Pre:
Read Mark
In the next story, the disciples have gone fishing.
They have a very unsuccessful night of it, but early in the morning Jesus
appears to them, and helps them get a very large haul of fish.
Then, they all come in to shore, where Jesus has prepared a charcoal
fire. They cook some fish and have
breakfast. Then, Jesus and Peter
take a little walk on the beach.
Summer at the Shore: A
The focus today is on Simon Peter. The
two passages that I chose for today sort of “bookend” Peter’s experience
with Jesus. His experience with
Jesus both begins and ends with a two-word command:
follow me.
Follow me, and I will make you fish for people, Jesus said, and Peter
dropped his nets and followed. Then some three years later, after many amazing adventures
with Jesus, and after a profound failure on Simon Peter’s part, Jesus once
again says, follow me.
When Jesus first said, “follow me,” Peter was not in church.
He was at work. Fishing was not entertainment for Simon Peter and his brother
Andrew. It was the family business.
And when Jesus said, follow me, Peter had to make a difficult choice.
If he followed Jesus, he would have to risk losing income, losing the
support of his family, losing a sense of financial security.
But there was something about Jesus that compelled Peter.
Something that resonated in his heart of hearts that said, by following this man I can have a greater security than any job can
give me.
I believe that this type of call comes to all of us. To choose between the security of material things and the comfort of home -- or Jesus. You may not be required to actually leave your job or your family. But I do believe that there must be a very distinct attitude switch. Most people cling very tightly to their loved ones and their material possessions, but have a more distant relationship with God. That’s what has to be reversed. You need to learn to hold your possessions and your loved ones lightly and hold very tightly to God. Believe it or not, it’s a matter of life or death.
In September of 1857, the USS Central America encountered a hurricane
while en route from the California gold mines to New York City.
On board were 500 passengers and a cargo of three tons of gold nuggets,
assay bars, and coins worth an estimated one billion dollars.
For three days, in the midst of that hurricane, the passengers and crew
bailed water, hoping to save the ship, but they were unsuccessful.
Of the 500 people on board, 425 perished. Survivors told of passengers jumping overboard heavily
weighed down with gold. Their
desire for gold literally kept them from being saved.
(story file, 19.8.7)
Startling, isn’t it? You
may say to yourself, “I would never be so foolish!”
Yet, think about the decisions that you make every day.
Are you loading up your pockets with gold, or choosing salvation?
Simon Peter may not have had pockets full of gold, but he did have steady
work and a family. And to go with
Jesus put all that at risk. At this
point, he could very well have said, forget it, I can’t really afford to give
this up. Maybe later. Yet he let down his net, and followed Jesus.
This of course was the first and perhaps even the most determinative
moment in his life with Jesus. But
it was not the end of the decision-making.
Not the end of the struggle to choose to follow Jesus.
The decision to follow Jesus, for any of us, is not a once-and-done kind
of thing. As Peter learned, it’s
a decision that needs to be reinforced on a regular basis.
Simon Peter, as I’m sure you know, was a very impetuous person.
And he loved Jesus very much. He
made some pretty rash promises that he did not follow through on.
The one that was the most devastating happened on the eve of Jesus’
crucifixion. He had promised to
stay faithful, whatever others would do. He
had promised to follow him, even to the death.
Instead, when he was pushed to the wall, he denied even knowing Jesus.
Three times.
That failure could have signaled the end of Peter’s discipleship.
His actions had created a breach in the relationship, and even after the
resurrection, Peter had to wonder whether things could ever be the same.
It created a memory that for Peter could have seriously interfered with
his ability to follow Jesus. His
attitude probably fit this saying that I read this week: “I feel like a bar of homemade soap after a hard
washday.” (story file, 19.8.5)
And that’s what unresolved guilt does.
It makes us feel used and worn out.
It saps our energy.
