Sometimes a Peter

The other day I was feeling a lot like Peter. A guy who said that through anything he would stand beside not only his friend or rabbi but his Saviour! I'm sure he meant it when he said it and he must have been pained when Jesus foretold that Peter would deny knowing him three times before morning came. How audacious? Someone who tells you that they are with you till the end and you smack them with that comment. Ouch!

But it happened! Just a short time later Jesus gets arrested and as He is being tried and beaten and the crowd is getting all excited that they want this guy to die Peter gets pointed out by people in the crowd that said they saw him with Jesus. At that moment and two more times throughout the sleepless night Peter denies and in fact seems angry at the people and sharply replies, "I never knew this man." Ouch! What Jesus said was true.

Jesus is soon killed by being hung on a cross and Peter never had the chance to reconcile his guilt. I try to imagine what that would have felt like for him. Whatever my conclusion, it's never good.

So the other day I was feeling like Peter. In front of my own friends and when I am in a place of safety I found it easy to be totally committed to not only my friend or my rabbi but my Saviour. I  really mean it when I say that I'll stick with Jesus until the end. I really do. But so often when I'm out of the spotlight and there is no expectation from others around me it's so easy to slip and to turn away, even for just a moment. But the haunting scream has been heard clear, "I never knew Him."

Ouch!

I never intended  that to happen. Really!

I know a little bit about how Peter felt in his guilt and shame. It's not fun to know that our commitment lacks completeness. To know that we have deserted what we have found true life in. It sucks. Bad.

The thing I love about Peter's story is that it doesn't end there. His Saviour, Jesus, comes back to life! Peter is yet to know this and while Peter is still living in his guilt and shame he sees Jesus and Jesus comes to him! There are no words of shame or guilt placed on Peter but only words of redemption when Jesus asks him, "Do you love me?"

Peter -"Lord, I love you!" 

Three times Jesus asks the question and for each answer it symbolically redeems each denial. And after each answer Jesus then doesn't only redeem Peter but He commissions him, "Go and feed my sheep." Which in other words means, "Go and redeem others from this guilt and shame for just as I came to redeem you so I have come to redeem and commission all who answer, 'Lord, I love you.'" Peter's life is forever changed.

Jesus recently came to me. 

In my guilt and shame He confronted me graciously with this question, 

"Do you love me?"

It's what I believe with all my heart that Jesus did and still does. He comes to us with the desire and ability to redeem and commission us for an incredibly great life, life to the fullest, with the  question, "Do you love me?"

LORD, I love you!