Day #22
Larry Trotter
Words
of Love
60 Peter
replied, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Just as he was
speaking, the rooster crowed. 61 The
Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the
Lord had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me
three times.” 62 And he
went outside and wept bitterly. Luke 22:60-62 NIV
Overcoming the Barrier
I want to wrap up
this week’s devotions revolving around failure with an image from last Sunday’s
sermon. These verses come near the end of Chapter 22, which covers a lot of
emotional territory including multiple failures by Jesus’ inner circle because
of a series of betrayals. It begins with Judas’ decision to betray Jesus, then
moves to the Last Supper where Jesus acknowledges a betrayer is among them. Luke’s
fast-moving narrative shifts to the garden where the rest of the disciples
betray Jesus by sleeping instead of praying with him, then, the act of betrayal
occurs, ironically, with a kiss. Finally, as Jesus is being questioned by the
high priest, Peter, the one who had only hours earlier proclaimed he would go
to prison and death with Jesus, betrayed him by denying three times that he
even knew him. Then, in verse 61, Luke poignantly captures a moment that can
easily be missed by its sparse description. Just as Jesus had predicted, right
down to the rooster’s haunting crow, Peter had, indeed, denied he knew him. And
though Peter was trying to hide his identity from the people outside the high
priest’s house, Jesus caught Peter’s eyes with his. One can only imagine how
Peter must have tensed up in that awful moment, bracing himself to receive a
look of contempt or at least disappointment from Jesus. But Luke is silent
about the nature of Jesus’ gaze toward Peter. However, there is much we can
safely infer. Jesus was hours away from dying on the cross in an act of
forgiveness for humankind’s failure to live as God had created them. Every
failure—sin, if we want to be honest—would accompany him to the cross. Jesus,
himself, told Nicodemus that he didn’t come to condemn but, instead, to save.
Why would Jesus fire condemning darts from his eyes toward Peter when he was
about to offer him forgiveness with his life? Everything we know about Jesus
would tell us that there would have been compassion, not condemnation, in his
eyes. And though we can only speculate on the look Jesus gave Peter that night,
we can be certain of Peter’s response. And that’s how I want to wrap this up.
Jesus answers
failure with forgiveness. The God of creation slipped out of his royal robes
and slipped into the frail flesh of the creature to replace our failure with
forgiveness. His offer is always on the table and he eagerly awaits our
response to accept it. That response underscores the difference between Judas
and Peter. Both were trusted members of the inner circle (remember, Judas was
the treasurer). But if we follow their stories, Judas grew increasingly apart
from Jesus and the group; Peter grew closer. As Jesus’ mission diverged from
Judas’ political expectations Judas found himself disenchanted and looked for a
way to halt Jesus’ growing popularity. Peter, however, was the first to
identify Jesus as the Messiah and became part of an intimate group of
confidantes within the inner circle. Judas’ self-imposed disenfranchisement
became a barrier to the forgiveness that could have saved him from taking his
own life. By growing closer to Jesus over time, Peter had a foundation in place
that would allow him to receive the forgiveness Jesus offered and come back to
him during a lakeside breakfast described in John’s post-resurrection account.
As long as we are
truly living and trying new things, we will experience failure. If we’re
seeking to follow Jesus we will sometimes feel as though we have failed him.
But as surely as we will fail, Jesus will forgive. It’s his core mission and it
flows out of his nature, which is pure love. If we will stay close to him on a
daily basis, we will become saturated in his perfect love. Then, when we fail,
we won’t have to question whether he can forgive us, we can simply look into
his eyes of love and find forgiveness there.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, I have failed you so many times
that I wonder how many more times you can forgive me. Help me to receive your
promise to forgive one more time so that your love can overcome the barrier of
failure that separates us. In your name, amen.
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