| February 17, 2008
You are Welcome to Reflect on this Message
Peter had a habit of biting off more than he could chew, saying things he would later regret; taking stands he’d have to back away from. As a Galilean, he had a tough time accepting Jesus as Servant, expecting him to be the popular military patriot everybody else was hoping for. He confessed Jesus as the Christ in Caesarea-Philippi, but thought surely Jesus was just kidding with all the talk of a cross. But Jesus wasn't kidding. And when Jesus anticipated his buddy’s turning on him, only Peter boasted, “All the rest may deny you, but I won't.” That was from the safety of the Upper Room.
Before too long, Peter is implicated as one of Jesus' followers and it put him in a tight spot. To extricate himself, integrity goes overboard and he goes into self-preservation mode, lying and denying. Or as we call it today, spin. It’s understandable but no less harsh. As Jesus was taken from the garden, only the big fisherman followed from a distance, to Caiaphas’ place. It was cold, so he huddled by a charcoal fire that warmed him. But exposed him. As the flickering flames revealed his features a servant girl recognized him: “You too were with Jesus in Galilee,” she charged. Peter feigned ignorance: “I don't know what you're talking about.” Then she accused him again: “I swear I don't know this guy.” And then a 3rd indictment: “Of course you’re one of them, your northern accent gives you away.”
The first thing to do when you’re digging a hole for yourself is to stop digging. But Peter kept on getting deeper. So in one last effort to save himself, as impetuous as anything he ever did, this time he cursed and swore an oath, “Read my lips: I never knew him!” Precisely what he said he'd never do. And he got away with it too, for now. Because his accusers never reported their suspicions, and nothing happened to him, other than a little embarrassment. It was a close shave, but Peter dodged a major bullet in the courtyard. But that was nothing, compared to what comes next, because the maiden only irritated him. But it shattered his composure, when he saw the eyes of Jesus. And then the cockcrow.* God used nature in a way that belittled the human tongue and Peter knew he blew it!
We’re all capable of turning on a friend if it’ll save our own hide. But Peter didn't deny Jesus because he turned against him. He was just afraid for himself. When it came down to him or Jesus, Peter broke under the scrutiny. Peter was drawn by the heat but afraid of the light because being exposed is embarrassing. It’s hard to visualize yourself in the minority. So Peter underestimated the power of ridicule, and what that can do to somebody. But also overestimating his ability to be a stand-up guy. These things ought to be familiar to us. Which is why we need to be a little subdued in our estimation of Peter around the fire. There was no deliberate treachery, no money was made off of it, and only Jesus got hurt.
Isn’t Peter’s trauma caused by a collapse of noble expectations? If so I can think of worse things. “All the rest might let you down but not me!” The great danger for most of us is not setting too high a goal where we can’t reach it. But setting one too low where we can. But no one who chooses the high road walks it without setbacks. There’s nothing here for safe critics to crow about. To his credit, Peter tried to stay as close as he could to Jesus. We wouldn’t have been there in the first place. But Peter couldn’t just leave, even after the cockcrow. If you’re not there, you don’t have to say anything. It’s much easier to deny by silence. That way you don’t get singled out. So when is silence golden and when is it yellow?
Faith is like a pair of legs: it grows through exercise. Peter’s denials show you never fail until you quit trying. And he’s remembered because even though he failed, he never quit. To try to do something difficult and find it too hard is not to have failed. It is to have learned from the challenge and to become stronger because of it. Therein lies Peter’s greatness. Matthew tells us he was there, “to see the end.” But at least he was there, still learning how hard it is to stay close to Jesus. He found it impossible to quit, but so difficult to go all the way. Transfixed between two polarities, he tried to have it both ways, settling for Mr. In-between. But with Jesus, there is no middle ground.
Peter was tormented by his untenable position with Jesus. He loved him, but was afraid. And fear won that night. Very soon he will have to go one way or the other. But for now denial will do. But it was a betrayal that comes from the courage of involvement rather than the cowardice of absence. That is a failure you can do something about. The cockcrow for Peter was a signal of both an ending and a beginning. It was the end of rash promises and adolescent blunders. But not the end of taking risks. That was about to begin. One thing’s for sure: Peter grew up a lot in the wee hours of crucifixion morning, when he learned that he was too intimately attached to Jesus to ever get very far away from him.
