As the Easter season nears, I tend to ponder things
associated with Christ’s last days and the people around him. I have questions that run through my head
about the last week of his life. How did
Jesus feel knowing that by Friday night most of the people who had followed Him
and professed their love for Him would have abandoned him and gone into hiding? What went
through Mary’s head as she kneeled at the cross watching her Son die? What mother’s anguish she must have
known. How was Peter able to go on,
knowing he had fulfilled Jesus’ prophecy and denied him? There are so many more questions we could ask
and ponder over as the drama of the Crucifixion and Resurrection unfolded.
Today, I am drawn to Peter.
In many ways I think so many of us are like him – we profess to love
Christ but at the same time we are often quick to abandon His teachings and
live as the world does. Peter had been
Jesus’ devout follower, the one on whom Christ would build the church. However, in the blink of an eye Peter will
fulfil a prophecy that finds the Master all alone.
Peter and the disciples had shared the last supper with
Christ – broken bread, drank wine, learned of the new covenant to come. Headed to Gethsemane to pray, Jesus tells of
a prophecy from Zechariah about the Shepard being struck and the sheep
scattering. Peter is quick to proclaim that if they all leave that he will not
abandon Jesus. Jesus replies that within
only a matter of hours, by morning, Peter will deny him three times before the
rooster crows. (Matthew 26:31-35)
He does.
Peter follows Jesus after He is taken and three times people
from the crowd wanting to see what would happen to Jesus try to associate Peter
to Christ and three times he claims not to know who Jesus is. After the third time and the rooster crows,
Peter and Jesus share a look. (Luke 22:61)
I wonder what that look was – did Jesus have a look of sadness on his
face, was it a look of disappointment, an “I told you so”. We will never know but what we do know is that
after they shared that look Peter left and wept. (Luke 22:62)
What anguish Peter must have felt that he had done exactly
as the Master had said. He had walked
away from all Jesus had taught him and was utterly alone. We often find ourselves like Peter – down,
broken, in anguish. We know what we have
been taught, we know the right way to live, yet we still break the
Commandments, we still sin, we still rebel against Jesus.
However, there is a light to the end of the story, if one
can be found. In John 21, Jesus and the
disciples have just finished breakfast when Jesus asks Peter three times if he
loved Him. Peter becomes very upset that
the Lord is asking him over and over and each time Peter responds that he does. Peter is upset because he fears that Jesus
doesn’t believe him. What Peter failed
to recognize was that Jesus was allowing him to affirm his love for each time
he denied Christ. For every denial, an
affirmation of love.
God, as with Peter, already knows we are going to make bad
choices, surrender to the flesh, and fall short of the Glory of God. Many times
we don’t intentionally sin but yet when we do we tell ourselves there’s a good
reason for the sin, and so on. However, even in our sin God makes a way of redemption. An affirmation of love. We have only to ask
for God’s forgiveness and in His loving mercy, He makes a way for us to come
back to Him and once again proclaim our love.
Just like Peter.
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