Boy! I stepped in it. After services a few weeks ago two parishioners asked me about this particular phrase taken from the gospel that day, "...whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." Matthew 16.19. This phrase manifests later in the gospel in vs. 18.18 and a similar rendering in John 20.23 referring to remitting sins.
I faithfully replied to the two parishioners, "Oh, I'll write an article about it." That promise has lead me down a rabbit hole.
This verse is charged with a lot of ecclesiastical baggage. The passage follows St. Peter's Confession (profession) of Jesus, "You are the Christ." In the history of the church the verse has been used to support the supremacy of the Bishop of Rome (the papacy) as the successor to Peter. In addition, other catholic churches such as Anglican (us) and Eastern Orthodox view the passage as establishing the authority of the Church in regards to order and discipline within the Church.
The term "keys" that Jesus uses has to do with authority. In the Old Testament Joseph is given keys to manage Pharaoh's Egypt. The key still belongs to Pharaoh but Joseph received the authority to open and close (loose and bind) the storehouse based on the authority given to him by Pharaoh and in accordance with Pharaoh's character. The important thing to recognize here is that Joseph is still a servant of Pharaoh and is bound by Pharaoh's will. Within that will Joseph is given power to act.
Analogous to that, St. Peter (in this gospel) will be given the keys to loose and bind in heaven and earth. Later in 18.18 the other apostles will be given that same authority as it pertains to church discipline. In that setting, and in the aforementioned passage in John, the verse establishes the responsibility of pastoral leaders to bring order to the Body when sin causes fractures within the church. This gets to the heart of binding and loosing. Appointed church leadership has a spiritual authority to discipline members when their conduct is sinful or detrimental to themselves or others.
That's why I began with, "I stepped in it." My critique of our denomination is that Anglicans/Episcopalians struggle with authority and obedience. 400 years after the Anglican theologian Richard Hooker gave us the infamous "three-legged stool" of authority (Scripture, Tradition, Reason) in which he clearly establishes that Scripture is primary, Tradition is secondary, and Reason is tertiary...we push back against authority. Many clergy and laity are quick to suggest that the stool metaphor expresses co-equal and interchangeable legs of authority. The order (1)Reason, (2)Tradition, (3)Scripture or any other variation was not Richard's intent. Authority comes from God and within our peculiar Anglican structure we prayerfully call leaders to ad-minister God's will on behalf of the church as a whole.
What does it mean to loose and bind? It means that God has given authority to his appointed ministers to restore and reconcile fractures within the Church in accordance with God's character.
