The last time Easter Sunday fell on April 1st was in 1956, the same year 60 million Americans watched either spellbound or shocked as a hip-swiveling Elvis Presley made his electrifying debut on the country’s most popular television program, the Ed Sullivan Show.
But this week’s column isn’t about the day that rock ‘n’ roll established itself as the preeminent musical genre in America; rather, it’s about a fisherman turned disciple. Simon, later named Peter by Jesus; meaning “rock”…a rock that “rolled” a bit at first but eventually became steadfast.
So why Peter?
If you know anything at all about Peter, you know he certainly was impetuous, a man who was willing to get his feet wet; had an “ear-ie” way with cutlery; a tendency to promise more than he could deliver; grew uncomfortable around kindled fires; and had an uncanny ability to inspire roosters to crow. A man dubbed by Jesus, “O thou of little faith.” Ouch!
And yet Peter became the spokesman for the 12 disciples and upon this man, Peter–the rock–Jesus chose to build his church.
Peter is referred to in the Bible more than any other disciple, some 183 times. In fact, there are so many stories about Peter that it is nearly impossible to fully encompass his exploits.
But there is one episode in Peter’s life that I believe to be remarkably relevant in today’s world where disciples of Jesus find themselves interrogated, rejected, or—without doubt—pushed to the margins of society.
And one can be assured that things definitely look different from the margins and this is why I’m inclined to empathize with Peter.
Gold Medallion Book Award winner, Eugene H. Peterson, for his paraphrase of the complete Bible, titled The Message (MSG)— recounts the episode in the New Testament book of Mark, chapter 14. We pick up in the middle of the chapter, just after a “gang of ruffians”—as Peterson refers to them—sent by the high priests, religion scholars, and leaders, brandishing swords and clubs, hauled Jesus off to the Chief Priest from the Garden of Gethsemane where he had just been betrayed by Judas, one of Jesus’ own disciples.
“While all this was going on, Peter was down in the courtyard [having followed Jesus and the sycophants at a safe distance]. One of the Chief Priest’s servant girls came in and, seeing Peter warming himself there, looked hard at him and said, ‘You were with the Nazarene, Jesus.’
“He denied it: ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ He went out on the porch. A rooster crowed.
“The girl spotted him and began telling the people standing around, ‘He’s one of them.’ He denied it again.
“After a little while, the bystanders brought it up again. ‘You’ve got to be one of them. You’ve got ‘Galilean’ written all over you.’
“Now Peter got really nervous and swore, ‘I never laid eyes on this man [Jesus] you’re talking about.’ Just then the rooster crowed a second time. Peter remembered how Jesus had said, ‘Before a rooster crows twice, you’ll deny me three times.’ He collapsed in tears.”
Given the fading of Christianity from mainstream Western culture since Easter Sunday last fell on April 1st—some 62 years ago—it’s become no longer “politically correct” to have “ ‘Galilean’ written all over you.” As a result there are, unfortunately, many, who like Peter, attempt to hide in the obscuring smoke of a warming fire from those who would call them out.
At this point in Peter’s life he believed he no longer deserved Jesus’ trust for Peter had concluded he could no longer trust himself.
Fortunately, Peter would soon discover first-hand that Jesus went to the cross to die for deniers, for scoffers, for those of “little faith.”
Jesus saw in Peter a man who would not speak against truth. It was this actuality that inspired Jesus to choose him.
It’s appropriate that Easter Sunday—at least in the context of this writing—should fall on April Fools’ Day as “God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.”
Again, Eugene H. Peterson, 1 Corinthians 1:18- 31 The Message (MSG):
“The Message that points to Christ on the Cross seems like sheer silliness to those hell-bent on destruction, but for those on the way of salvation it makes perfect sense. This is the way God works, and most powerfully as it turns out. It’s written,
‘I’ll turn conventional wisdom on its head, I’ll expose so-called experts as crackpots.’
“So where can you find someone truly wise, truly educated, truly intelligent in this day and age? Hasn’t God exposed it all as pretentious nonsense? Since the world in all its fancy wisdom never had a clue when it came to knowing God, God in his wisdom took delight in using what the world considered dumb—preaching, of all things!—to bring those who trust him into the way of salvation.
“While Jews clamor for miraculous demonstrations and Greeks go in for philosophical wisdom, we go right on proclaiming Christ, the Crucified. Jews treat this like an anti-miracle—and Greeks pass it off as absurd. But to us who are personally called by God himself—both Jews and Greeks—Christ is God’s ultimate miracle and wisdom all wrapped up in one. Human wisdom is so tinny, so impotent, next to the seeming absurdity of God. Human strength can’t begin to compete with God’s ‘weakness.’
“Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don’t see many of ‘the brightest and the best’ among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these ‘nobodies’ to expose the hollow pretensions of the ‘somebodies’?”
Peter was one of these “nobodies” that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses. Yet he was one of the first disciples called to follow Jesus, the first to recognize Jesus as the Messiah, the first disciple to visit the empty tomb, the first to whom a resurrected Jesus appeared, the first to preach on the day of Pentecost after the coming of the Holy Spirit, the first to proclaim Jesus to a Gentile, the first to perform miracles in the name of Jesus …the disciple upon whom Jesus would build his church.
Jesus offered Peter three chances to follow him and with Peter’s three confirmations of love—that followed his refining courtyard experience— Peter was able to balance his three previous denials.
Throughout the remaining 33 years of Peter’s life, he became one of the boldest witnesses for the faith. He willingly suffered persecution, imprisonment, beatings, and even rejoiced at the fact that he was worthy to suffer disgrace for Jesus’ sake. At the age of 65 years, he was crucified upside down because he felt unworthy to be crucified in the way that Jesus had been.
The life of Peter chronicles one of the great accounts of a changed life in the Bible. He uncompromisingly lived to affirm, “‘Yes, I’m one of them!’”
Former Cook County Commissioner Garry Gamble is writing this ongoing column about the various ways government works, as well as other topics.
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