Meditations

Are you “one of them?” 

Peter hears this question not one, but three times. And of course, each time he gives the same response. He says “No. I have no idea what you are talking about. I don’t know this man, or any of these people.” 

Three times. 

Just like Jesus told him he would. Of course he swore up and down that he would never say such a thing. 

But three times…

We, in this day and time can sit back and do the little headshake of disapproval. Peter, how could you? Even when he warned you, how could you? 

But Peter is a mere human. Sometimes we mere humans like recognition, but other times, we, like Peter, would just as soon not be recognized. We don’t want anyone to see us doing something that might earn us disapproval or get us talked about. 

Like the people we sometimes see in the grocery store, buying beer or wine. We know they’re going to drink it, probably at home, with friends while watching a ball game or something. Not a big deal, right? But they don’t want to be seen buying it. 

They don’t want to be identified. Because they might get labeled. 

I’ve been places where I hoped I wasn’t recognized. So maybe I am doing something I am not proud of. Right? 

Why do we do those things? 

Why did Peter deny knowing Jesus? 

Remember 1970 comedian Flip Wilson? He was famous for the character Geraldine, a hip and sassy lady who spoke her mind… Remember her tagline “The Devil made me do it!” 

Peter didn’t say that.

And when I am caught doing something I probably shouldn’t, I don’t say it either. 

Peter knew what he had done, and he knew why he did it. 

Just like I do. 

Peter denied knowing Jesus out of fear. Fear for his safety. Because pretty soon, those same crowds who were shouting “Hosanna” when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey are going to turn on him. Instead of “Hosanna” they will be crying out “Crucify him! Crucify him!” 

Peter knows there is safety in numbers, and numbers are not trending Jesus’s way. 

No one wants to be thought of as “different.” We’re all human. We’re all sinners. We all falter at the most unlikely times. 

Peter has been a disciple of Jesus for several years. He has been Jesus’s trusted friend. Yet he denies knowing Jesus. Repeatedly. 

At least Peter did follow Jesus. None of the others did. 

And Peter is smart enough to realize the enormity of what he has done, when he hears the cock crow the second time. 

I’ve heard it said that you can’t have Easter without Good Friday. And we all love Easter. We love the celebrations, we embrace and welcome the joy. The “A” word gets released. 

Pews in churches all over the world will be filled with families who want to be part of it all. 

We are saved. He has risen. 

But… have we repented? 

Have we recognized that it was for our sin that Jesus endured a horrifying, excruciating death on the cross? 

I think some see Jesus’s death for our sins like someone in the kitchen wiping the table after a meal. A simple thing. But it is more like scrubbing a table that has not been cleaned in years. The table is coated with grime and grease, dusty with crumbs of all sorts. 

It is the recognition that you and I had a part in Jesus being on that cross. 

Jesus on the cross is a piece of eternity. At the same time, it stretches both backward and forward. Jesus was on the cross for my ancestors at the same time he was on the cross for generations yet to be born. 

In our Lenten journey on Wednesday nights, we explored the cross as being both a lens and a mirror. 

We see the goodness and love of God for the world, we see the love of Jesus for a fallen people… and we recognize our own sinfulness and seek repentance. 

In some ways, life is just a journey of reflection and repentance. 

Grace and mercy displayed at the cross saved us. We must recognize that love and grace and live into it. 

We have to see and understand the cross. 

At times we will get stuff wrong. A lot of the time we get stuff wrong. 

Like Peter we will deny knowing Jesus. 

We will do very human things out of fear.  Fear for our safety. Fear that there might not be enough of… something, anything… Fear that WE are not enough. And we’ll say we’re sorry and try to do better. But we’ll do it again. 

We will act in ways that deny the love and grace that Jesus showed us when he hung on that cross. And we will experience, like Peter did, the shock of recognition. And we will again become aware of the value we have, the love we have been shown. 

Love and grace are hard.