A New King of Egypt
Exodus 1:8-11
Now a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph. He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh.
Matthew 16:13-20
Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea (see-zuh-REE-uh) Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist but others Elijah and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah
A New King of Egypt
This is a sermon about change. We are all getting older. We all have changes in our status, our health, our situations. Everything changes.
My grandfather was born in 1911, and he grew up on his family’s farm in southeastern Ohio. He was one of ten children. The whole family worked on the farm. They had 100 acres, and they raised all their own food. They grew hay for their horses and cows, and they grew wheat for their bread. They did not own a car. In fact, there were very few cars in the entire state of Ohio at that time.
In his lifetime, my grandfather witnessed huge changes in transportation, in farming, in communications, in technology: changes in every aspect of American life.
Rip Van Winkle
When I think of changes in American life, I think of the story of Rip Van Winkle. I first read Rip Van Winkle in high school, and I thought it was just a quaint little fairy tale. That’s because I was 17 years old. Now, I have a very different perspective on the story. It rings true. Rip Van Winkle is a true story.
When I think about the extraordinary changes my grandparents lived through, I realize it must have been shocking. I remember when they bought their first car with air conditioning. On a hot Sunday afternoon in summer, riding home from church, Grandpa turned on the air conditioning, and my grandmother, sitting in the front seat said, “Mercy! That cool air is so refreshing!” (Mercy was one of my grandmother’s words.)
And it’s because of things like this that I am sure that Rip Van Winkle is a true story.
You know the story
You know the story. Rip was a hen-pecked husband who lived in a village near the Catskill mountains. It was colonial America, before the Revolutionary War, and Rip was supposed to be a farmer, but really, he preferred spending time with the village philosophers, sitting in the shade and exchanging stories at the Inn of his majesty George the Third. Exchanging stories, and hiding from his wife, the terrifying Dame Van Winkle.
Well, one day, Rip wandered away up into the mountains where he met a group of odd little men, dressed in quaint outlandish fashion, playing at nine-pins. They were drinking a mysterious brew, and of this Rip took a sample. He found it to his liking, and so he drank more, until his senses were overpowered, and he fell into a deep sleep.
When Rip Van Winkle awoke to the bright sunny morning, he found his gun was rusted and his dog was nowhere in sight. He walked back down the mountainside to get to the village, but when he got there he recognized no one. The village itself seemed totally altered. There were houses he had never seen before. He found his own house, but it was in ruins, the windows shattered and the roof had fallen in.
He said, “I was myself last night, but I fell asleep on the mountain, and they’ve changed my gun, and every thing’s changed, and I’m changed, and I can’t tell what’s my name, or who I am!”
In fact, it was twenty years he had been away. And in twenty years, everything had changed. Rip Van Winkle came down out of the mountains to a completely unrecognizable world.
We can understand that feeling
I think we can understand that feeling. When I read about the new technology, the things cars and computers can do now, all these sorts of changes, even in my own lifetime, I don’t recognize my own country anymore. There are highways and buildings I don’t recognize. People do things I don’t understand. When I learned how to drive, for example, a stop sign meant you had to stop. And so I think about my grandfather and wonder what his experience must have been like.
Our readings for today
For the past few weeks, we’ve had two parallel threads in our readings: one from Genesis and another from Matthew. In Genesis, we have focused on the story of Joseph.
Remember that Joseph’s half-brothers go to Egypt where Joseph welcomes them, forgives them, and the family is reconciled. Then Joseph’s father, Jacob, joins his sons in Egypt. Jacob moves his entire household to Egypt where they survive the famine. So they all end up in Egypt, Jacob and all of his sons. Genesis Chapter 49 ends with Jacob’s death. And then, Chapter 50, the last chapter of Genesis, ends with Joseph’s death.
Moving into Exodus
The story continues in the book of Exodus. And right away, in Chapter One of Exodus we learn about a big change. Remember that Joseph had been a close advisor to Pharoah. But that entire generation has since died, and there is a new king in Egypt. And this king did not know Joseph. So all the relationships have changed.
Meanwhile, the Israelites have flourished in Egypt. The sons of Jacob have become the Israelites, the people of Israel. They have grown in numbers living in Egypt, and they have maintained their identity as a people. So Exodus, now, is the story of this people, the Israelites, and it becomes the story of their escape from Egypt.
Our reading from Chapter One of Exodus sets up central problem of Exodus because we learn about the new king. There’s a new king in town, and he is not very nice.
The new king says to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. (vs. 9-11)
Here we see a pattern that has repeated itself through history. This is a perfect example of the human dynamic called the “in-group” versus the “out group.” In group/out group conflict is based on fear. In our reading, the new Egyptian Pharoah actually spells it out for us. He sees the Israelites as enemies. He is afraid of them. And so he oppresses them, turning them into slaves.
And from the point of view of the Israelites, this was a huge change. They could no longer live peaceful lives, but they were oppressed into slave labor. Furthermore, Pharoah attempted to control their population numbers by commanding that all newborn Hebrew boys be thrown into the Nile River. So the Hebrew people were no longer safe in Egypt. And so begins the story of Moses and the flight from Egypt.
