heap of manmade rules here on earth.

On the other end of the spectrum, the theologically Reformed – that is, most Protestants who are not confessional Lutherans – have lost the keys in heaven. How does that happen? Well, if a person who comes from a Reformed background visits our church, do you know the part they would find most confusing and even offensive? Not the formal liturgy, not the old hymns, not even the funny gown the pastor wears. They are confused and offended when the pastor says: “I forgive you all your sins.” John Calvin, the father of Reformed theology and a contemporary of Martin Luther, refused to acknowledge that Christians have the authority to forgive. He and his theological offspring argue just like the experts in the law of Jesus’ day: who can forgive sins except God alone? (Mark 2:7)[2] A pastor is permitted to say or pray, “May the almighty and merciful Lord grant you forgiveness,” but not, “I forgive you.” Like locking your keys in your car, the Reformed lose them in heaven – they might have a vague idea of where they are, but they can’t use them.

How about Lutherans? We have them, right here, right now, on earth. We are like those people who wear their keys on a lanyard around our necks. They are part of our identity. We confess in our Catechism that “we receive absolution or forgiveness from the pastor as from God himself, not doubting but firmly believing that our sins are thus forgiven before God in heaven.”[3] We take Jesus at his word – no more and no less. He says here, a few chapters later in Matthew 18:18, and in John 20:23 that he gives the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven to his Church on earth. He authorizes and commissions his Church to declare his forgiveness to penitent sinners. And yet, while we haven’t lost the keys on earth or in heaven, but we can still lose them. We lose them by not using them, by taking them for granted, by neglecting them and getting bored with them. We lose them when we’d rather focus on the keys to good health, to great wealth, to a better marriage, or to a “Christian” view of politics than the keys to heaven. We Lutherans may not have lost the keys of heaven in our official doctrine – but it is also true that we can easily lose them in practice, when we see the goal, the job, the mission of the church as anything more or less than to forgive or not forgive sins. And for that, we must repent.

Everyone has lost their keys at one time or another, and everyone has found them. We all know the incredible sense of relief – and even joy – that accompanies finding lost keys. Jesus helps us find – or rediscover – the keys to heaven. Jesus refers to keys, plural, here because he’s talking about one that binds sins on people and therefore locks heaven and one that looses sins from people and therefore opens heaven. And yet, while it’s helpful for us to think of two keys – one to lock and one to unlock – there is only One who has rightful possession of these keys. Isaiah prophecies about him: I will place the key of the house of David on his shoulder. Whatever he opens, no one will shut. Whatever he shuts, no one will open (Isaiah 22:22). He’s referring, of course, to Jesus.

The question is: what is it that locks people out of heaven? The Law. The Law lays an impossible burden on us: love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37, 39); and be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48). Only a perfect life lived under the law could open heaven. That’s not my life. Is it yours? Has there ever been a single day, a single hour in your life that was good enough to unlock heaven? Rest assured: Jesus’ life was. Every minute, hour and day of his life was perfect. He loved God and loved his fellow man perfectly. He didn’t always treasured God’s Word, he never disrespected those in authority, never hated, lusted, spoke falsely or coveted. As true God and true man he lived a perfect life and therefore won the keys to the kingdom of heaven.

But there are two locks on heaven’s gates. One lock was the Law demanding perfect obedience. The other was the Law requiring complete payment for sin. The Law required suffering and bleeding, crying and dying as the payment for sin. Regardless of what many may think and say – sin is a serious thing. This knowledge of sin’s severity is innate in every human being. If a white police officer shooting a black man is serious enough that one protester in Kenosha would say, and I quote, “If you kill one of us, it’s time for us to kill one of yours”[4]; if when we are sinned against we don’t think it’s too much to demand satisfaction, to demand payment, to want that person to suffer; then how much more offended do you think our holy God is when we sin against him – willfully, knowingly, repeatedly? If “I’m sorry; I’ll do better,” doesn’t satisfy your anger – why would we think it could satisfy God’s wrath?

You can be as sorry as you want; promise to do better next time; punish yourself with guilt and sadness and pain; sacrifice all the time and money and energy you can and you still won’t drain one ounce out of the cup of God’s wrath. (Incidentally, this is why it’s so important that we identify Jesus as no less than the Christ, the Son of the living God.) Only God can satisfy God. Only God can pay for sins against God. So God the Son took on flesh and blood – not only so that he could keep the Law perfectly in your place, but so that he could sigh, cry and die in your place. Because the blood, sweat and tears that flowed from his tortured body were the blood, sweat and tears of God (1 Peter 1:18) they were holy and they could cover and atone for the sins of the world (1 John 2:2). By living a perfect life under the Law, Jesus won the keys to heaven. By satisfying God’s wrath by his death, Jesus won the right to give us the authority to use the keys.

