The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing. John PowellIt’s possible to look at Peter’s life and see only a series of incredible highs followed by a series of incredible lows. He seems to go from mountaintop to valley floor with amazing speed and ease.
But maybe the thing about Peter is that he’s an enthusiast. He’s the kind of person you meet who sits in a foreign restaurant and orders the dish that sounds most interesting.
He’s not reckless of course. The truth is that being around Jesus gives him the confidence to step out of boats, fish from the other side and challenge the authority of the Sanhedrin when they try to stop him preaching.
As we’ve done with our other characters, let’s try to track Peter’s progress from his fisherman beginnings to his apostolic ministry.
Peter the Fisherman
In Mark’s gospel our first encounter with Peter is with his brother Andrew as they fish. Not as recreational fishermen, but as their business. John gives us a little more detail inasmuch that Andrew was a disciple of John who followed Jesus on John’s instruction and went to find his brother. Their hometown was Bethsaida, although it’s possible that they relocated to Capernaum to be nearer the sea of Galilee (both Mark and Matthew talk about Peter’s home in the context of Capernaum rather than Bethsaida).
The bottom line is this: Peter was a fisherman. He was not a scholar, hadn’t been to university in Jerusalem, he just worked in the family business. Jesus, of course, knew about the world of the family business, and he probably knew a thing or two about working for his father, both earthly and heavenly.
I guess, when it come to it, you probably wouldn’t have been able to pick out anything about Peter that set him apart from every other fisherman of his time. Better than some, not as good as others. Possibly a person with leadership qualities, but otherwise just an ordinary man going about his ordinary business.
Peter the follower
It’s when he meets Jesus that his life begins to change. Just as we can’t say what it was about Peter that set him apart, we really don’t know what it was about Jesus that commanded such immediate loyalty from Peter. But something did. Jesus says, “Come follow me,” and Peter does just that.
He only returns to fishing once, when he thinks it’s all over, but that return is short-lived as Jesus calls him back into a kingdom ministry that fishing would never replace.
The truth is that when you answer the call of Jesus to follow him wholeheartedly, there is no turning back.
The call is interesting too because Jesus says, “Follow me and I will teach you how to fish for men.” Is that what an evangelist does, or is it what a fisherman does?
Years later the apostle Paul would write to the church in Ephesus about apostles, prophets, pastors, teaches and evangelists as gifts given to the church by God himself, but was Jesus calling Peter to the ministry of an evangelist or a pattern of life and ministry that more like the fishing he knew than the evangelist we define?
Perhaps Jesus was simply calling Peter to engage in something that would have an impact in eternity rather than an impact on the barbecue.
The flyer and the faller
One thing we know about all the early followers of Jesus is that being with him, seeing the miracles he performed, hearing the stories he told, exploring the explanations he gave, didn’t stop them making mistakes along the way. They just as easily confused at the end of three years with Jesus as they were at the beginning! Oh so like us!
You’d think we’d learn wouldn’t you? Having seen one miracle, we’d find it easy to have faith for another. Having experienced grace once, we’d know that it was available the next time we fell or failed. But just like Peter, and James and John and Thomas and all the others, we too have our highs and lows.
Peter’s highs included:
Going up on the mountain and seeing Jesus transfigured first hand, and getting to see Moses and Elijah too according to the story.
Having a moment of truly amazing clarity and revelation about who Jesus is, You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
Being the only who could sit around the camp fire and tell the story if the night he stepped out of the boat and onto the water. Onto not into.
I wonder what that was like? Do you think he realised what he was saying or did it just come out? “Lord, if it really is you, call to me to come to you on the water.” “Peter, it’s me, come, walk with me.”
If it were you, what would your first thought have been?
“Actually Lord I was rather expecting you to say, it’s okay Peter it’s me but I’ll come to you in the boat, you don’t have to risk getting your feet wet.”
Or, “Peter, that’s the kind of faith I’m looking for, but you don’t have to take the risk, just being willing is enough for me.”
Maybe it would be the simple, “Why did I have to go and open my big mouth. Lord, what I actually meant was, ‘if it’s you, then call Judas to get out of the boat and walk on the water. That’s what I meant to say.’
