God calls Eliakim "my servant". As in the many other passages where Isaiah speaks about a "servant of God", we understand this "servant of God" as a symbol of Jesus the Messiah, the true Servant of God, in whom the kingdom of God is present and who declared "all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me" (Mt 28:18). Today, the Liturgy sets this passage in conjunction with the Gospel passage about Peter receiving the keys of the kingdom of heaven and the power of binding and loosing. Peter has confessed Jesus as the Messiah, Christ. Jesus calls him blessed, and points to God the Father as the source of Peter's understanding: it is not a mere human understanding, but a revelation from God.

When we draw all these elements together, we understand more clearly the mystery and significance of the ministry of Peter and his successors, the Popes. God chose Eliakim as his "servant" and gave him the "power of the keys", the authority of binding and loosing. In the same way, and with the same authority, Jesus the Messiah confers his messianic authority on Peter, the rock on whom he builds his Church.