(Audio)
“You are not one of this man’s disciples, are you?”
He said, “I am not.”
We tend to look down on Peter for his denial, imagining that we would fare better in a similar circumstance. But have we really imagined ourselves in his place? Probably it didn't seem like a big deal at first to Peter. He didn't stand to gain by broadcasting the fact that he was a disciple of Jesus. It seemed like it wouldn't help Jesus either. Was this not, in fact, a harmless denial, a little white lie that avoided danger?
Now Simon Peter was standing there keeping warm.
And they said to him,
“You are not one of his disciples, are you?”
He denied it and said,
“I am not.”
The trouble with denials like those of Peter is that, while we may not mean them at first, they come to define us. At first we are disciples who simply refuse to admit it. Gradually we become less and less able to live as disciples. The lie comes to define us. The lie is not simply an unwillingness to expose ourselves to danger that doesn't harm Jesus. The lie is a refusal to be near to Jesus, following him as closely as we can, heedless of the danger. In one way, the fear is right.
"When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die."
- The Cost of Disciplesship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
There is no way around death. If we run from it it catches up to us eventually and consumes us. If we embrace it together with Christ we find life on the far side of it.
Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it (see Luke 17:33).
We may now be shocked and discomforted to realize that we often have impulses that are altogether to similar to those that made Peter deny Jesus. How have these shaped our identities and limited our identities as his disciples? How has our refusal to stand up and be counted cost Jesus in his mission?
Consequently, Pilate tried to release him; but the Jews cried out,
“If you release him, you are not a Friend of Caesar.
Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.”
We might think that Jesus holds this against us. But he did not hold it against Peter. For his threefold denial he was given a threefold opportunity to affirm his love. When he returned he himself was not only not diminished, but was the one who would strengthen his brethren (see Luke 22:32). Neither does he hold our denials against us.
Jesus does not ask us to die because he is cruel. He does not ask us to stand up and be counted because of his pride. It is for our sakes that he does these things. It is so that we can cast away our inhibitions and enter fully into his saving work for our sakes.
For we do not have a high priest
who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses,
but one who has similarly been tested in every way,
yet without sin.
So let us confidently approach the throne of grace
to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.
Jesus is sympathetic to our weakness, our temptations, our human condition to the deepest possible degree. The difference is that he did not turn back. Because of this difference he can offer mercy and grace to the rest of us who have.
Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered;
and when he was made perfect,
he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.
We see the suffering servant revealed today. We see all that he went through for our sakes. The point of this revelation is not that we should feel guilty for it. It is not that we should make ourselves feel appropriately bad.
But he was pierced for our offenses,
crushed for our sins;
upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole,
by his stripes we were healed.
Yes, this suffering was necessary because of our sins, yours and mine. But the point of the servant's suffering was precisely so that we might have life. It was precisely to subvert that cycle of sin from which we could not otherwise break free. It was emphatically his love for his Father and for us that made him suffer. This same love calls us to receive his love as the gift it is meant to be, not to keep our distance because of how much we know it cost him.
If he gives his life as an offering for sin,
he shall see his descendants in a long life,
and the will of the LORD shall be accomplished through him.
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