St. Peter, the Rock, Apostle (Remembrance Day June 29)

"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Resist him steadfast in the faith....may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you." I Peter 5:8-11

There are two tendencies at work in any person -- the image of God, however disfigured by sin, which tugs the human heart heavenward; and the power of indwelling sin which drags the human soul into the fires of hell. That is what Paul meant in Romans 7:21 "I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good." It is not a popular concept in our "enlightened" age. Man is a product of his environment, his financial opportunities, his education, his ethnic background, and so on. Given the right set of conditions, given the strength of determination, given the ambition to succeed a man can raise himself up and become the master of his fate. Or so the popular notions go. But we know differently. "O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" (Romans 7:24). Only the saving grace of God can break the power of sin and restore His image within our hearts, not so that we can escape our circumstances, but rather that we can know that He is Master in every circumstance to bring forth good from them. This purposeful preaching of God as Savior is sometimes missing in our gospel message today. But remove it, and what "good news" is really left for us to proclaim? The scriptures say that the preaching of the true gospel is foolishness to the world, but is the power of God to us who are saved by it (I Corinthians 3:18). Such foolishness can only be received by those in need of a Savior, those who have come to the end of their own strength and purpose of will and have fallen short, those who have been tried in the balances by sin and found wanting, those who have hit bottom with no where to go. Such a man was Simon the son of Jonah, surnamed Peter.

What we know of Peter we primarily read in the scriptures, for the gospels speak more of him than of any other of the disciples of Jesus Christ. We know that he was a fisherman (Matthew 4:18), that he was a Galilean of the city of Bethsaida (John 1:44), that he was married (Matthew 8:14-15) and that he was bold and impulsive in his behavior. All of the tendencies of self-reliance and strength of will which sin cultivates to the destruction of the soul were there within him. But we also know that there was a spiritual hunger in his soul. For in Mark 10:28-30, when Peter said "See, we have left all and followed You", he spoke truly. And the Lord enumerated those things which he and the other disciples had left behind....house, brothers, sisters, father, mother, wife, children, lands.....all for the Lord's sake and the gospel's. And these two tendencies, one of pride in strength, and one of reliance on God's grace, struggled for pre-eminence in Peter. That is why he was able to have deep mysteries revealed to him by the Father in heaven (see his confession of Christ in Matthew 16:13-20) and then shortly after be rebuked by the Lord as Satan's tool and an offense to Christ because "you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men." (Matthew 16:22-23) The Lord saw this all in a glance at Peter's heart, he saw the potential for failure ("Simon, Simon! Indeed Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat.....I tell you Peter, the rooster will not crow this day before you will deny three times that you know Me." Luke 22:31-34), but he also knew the potential for God's glory ("I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.")

The Lord had once said in Luke 12:48 "everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required." And much was given to Peter! He was named first in all of the gospel's listings of the chosen apostles (Matthew 10:1-4), he walked on the water to the Lord (Matthew 14:22-33), he was present at the transfiguration of Jesus (Matthew 17:1-9), he was asked to be one of the intimate companions of the Lord in prayer on the night in which He was betrayed (Matthew 26:26-38). And when much was required of him, what then was the result? "But he (Peter) began to curse and swear, 'I do not know this Man (Jesus) of whom you speak!' And...the rooster crowed. And Peter called to mind the word that Jesus had said." (Mark 14:66-72). We would call that "the bottom". Utter failure, total unfaithfulness!
That night two of the Lord's men hit bottom. Judas, the betrayer of Jesus, overcome with remorse went out and hung himself. Peter, the denier of Jesus, overcome with remorse wept, and being sifted in sorrow found true faith when nothing of himself remained. It was then that he claimed truly for the first time Christ's own surname for him, Cephas, the Rock; and against such bedrock of faith the gates of hell could not prevail.

We haven't even scratched the surface of the record of this new Peter found in the book of Acts, the Peter who struggled with the two tendencies in his heart and by the grace of God was perfected, established, strengthened and settled, as our opening scripture declares. Read a few of the accounts in Acts 1:15-26, Acts 2:14-39, Acts 3:1-10, Acts 4:8-12, Acts 5:1-11, Acts 12:5-19 and see the difference which the recognition of the need of a Savior can make in a man's heart, his words, his actions. Tradition tells us that Peter eventually travelled to Rome where he was instrumental in establishing the Church within the very city which was the source of three centuries of vicious persecution. It was there, in the last year of the emperor Nero's reign, that he was put to death by crucifixtion. His last request was that he be crucified upside down, for he was not worthy to die in the same manner in which His Lord and Savior had. One thing is shown so clearly in the life of Peter for our example and exhortation. The greatness of God's glory and power being manifested in him was directly related to how deeply he had allowed God to enter into his heart and cleanse him of his sinful tendencies. Peter had discovered the truth of the Lord's words in Luke 7:47 which I paraphrase and adapt here. His sins, which were many and grievous, were forgiven, for he loved Jesus Christ dearly. May we take the lesson to heart and allow the love of Jesus Christ to constrain us. When we are sifted by sin, even if we sin so directly against His Name that we feel that there no longer remains a covering for our sins, let us shed our tears of grief and return to Him and let Him once more plumb the depths of our hearts with the question He asked Peter in John 21:15-19 "Do you love Me?". With Peter may our heart's answer be "Lord, you know all things, You know that I love You." Only then can we with confidence once more boldly step out when He answers "Then Follow Me."