In looking over the Scripture passages I’ll be teaching in Sunday School this weekend, I found myself laughing a bit over the following passage from John 13…
John 13:31-38
31When he was gone, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. 32If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.33My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.
34A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
36Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?”
Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.”
37Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”
38Then Jesus answered, “Will you really lay down your life for me? I tell you the truth, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!
I know you’re wondering… what could I possibly find entertaining about Jesus predicting Peter’s denial? To be honest, it’s not a funny passage. However, I find myself chuckling a bit about Peter’s exercise in missing the point.
Check out verses 33-38 again to see what I mean. Jesus tells his disciples he’ll only be with them a little while longer, and that they can’t come where he’s going. He then gives them a command. How does Peter respond? Not in response to Christ’s command to love one another, as he has loved them. Not in response to His instruction that all men will know we’re His disciples by our love for one another. But… “where are you going?”… “why can’t I go too?”. I can only imagine the big sigh that Jesus must let out over Peter’s shortsightedness and selfishness… how He must have been shaking His head over having to discuss the whole topic of His imminent departure instead of His command to love one another… the kind of tone that was apparent in His voice as He informed Peter of his upcoming denials.
It’s kind of humorous to me how shallow Peter seemed to be here.
Here’s the sad part, though. If we’re honest with ourselves, we all find ourselves in Peter’s shoes more frequently than we’d like to admit… unable to focus on those things God really needs us to, simply because we’re too shortsighted or selfish to see what’s really important… spending tons of time struggling over silly details only remotely related to the real task God has laid on our hearts to do… not fulfilling God’s purposes because we’re distracted by minutia.
I laugh over Peter’s situation because in reality… I see it in my life as well. Perhaps it’s more comfortable to laugh at my shortsightedness than to acknowledge and grieve over the disappointment and frustration it has caused God?
John, I have always felt like Peter was a guy, like many of us, who would say to Jesus, “When you picked me you picked a good one! I am not even sure why you chose those other guys but as for me, good choice!” And then the cock crowed the third time and Peter realized who he was before a Holy God! He was never the same again.
Paul
P.S. some new picks of the baby would be great!