I have never felt connected to the Apostle Peter in the same way I have felt connected to the Apostle Paul. Some of this I think is simply a preference for Paul the man, who emerges as someone full of boundless energy and confidence in his mission and who emerges more completely from the pages of his letters than Peter does from the two letters attributed to him. On the other hand, Peter does appear throughout the Gospels, whereas Paul does not, and in the Gospels we are given an opportunity to meet Peter in his life with Jesus. Peter in the Gospels is portrayed as real and human in his failings and stumbles as well as his strengths, so if I do not know him or feel connected to him, perhaps it is because I do not want to know him. But why should this be the case? It was Jesus who knew him fully and who chose him as the leader of the Apostles, Peter, the “Rock” of the Church.

I do not question whether Jesus chose Peter to lead the Church, as some scholars do, nor do I question whether Jesus was the one who gave Simon the name Peter, “Rock,” as all four Gospels indicate. I think my disconnection from Peter comes not from his letters or from the Gospel portraits but from attempts to turn him into a symbol instead of a man, and then to turn that symbol into a distant authority figure that bears little relation to the man Peter, based especially on the Gospel passage Matthew 16:13-20. The symbol is the Church – “you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church” – and that symbol of the Church then becomes the predecessor of the Popes, who represent the authority of the Church. None of this is problematic theologically, but personally, where is Peter?

Little by little, I find myself distancing myself from the man who by turns is bold, when he is challenging  Jesus  about the fact that the apostles have left everything to follow him, or mystified, as when he is on the mountain at the Transfiguration with James, John, Jesus and a couple of unexpected guests, Moses and Elijah. The man who denies Jesus three times is a real man, who weeps bitter tears, and the same man who through God’s grace identifies Jesus as the Messiah, “the Son of the living God.” It is just this man who ought to be the model for us, who when he followed Jesus had left everything behind, who had no authority in any earthly sense, who represented only his love of Jesus. Peter was not a symbol of the authority of the Church, except in the sense that he was the one who grasped most fully who Jesus was and what Jesus demanded of his followers. The source of his authority is his fidelity to Jesus’ mission and Jesus’ recognition of his fidelity and understanding.

This is another reason why Matthew 16:13-20, often read as a manifesto of triumphalism, with Peter reduced to a symbol of authority, might distance us from Peter.  The power and authority of the Church is the power and authority of Jesus and these are made manifest in service and weakness to those in need, as Jesus taught in Matthew 20:25-28. The ten apostles become angry with James and John after their mother requested glory and honor for her two son. Jesus answered all of their concerns:

But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

The power and authority which Jesus represented and passed on to Peter and his successors is not that of worldly honor, glory, rule and supremacy, but that of service. Peter knew that and when I keep that in mind, I keep in mind his stumbles, his weaknesses, his boldness and strength and know that Jesus chose a real person to lead his Church. One to whom I feel connected in my own struggles, successes and failures when I see him for who he is.

John W. Martens

Follow me on Twitter @johnwmartens

John W. Martens is an associate professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn,where he teaches early Christianity and Judaism. He also directs the Master of Arts in Theology program at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity. He was born in Vancouver, B.C. into a Mennonite family that had decided to confront modernity in an urban setting. His post-secondary education began at Tabor College, Hillsboro, Kansas, came to an abrupt stop, then started again at Vancouver Community College, where his interest in Judaism and Christianity in the earliest centuries emerged. He then studied at St. Michael's College, University of Toronto, and McMaster University, with stops at University of Haifa and University of Tubingen. His writing often explores the intersection of Jewish, Christian and Greco-Roman culture and belief, such as in "let the little children come to me: Children and Childhood in Early Christianity" (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2009), but he is not beyond jumping into the intersection of modernity and ancient religion, as in "The End of the World: The Apocalyptic Imagination in Film and Television" (Winnipeg: J. Gordon Shillingford Press, 2003). He blogs at  www.biblejunkies.com and at www.americamagazine.org for "The Good Word." You can follow him on Twitter @biblejunkies, where he would be excited to welcome you to his random and obscure interests, which range from the Vancouver Canucks and Minnesota Timberwolves, to his dog, and 70s punk, pop and rock. When he can, he brings students to Greece, Turkey and Rome to explore the artifacts and landscape of the ancient world. He lives in St. Paul with his wife and has two sons. He is certain that the world will not end until the Vancouver Canucks have won the Stanley Cup, as evidence has emerged from the Revelation of John, 1 Enoch, 2 Baruch, and 4 Ezra which all point in this direction.