The most frustrating part about losing your keys isn’t just the fact that they’re lost – it’s that you can’t use them. Most keys have no inherent value apart from their proper use, and so if you can’t use them to get into your house or office or start your car, they’re worthless. Now that we’ve found the keys of heaven, we can and should use them. Jesus lived and died and rose to win them so that we would use them.

First, though, let’s make sure that we understand what Jesus is promising in these words: I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. These verbs can be correctly translated in two ways. First, translated will be bound…will be loosed emphasizes that the church’s verdict is valid and will remain valid in heaven because the church is using the authority the Savior gave her to forgive or not forgive sins. Second, translated will have been bound…will have been loosed emphasizes that the church’s verdict to the individual rests on the prior verdict God has declared for the whole world on the basis of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection (Romans 4:25). Either way you translate it, the authority Christ gives his church is astonishing. It’s the greatest authority anyone on earth can have: to either open or close heaven, eternal life, to a person. Legislators can write laws; judges can punish; police officers can arrest – but only Christians, in the name and by the power of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God can open eternal life or condemn to eternal death. How could any community service project or sermon series on parenting or social gathering compare with that eternal power? How could we ever lose our focus on the church’s main mission – to use and administer the keys? How could we ever let anything else get in the way? This is why you are here; this is both the purpose and the foundation of the church: to forgive or not forgive sins; to open or lock the door to heaven.

Christ commands us to use this astonishing authority and privilege in three ways: publicly, privately and personally. The very first thing we do each and every Sunday is confess our sins and then hear these words from the pastor: “Therefore, as a called servant of Christ and by his authority, I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Don’t let these familiar words go in one ear and out the other. These are precious words. These are eternal life giving words. These are words of pardon and acquittal – for you! But the devil hates these words; he tries to get in between you and the comfort God wants you to have in them. He tries to convince us that these words don’t apply to this or that sin. He whispers in your ear, “If your pastor really knew what you’ve done he would never forgive that sin.” And that’s why we continue the practice of private confession. Now, I know we still struggle under the shadow of Catholicism in which private confession is typically viewed as done for God’s sake – not the sinner’s; as an obligation rather than a privilege; as something you must do if you want to be forgiven. But for confessional Lutherans the emphasis is on the absolution, not the confession. You don’t come to private absolution to have more guilt, more shame, more obligations piled on – but rather to hear that Jesus has lifted the burden of sin and guilt from your shoulders and sent them away on the cross. Come to confession to hear privately and confidentially that because of Jesus, your personal sins – big and small – are forgiven; that heaven is open to you!

But don’t take that too far – don’t think that there is something special about pastors, that they alone have the right to forgive sins. In fact, the reason that I stand up here and declare your sins to be forgiven is because through the divine Call you have asked me to use your keys on your behalf. But it remains true that Jesus gave the keys to the whole church. He tells to all of his disciples – not just the apostles – in Luke 17: if your brother sins, rebuke him. If he repents, forgive him (Luke 17:3). You are to use the keys with each other – with your children, your spouse, your parents, your siblings, your friends, and yes, with your pastor. When someone confesses that they have sinned, don’t just say “That’s ok; no problem; don’t worry about it; forget it.” Say, intentionally and with all sincerity: “I forgive you.” That is your privilege as a Christian. That is the authority Jesus lived and died and rose to give to you! Your absolution unlocks heaven just as much as any pastor’s. So use that key!

The key to heaven, Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, came to earth in flesh and blood to win the keys of heaven for all and he gave them to Christians to use privately and through them to pastors to use publicly. There is no greater power or privilege in the world. May the keys we have in our possession be blindingly shiny and polished from being used so much. Amen.

[1] https://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p2s2c2a4.htm

[2] https://churchsociety.org/blog/entry/formulary_friday_gods_absolution

[3] SC Confession part 1

[4] https://www.kenoshanews.com/news/local/watch-now-kenosha-speaker-strays-from-message-at-rally/article_a91e142b-46bf-5702-bb45-42b2015ce4b6.html