We’ll never know why Peter did it. But we do know what he did about it. Luke underlines how terrible he felt, “He went out and wept bitterly.” That’s more than enough to make somebody quit coming to church. Too many others quit on Jesus and never came back. And for those who turn their backs on the Lord, that's a kind of denial nobody can do anything about. But them. Peter, kept on going. Red-faced, but he didn’t raise the white flag just because he let Jesus down. He went back to Jerusalem and when the women came on Easter morning with the news of the empty tomb, he raced over to see for himself. And he was with the others in the Upper Room Easter night.
Then they decided to go back to fishing up in the Galilee, where they met Jesus on the beach early one morning after they'd been out in the boat all night with nothing to show for it. It was Peter who stood up, put on his shirt, and dove into the water to swim to shore before the rest of them. And after eating a mysterious fish breakfast, cooked by the Lord, it was Peter who confessed 3 times that he still loved him. That must’ve hurt.
For all his wrong-headedness, Peter had the right instinct that day when he swam to Jesus. Always a good thing when you've blown it. Because Jesus sees us more for what we can become than what we’ve been. Ours is the gospel of a 2nd chance. Because when it comes to grace, all you can do is take it or leave it. To his everlasting credit, Peter took it.
So what do you do when you've done something you wish you hadn't done? It’s discouraging when we mess up. Or we might give in to despair and self-pity and get the “if-onlys.” Or we may, like Peter, learn the lesson that our flaws teach us and turn them into our personal growth. That’s what God's greatest servants did after they blew it. And they all blew it. Moses murdered, Abraham lied, David adulterated, Magdalene prostituted, Paul persecuted. They all failed. But look what they did after they blew it: they changed their ways because they believed that even their mistakes were within the providence of God.
And that's all anybody can constructively do after you've blown it. Learn from it. “Go and sin no more.” You fail. You hurt. You move on. If it’s bad enough, you cry it out and weep bitterly. But Peter knew Jesus well enough to know God's grace is bigger than our sinning. Peter was somebody Jesus wanted as a disciple because he refused to keep holding onto something that nobody could do anything about. There simply is no future in that. And I see it all the time.
I heard a story once about two brothers who got caught stealing sheep, back in the frontier days when people took punishment into their own hands. The brothers had the letters “ST” branded on their foreheads, so they would be known forever as “sheep thieves.” One of the brothers couldn't handle it and moved away to a place where nobody knew him, so he could start over. But he couldn’t run away from the brand on his forehead, and when he was confronted, he'd just go someplace else where he was not known. He became a vagabond, like “Cain wandering around in the land of Nod,” and died alone in bitterness.
But the other brother did the harder thing and stayed where he was. As the years passed, he began to live-his-crime-down by gradually re-building a reputation of responsibility and integrity, until he regained the people's trust and admiration. One day a stranger noticed the man with the “ST” on his face and inquired about it to one of the locals. “What’s with the ‘ST'?” After pausing a moment, the person said, “Ah that happened to him so long ago, I can't remember the particulars. But I think the letters are an abbreviation for ‘saint!’”
On that fateful morning in the courtyard, Peter followed and denied. But after seeing “the eyes of Jesus” and hearing the “cockcrow,” he never forgot what he did, but he didn’t let that letdown keep him from becoming known as “ST.” Peter--the “rock,” upon whom Christ built his church. “And the gates of hell will not prevail against it!” Let this sound of the passion speak to you--the crowing rooster and let it remind us that we too can have a new beginning after we've blown it. Listen well, and let it do for you what it did for “Peter the St.”
PRAYER (2/17/08)
We find your name on our lips, because you’ve placed it in our hearts. And however much we twist and turn to flee Thy great love, in the inmost citadel of our souls, we sense that we have no future, except the one we have with Thee. For minds that can think, and hearts that can feel, and bodies that can do...we praise Thee. For higher purposes that call us, for causes that unite us, for grace that restores us... we thank Thee.
Our names and needs are known only by Thee, our Father, so we pray now for each other: for those who came with hopes that have long been abandoned. Those who came with ideals, and long to recover them. Those who come with outstretched arms, wanting to change, but don’t know how.
Behind our Sunday clothes, lie kingdoms of ambition, passion and pride. Where we shout the loudest, we are most insecure; where we have denied Thee most painfully, we are most defensive; where we have done Thy will most fully, we are largely unaware. And are the better for it.
In this hour of worship, we thank Thee for the wisdom of scripture, the means of grace, and the hope of healing. And we pray these blessings upon all our flock. Work now Thy will through us, O God. And if not, then Thy will be done through others. Amen. Back |
