(Editor’s note: One day in each of these three pre-Easter weeks, we’re meeting three people with three very different and distinct views of Easter. First, it was Simon, a Cyrenian, who stood on the Via Dolorosa on a day when the Lamb was passing by. Then, Isaiah, a prophet who was born, lived, and died long before that first Easter — but who “surely” knew it was coming. And today Peter who, of the three, might be most like you and me.)
“But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.”
“Peter replied, “Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.”
“Truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.” — Matthew 26: 32-34 (NIV)
Crucifixion weekend must have been the worst of Peter’s life, or at least of what we know of Peter’s recorded life. Even many of those who aren’t familiar with much of the Bible are familiar with Peter’s denial of Jesus when his friend needed him most. Such is the weight of the story.
With Jesus’ body in tomb, Peter the fisherman went back to doing what he was doing when he met the man who would change his life: he went back to fishing. It was, he thought, what he knew best. What would we have done?
And what must Peter have done that Saturday on the Sea of Galilee? What must he have felt and thought? Did he feel sick? Could he even eat? How many times did he re-live the miracles he’d seen Jesus perform? How many times did he replay in his mind their first meeting, and his nets overflowing?
How many times did Peter regret his denials?
But … how must he have felt when he got this good word, a precious message recorded in the Gospel of Mark:
“And entering the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a long white robe sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed.
But he said to them, ‘Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him. But go, tell His disciples — and Peter — that He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He said to you.’” — Mark 16: 5-7 (NKJV)
Go tell His disciples — and Peter.
Jesus would met Peter at the appointed place, just as he’d said he would.
“Jesus was far more eager to comfort the penitent sinner than to punish the sin,” author William Barclay wrote decades ago. “Someone has said, ‘The most precious thing about Jesus is the way in which he trusts us on the field of our defeat.’”
Replace Peter’s name with your own. Did Jesus make a promise long ago to meet you at an appointed place? Do you feel a transgression since, a fall you’d never have suspected, would keep him from his word?
The story is the same for us as it was for Peter: “…there you will see him, as He said to you.”
“Go tell his disciples — and you.”
Contact Teddy at teddy@latech.edu
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