Preaching on the day of Pentecost and seeing God’s amazing grace extended to the gentiles at them home of Cornelius must have been high points too.
And then there were the lows.
Sinking after having got out of the boat; having had his great revelation only to follow it with a great misrepresentation–blessed are you followed by “get behind me Satan.
And the lowest point of all, the denial of Jesus. Having been so brave (we will die with you) only to be undone by the persistent questioning of a servant girl.
The one thing you could not say about Peter was that he was lukewarm.
Peter the failure; Peter the fulfiller
Peter was not the only disciple who betrayed Jesus, who failed to follow through on his professed commitment. Thomas was full of worries, James and John had delusions of grandeur, and Judas gave Jesus up for a price in silver.
Judas and Peter share this common failure, that they denied the one they had been following and carried the pain of that failure with them after the arrest and trial and execution of the Jesus they’d denied or betrayed. But there is of course a major difference.
Judas decided to carry the weight of his failure alone. He decided to run and hide. I guess there was little else how could have done. I don’t suppose the others wanted him back, they probably didn’t understand why Jesus had chosen him and tolerated him anyway. He’d been given responsibility for the common purse, the accounts, and as far as we can tell from the gospels he wasn’t averse to helping himself from the money bag.
Peter on the other had, distraught as he was over his denial, when Jesus called his name after the resurrection, was quick to respond. He knew he failed, he knew he’d come up short, but I think he’d been enough to know too that in a relationship with Jesus there was always the possibility that something miraculous might happen.
And so Peter, unlike Judas, finds himself facing a simple question: Peter, do you love me?
Not, “Peter are you sorry,” or “Peter do you realise how much you hurt me,” or “Peter what were you thinking?” But, “Peter do you love me?”
“Peter, does you love for me, your commitment to me your determination to be a follower of mine and a worker in the kingdom outweigh all other concerns. Because of it does, feed my sheep, care for my lambs.”
Peter discovered through that question that forgiveness is real, and reconciliation is possible and service can continue. Peter discovered that failure does have to mean the end of everything.
You’d think that saying “I don’t know the man”, would have signalled the end of Peter’s possible role in anything Jesus was planning. After all hadn’t Jesus said something along the lines of if you deny me I’ll deny you (Luke 12:8-9– "I tell you, whoever acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man will also acknowledge him before the angels of God. But he who disowns me before men will be disowned before the angels of God.”) It’s so easy sometime to take two and two and make five, Peter knew this and he knew too that Jesus was the great forgiver and not the great grudge keeper.
Judas never experienced this forgiveness and went to his grave carrying his own burden of guilt and shame. Peter on the other hand, rediscovered Jesus and let go of his personal burden. He found the rest for his soul that Jesus had spoken about, he found his place in God’s kingdom because he found Jesus.
Conclusion
If we were to lay out Peter’s life like a long line, where would you put yourself? Are you somewhere near the beginning, just going about your daily business quite unaware of the implications of ho this Jesus is who is about to interrupt your life?
Maybe you’re a bit further down the line. Jesus has called you name, he’s offered to change you life, but you’ve not yet taken any big risks with him, had any great revelations about him. You’re just following and learning.
It’s possible that in fact you’ve just reached the point of seeing Jesus for who he really is, the Christ the Son of the living God, and you know that everything hinges on the reality of this truth.
And it’s also possible that you find yourself having seen the glory of God but now you’ve messed up, and you feel like a failure. Welcome to the club of the those of us who made mistakes as we follow Jesus.
Where else might you put yourself? On the water, in the boat, on the beach, at the cross in the courtyard?
Wherever you might be, Jesus says the same thing to you that he would have kept saying to Peter:
Do you love me? Will you follow me? Come to me?
The question isn’t will Jesus keep loving you, will he keep forgiving you and calling your name, the question is will you answer him?
There once was a day when Jesus had something that had offended many of those who had begun to follow him. He turned to his closest friends, the disciples he called by name to form his circle of twelve close companions and asked too if they were about to leave him. It was Peter who turned to Jesus and said: “You have the words of eternal life, where else will we go?
Where else will you go?
