Fallible and lovable

Luke 22.54-71

Then they seized him and led him away, bringing him into the high priest’s house. But Peter was following at a distance. When they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat among them. Then a servant-girl, seeing him in the firelight, stared at him and said, ‘This man also was with him.’ But he denied it, saying, ‘Woman, I do not know him.’ A little later someone else, on seeing him, said, ‘You also are one of them.’ But Peter said, ‘Man, I am not!’ Then about an hour later yet another kept insisting, ‘Surely this man also was with him; for he is a Galilean.’ But Peter said, ‘Man, I do not know what you are talking about!’ At that moment, while he was still speaking, the cock crowed. The Lord turned and looked at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him, ‘Before the cock crows today, you will deny me three times.’ And he went out and wept bitterly.


Now the men who were holding Jesus began to mock him and beat him; they also blindfolded him and kept asking him, ‘Prophesy! Who is it that struck you?’ They kept heaping many other insults on him.


When day came, the assembly of the elders of the people, both chief priests and scribes, gathered together, and they brought him to their council. They said, ‘If you are the Messiah, tell us.’ He replied, ‘If I tell you, you will not believe; and if I question you, you will not answer. But from now on the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God.’ All of them asked, ‘Are you, then, the Son of God?’ He said to them, ‘You say that I am.’ Then they said, ‘What further testimony do we need? We have heard it ourselves from his own lips!’


Reflection

And so Peter experiences his own special hell. He’s followed Jesus for three years, he’s confessed him as his Lord, he’s declared that he’d stand by his friend no matter what. Yet at the moment of crisis, he faltered. How easy it would be to dismiss Peter as a fair-weather disciple, as someone who needed to man up. Of course, if we did that, we’d just show that we hadn’t been paying attention to anything Jesus has been saying or doing.


Jesus knows we’ll stumble, he knows we’ll mess up. The big question as we travel the Way is what we’ll do next. Will we turn back? Give up? Will we try another route? Or will we persevere? If we do the latter, we’ll find Jesus is waiting for us, ready to give us another opportunity. He knows we’re fallible, that we’re not perfect, that we’re not human. And that points to one of the glories of our God: he loves us for who we are. Love like that demands, no, deserves, a response, our response.

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