This morning, I want to focus here on change. Imagine what an enormous change it was for the Israelites. One day, they are leading productive and peaceful lives, working, tending their flocks in Egypt. And then, they are suddenly thrown into slavery, and their boy babies are killed. These life changing events eventually forced them to leave Egypt and become refugees.
We don’t want change
When we are in a comfortable situation, we don’t want anything to change. But sooner or later, change happens and we are forced to adapt to the new conditions.
Matthew 16:13-20
Now let’s look at the reading from Matthew 16.
In our study of Matthew this summer, remember that we could think of Matthew’s Gospel as a revised version of Mark’s Gospel. As I’ve mentioned before, Mark was written first, and then Matthew. (That is what most scholars agree on.) You may have noticed that Mark is a much more streamlined text, whereas Matthew includes more sermons and descriptive passages.
Remember we’ve talked about how Matthew is the “most Jewish” of all the Gospels because it was written to appeal to a specific Jewish-Christian community. These were people in a synagogue who were stepping away from the synagogue to form their own church as followers of Jesus. In today’s reading we have another example showing how Matthew appeals to a Jewish audience.
The Question at Caesarea Philippi
In Matthew 16, Jesus and the disciples are in Caesarea Philippi, a significant location because of the pagan shrines there and the displays of Roman Imperial power. It’s against this backdrop in Caesarea Philippi that Jesus asks his disciples two questions:
“Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets” He said to them, “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church.” (vs. 13-18)
On this rock I will build my church
Now, this is an interesting thing to say because it could have two meanings. First, it could mean that Jesus will build his church on the person, Peter. And, indeed, Peter is a central figure in the foundation and development of the church. But second, it could also refer to what Peter says, that is, the exact words Peter utters: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
These words are the words that a person says as a follower of Jesus. They form a devotional statement. “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” And so everyone who is a Christian can say these words, and these words are the foundation of the church. Hence, Jesus says, “On this rock I will build my church.” The rock is the statement itself, and the church is built on this statement.
This is important because here we have the basic distinction between Judaism and Christianity. For Jews, Jesus is not the Messiah. Jesus is a prophet, but he’s not the Messiah. But for the Jesus followers, Jesus is the Messiah. This is the point where the two religious traditions move apart. In general, there are a lot of people who respect Jesus, who like what he taught, who see him as an important figure, even a prophet, but not the Messiah. So, to be a Christian means to recognize Jesus as the Messiah. This is devotional statement, a statement of the heart, a statement of belief. It is not a philosophical argument. Flesh and blood does not reveal it, but God reveals it to the heart of the believer.
Binding and Loosing
So this “You are the Messiah” is a uniquely Christian formulation. And then, this is followed by a very Jewish statement: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” This is a particularly Jewish construction because “Binding” and Loosing” come from Rabbinic tradition.[1] Binding means “forbidding” and loosing means “permitting.” Typically, the Jewish leadership, the Pharisees or the Sanhedrin, had the power and authority to “bind and loose.” So this was a legal authority, a judicial authority, and these were legal terms. To bind or to loosen, in other words, to forbid or to permit.
Jesus uses these Jewish legal terms and applies them to his disciples. He give the disciples legal authority in his church. So here, in chapter 16, he is setting up the structure of his church, and at the same time, he is recognizing his disciples, entrusting them with legal authority to make decisions in leading the church. And in so doing, he combines traditional Jewish language with uniquely Christian language. And so, we can see how this would appeal to new Jewish-Christians stepping away from the synagogue to form their own faith community.
Dealing with Changes without Fear
In conclusion, there are so many changes a person must navigate during a lifetime. Changes in family, in health, in status and standing. So many changes. Changes in the economy, in society, in politics, and in the world. Nothing stands still. And yet, the gospel message is that we do not need to be afraid of changes, because we know who we are as Christians, and we know who our Savior is, and we know he is with us right now. He is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.
Amen? Amen.
[1]Bob Wilkin, “What Could Peter Bind or Loose (Matthew 16:19)?” Grace Evangelical Society blog, August16, 2022 accessed August 22, 2026 https://faithalone.org/blog/what-could-peter-bind-or-loose-matthew-1619/
- T. France wrote that,
The metaphor of “tying up” and “untying” speaks also of administrative authority. The terms are used in rabbinic literature for declaring what is and is not permitted. When the same commission is given to the whole disciple group in 18:18 it will be specifically in the context of dealing with sin within their community (see comments there). Such authority to declare what is and is not permissible will of course have personal consequences for the person judged to have sinned, but it is the prior judgment in principle which is the focus of the “tying” metaphor, and there, as here, the objects of both verbs will be expressed in the neuter, not the masculine; it is things, issues, which are being tied or untied, not people as such… (Matthew, p. 626).
Leon Morris agrees:
The metaphor of binding and loosing was used by the rabbis for declaring forbidden or permitted. There is a strong opinion that the Christians thought rather of excluding from and admitting to the Christian community. This may be correct, though we should bear in mind that [the word] whatever is neuter both times and that this fits better with things than with people. If we take this seriously, the saying means that the Spirit-inspired church will be able to declare authoritatively what things are forbidden and what things are permitted (Matthew, p. 426).