Note: As this post is published, a collection of writers at Imago Dei Community are reading their reflections on the arrest, trial, and execution of Jesus. This is my section.
We all know Saint Peter the Apostle is one of history’s most honored men. He was the first person on record to call Jesus “Messiah,” and was declared the Rock on which the Church would be built. Later on, in the Book of Acts, Peter’s dream about animals on a flying carpet illustrates the span of God's love and proves that through Christ all us disparate Gentiles are equally welcome in His Kingdom (and also that we can eat anything). Peter would eventually be martyred by Nero, but not before changing the world forever. These days, he’s apparently the doorman behind Heaven’s Main Security Kiosk.
So please don’t feel bad for him when I say that Peter's the Apostle who most often makes me roll my eyes. And I don’t think I’m the only one. Why else would John point out how he beat him in a footrace to the tomb?
Like, remember the time Jesus was washing his disciples feet? But then Peter was all, “Oh no, Master, I should be washing your feet!” and Jesus replied, “Peter, I have to do this.” And then Peter was like, “Oh, then wash my hands and head also!” I would’ve been in the back like, Oi, this guy. Or what about the time Peter left the fishing boat to walk on water before his faith faltered and he fell in? I probably would’ve laughed at that. Or there’s the time Peter was on the end of one of the Bible’s sickest burns, when Jesus was in the middle of telling his disciples he’d be killed and rise again, and Peter says, “No, that’s not gonna happen,” and Jesus says: “You don’t know what you’re talking about. Get behind me, Satan!”
Even leading up to the passage I'm gonna read, Peter has been super obnoxious! At the Last Supper, Jesus explains to his disciples how they’re all gonna be scattered—to fulfill prophecy—and Peter is like, “Well, maybe the rest of these guys, but not me,” and Jesus responds, “Actually, by tomorrow morning, you’re going to reject me three times.” And still, Peter is like, “No way, Jesus!”
Come on, man! Didn’t you say he’s the Messiah?
Peter follows these proclamations by promptly falling asleep in the Garden, then slicing off a guy’s ear—which Jesus, of course, heals on the spot—and then guess who scatters like everyone else?
I think bailing ate at him, though, or maybe Peter still wanted to be a hero and break Jesus free. In any case, this leads to Peter’s worst moment, a story which is more likely to make my eyes well up than roll, because despite Peter's brash thickheadedness, I know I would've betrayed my Savior, also.
Luke 22:54-62, The Message
54-56 Arresting Jesus, they marched him off and took him into the house of the Chief Priest. Peter followed, but at a safe distance. In the middle of the courtyard some people had started a fire and were sitting around it, trying to keep warm. One of the serving maids sitting at the fire noticed him, then took a second look and said, “This man was with him!”
57 He denied it, “Woman, I don’t even know him.”
58 A short time later, someone else noticed him and said, “You’re one of them.”
But Peter denied it: “Man, I am not.”
59 About an hour later, someone else spoke up, really adamant: “He’s got to have been with him! He’s got ‘Galilean’ written all over him.”
60-62 Peter said, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about.” At that very moment, the last word hardly off his lips, a rooster crowed. Just then, the Master turned and looked at Peter. Peter remembered what the Master had said to him: “Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” He went out and cried and cried and cried.
I love this so much because Peter is one of the characters in the Bible that leads me to believe the gospel is true, because it’s not a very flattering take on one of the most “devoted” disciples. Also I strongly identify with Peter’s intensity level and I too often talk out of my a-- and it gives me great hope that Jesus knew all of this about Peter and loved him still, loves all of us still. Thank you for sharing!
You nailed it, Jord. Thanks.
And here's one more: even after his rehabilitation by the lakeside in John 21, and his experience with Cornelius the Gentile in Acts 10, when by now he should be growing in certitude and maturity, he does that weak flip-flop in Antioch... hanging out comfortably with Gentile Christians until the orthodox Jews arrive from Jerusalem, after which he refuses fellowship with the Gentiles, presumably worried about what the Jerusalem Jews would think. This, according to Paul, of course: Galatians 2:11-13.