If left to his own resources, Peter may well have done one of two things
that will sound pretty familiar, because it’s what a lot of people do today:
*Peter might have become a very zealous apostle, rigid, inflexible
(anal), in an effort to overcompensate for his failure.
This would have become for him a form of penance, trying to undo the
damage that was done by attempting to be a super-apostle.
*Peter might have sunk to despair. Self-critical and pessimistic, he may have continued in ministry, but to no real benefit for himself or anyone else.
The
idea of repentance is often wrongly understood as doing penance and feeling
miserable about it. Martin Luther
once described himself this way: “I
kept the rule of penance so strictly that I may say that if ever a monk got to
heaven by his sheer monkery, it was I. Had
I kept on any longer, I should have killed myself with vigils, prayers,
readings, and other works.” What
Luther later discovered is that to repent means to change your mind, and that
repentance is always linked with believing the good news.
Not bad news. Good news.
Forgiveness, healing, a new start. And
that’s what Peter needed.
Three times Peter had denied knowing Jesus, and three times Jesus asked Peter: Do you love me? Three times, Peter reaffirmed his love. Three times, Jesus reaffirmed Peter’s call. Feed my lambs. Tend my sheep. Feed my sheep.
This conversation was a painful one. And necessary. Without it, Peter would be crippled in his ministry. His guilt had to be resolved if he was to do anybody any good.
Very often, guilt ridden Christians act like little children with slivers. It hurts, it festers, and sometimes it just won’t come out on its own. But we wiggle and squirm and sometimes run away whenever God wants to help us get it out.
If there is something in your heart that is unresolved, some guilt or hurt, that can keep you from following Jesus. It can mislead you into thinking that you are no longer worthy, or it can become a force driving you to overcompensate. But if you take a walk on the beach with Jesus and let Jesus come into this guilt or hurt, Jesus will do for you what he did for Peter. Forgiveness, healing, and renewed ministry will come from this.
Peter’s guilty memories were healed. And he also got a glimpse of the future. Jesus made a prophetic statement about Peter’s death. He would ultimately die the death of a martyr.
While Jesus and Peter were talking, Peter saw another disciple out of the corner of his eye. It was his friend John, with whom he had a kind of brotherly rivalry. As soon as he saw him, he said, “What about him?” In other words, OK, we’ve had our little talk, you’ve told me about me, and my future. Now, tell me about John. Is he going to do better than me or worse? There is something deep in the human psyche that just can’t stand it. We have to compete. It starts with siblings, then friends, co-workers, husbands and wives, fellow Christians. We want to know how we measure up against other people.
A guy by the name of Fred was out golfing with his boss. The two men were just beginning at the first tee. Fred stepped to the tee, took his shot, and sank a hole-in-one. As Fred’s boss stepped up to the tee, he said, “Nice swing, Fred. Now let me take my practice swing, and we’ll get started.” (parables, 23.4.1)
“What about him?” Peter asked. What about my good buddy John? What’s going to happen to him? Jesus’ answer was pretty abrupt. “None of your business, Peter. Your business is to follow me.” Here again, Peter was in danger of heading off on a rabbit trail: of following something other than Jesus. He may have based his ministry on competing with others. But that’s no basis for real ministry. Peter had a calling, and he needed to follow it. So did John. And so do you. So do I. Each of us is responsible for ourselves and our own following. Instead of competing for first place, we need to seek to do our own personal best when it comes to discipleship.
Are you ready to take a walk on the beach with Jesus? What do you think he’ll say to you?
Maybe you’ll hear him say “follow me” for the first time. Can you let go of the things that weigh you down, so you can walk with him?
Maybe you’ll hear his gentle voice saying, “Do you love me?” Are you ready to let go of the past, with its failures and hurts, and follow him?
Or, maybe like Peter, you are tempted to compare yourself with someone else, and Jesus will say, “Never mind that, you follow me!” Are you ready to let go of that competitive spirit and put all your energy into following Jesus?