Scripture: Luke 22:31–34, Luke 22:54–62, John 13:31–38
Jesus has arrived in Jerusalem, his final destination. It’s the Passover season, so there are thousands of people who had traveled for miles to celebrate their story of deliverance from Egyptian slavery and to offer sacrifices to God so that their sins would be forgiven, God’s judgment would pass over them, and their relationship with God would be restored for the coming year.
Now it’s Thursday and Jesus is getting his friends together to share one last meal with them, the Passover meal.
Now, unlike de Vinci’s famous painting where it looks like they all line up on one side of the table for a picture . . . their dining table would have been lower to the ground, and it would have been surrounded with pillows, and you would lean on one arm, and you would eat with your head towards the platter of food, and your feet pointing away.
And throughout the meal, there would have been prayers and rituals and hymn singing and conversation about what God has done and is doing amongst his people.
Now remember, the disciples are stoked because they’re pretty sure that Jesus has come into Jerusalem as the Messiah, God’s king to over throw the Roman government and to restore his Kingdom. So in their minds, this is like the last meal before the battle, before it all goes down . . . which in a sense, they were absolutely correct.
So, they’re all lying around the table and a dispute breaks out among them . . . they were all arguing about “which one was going to be the greatest in the kingdom?” which should be a fairly simple question to answer. If you’re having dinner with Jesus, and an argument breaks out about who has the greatest resume, you need to vote for Jesus.
But instead of getting angry with them, Jesus simply redirects them and tells them that if you want to be the greatest then you serve. If you want to be first, go to the last. If you want to be the highest, you got to be lowest. If you want to be the most, you got to be the least.
Which doesn’t make any sense . . . but that’s cool. Whatever you say Jesus, we’re with you!
But then Jesus singles out Peter; who is not only one of the top guys in the inner circle but he is also really good friends with Jesus. There’s a bond of friendship and ministry that they have between them.
But Jesus calls him out, in front of everybody . . . and he refers to him as Simon; which is his old name before Jesus came into his life and he was given a new name.
This is something we find throughout scripture; when someone moves from spiritual death to spiritual life the change is so dramatic that you become a new creation with a new identity, a new heart, new passions, new ambitions . . . and so God gives you a new name.
Abram become Abraham, Saul becomes Paul and Simon becomes Peter; which means rock! And Jesus said, “upon this rock I will build my church”
And so when Jesus calls him Simon, what Peter hears from Jesus is, “You’re going back to your old ways. The way you used to be before you met me.”
And then Jesus says, “Peter, Satan has come to me and he asked to sift you like wheat.”
In other words, “Satan asked to tear you apart and this is going to be a very dark moment in our relationship because he wants you to see yourself as a failure; to think that you are unloved and that you will never change. He wants you to feel condemned, and ashamed, and dirty and destroyed and hopeless.”
But Jesus says, “I have prayed for you that your faith will not fail”. I love that, Jesus the Son of God has gone on his behalf and prayed for him.
But did you notice what he doesn’t pray . . . he doesn’t pray that Simon doesn’t fail; he prays that Simon’s faith doesn’t fail.
Jesus knows that Simon will fail him, because that’s what happens to broken people living in a broken world. We fail God all the time.
So Jesus prays that in the midst of his failure, and shame, and brokenness that Simon will have faith in the knowledge that God loves Him and that in Christ He is not condemned and he is not hopeless.
And Peter says, “No way. There is no way that I will fail you. You can depend on me. You can count on me . . . because I would go to prison for you. I would die for you, Jesus!
But Jesus answered, “I tell you, Peter before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me.”
Soon after this exchange, Jesus is arrested . . . and as he is being brought to the high priest’s house, Peter was following them at a distance. And when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat down among them, hoping to just blend into the crowd.
Then a servant girl . . . . a poor, powerless, teenage servant girl . . . sees him in the light and says, “This man was also with him” but he denied it, saying “woman, I do not know him”
A little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.”
“Man, I am not!” Peter replied.
About an hour later another asserted, “Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean.”
Peter replied, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.”
Peter fails Jesus at his moment of desperate need. Peter is his friend. Peter is his disciple. Peter was supposed to be Jesus’ right hand man. He was supposed to be the rock in which the church would be built upon . . . How could he have been the one to have betrayed him like that?
And he went and he wept bitterly. I could just see Peter’s face in his hands, just weeping, bawling, bitterly, uncontrollably. “What have I done? Look at how I have failed you. I feel so ashamed. I feel so dirty. I’m so embarrassed for being such a failure.”
But perhaps . . . Peter had to fail in order to fully understand what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
You see, if this were the end of the story, it would be completely devastating and utterly depressing.
But the story doesn’t end here . . . you see, we haven’t talked about Jesus yet. In just a few short hours, Jesus will go to the cross where he suffers and dies.
The shame and guilt that is upon the shoulder of Peter are laid upon that cross. God suffers, God bleeds, God dies for his friend, Peter.
Peter failed Jesus but Jesus doesn’t fail Peter. We all fail Jesus but Jesus never fails us.
A few days after they had seen the risen Christ, the disciples are fishing and trying to figure out things, Jesus once again appears and he says “come have breakfast” and when they finished eating, Jesus pulls Peter aside for a private talk and what you would expect him to say is “Peter you’re such a coward. You are a complete failure. You should be ashamed of yourself.”
. . . But that’s not what happens.
Video: Grace by Skit guys
Because of this encounter with Jesus, Peter was utterly transformed. He became a completely different man. He went from being a man who was scared of the opinion of a teenage girl and denied Jesus to a man who stands up on the day of Pentecost and steps forward to preach the gospel.
He does that and Christianity grows from 120 people to 3,000.
He continues his ministry and starts churches and writes letters to encourage new Christians who are suffering for their faith and gives them a guide as to how to live as exiles. We’ll begin to study these letters in a couple of weeks.
But what I love the most is that Peter was never perfect. He continued to fail.
Later on, Paul had to confront Peter and let him know that he was out of line and that he must change. I’m sure this reminded Peter of his moment on the beach with Jesus . . . And Peter humbly receives it.
It’s amazing that God would use someone like Peter . . . or people like us.
You see, Jesus also says to us come follow me, let me transform your life and then be agents of my love and my grace . . . and do this by becoming humble and serving the least of these.
But let me tell you what’s gonna happen when you respond to God’s call to care for people and love on people and show the grace of God to people . . . You are going to fail. You are going to mess up. You are going to make mistakes.
And the evil one wants nothing more than for you to see yourself as a failure; to think that you are unloved and that you will never change. He wants you to feel condemned, and ashamed, and dirty and destroyed and hopeless. He wants you to give up.
But Jesus said something else at that table that night. He took the bread and he broke it and he said this is my body which is broken for you and he took the cup and he poured it and he said this is my blood which is shed for you . . . do this in remembrance of what I have done for you.
When you feel hopeless . . . find your hope in what Christ has done
When you feel dirty . . . find cleansing through the blood of Christ
When you feel condemned . . . find freedom in the broken body of Christ.
Don’t give up . . . Don’t give up . . . Don’t give up.