8/30-31/2023

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE READING:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Acknowledge Him in all your ways and He will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 2. 5-6)

“Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said [‘Behold, the Lamb of God‘] and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, ‘We have found the Messiah‘ [that is, the Christ]. And he brought him to Jesus.” (John 1.40-42a)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

Now by adding the testimony of John’s gospel to the story of Simon, called Peter, being called into service as a disciple, we are provided a “three” dimensional view. And while I would love in this reflection to focus on Simon’s transformation from fisherman to fisher of men, I have to get straight to another aspect of this message first. As I have said, as disciples of Christ we must get and keep “first things first.” That “first thing” is mentioned in the passage from John’s gospel above. (Now we are exposed to the HEIGTH, depth and breadth of discipleship.) John remembers the way it was told as the disciples had gathered around a campfire. Maybe it was the last time they would do so before Jesus ascended into Heaven forty days after His Father raised Him from the grave. Now, Peter and Jesus had walked a ways down the beach following another fruitless night of fishing. I have no idea if Peter had ever been a successful fisherman or not. I know that without Jesus, He lacked the ability to be the master of his craft. From that first encounter to this last, Peter had come up empty. Blame it on grief, blame it on a lack of vision, blame it on whatever reason holds each of us from our divine potential when God first saw us in the womb. Now, in that struggle for identity, Jesus took Peter to the seashore and comforted him back to life. While Jesus was doing this, maybe Andrew recalled how Peter, some called him Simon bar Jonah, first came to know Jesus. It was the first thing Andrew did following his own encounter with the one he called “The Messiah.” He remembered walking with John the Baptizer and another disciple of John near the Jordan where the Baptizer taught and baptized. He remembered John announcing to them “Behold, the Lamb of God.” Without invitation or direction, the two followed Jesus straightway. And staying with Him where He lodged for the night, they heard His word and believed. Immediately at the rising of the sun, Andrew went straightway to his brother Simon and announced, “We have found the Messiah!“ Without further discussion, Andrew led his brother to meet Jesus of Nazareth. It was there that Jesus spoke straightway to Simon the son of Jonah. Without further ado, Jesus said “I see you are indeed Simon bar Jonah. I AM calling you Cephas, that is Peter, which indicates you are a rock.” The call was made, the contract drawn, the indicator was the change of name and nothing more was said. Of course, with the benefit (or distraction) of the other stories found in the Synoptic Gospels concerning the call of Peter to be a disciple, we know there was a series of events which shaped the relationship between Peter and Jesus.

While those events bear value in being examined (the series of three), it was this closing scene near Bethsaida by the Sea that I bring our attention to. While Andrew told the stories of how Peter and Jesus came to be the closest of friends and confidantes, Jesus was straightening things out for Peter. Peter was teetering on forsaking his “first love.” John the Apostle would hear this admonition from the Resurrected Jesus in his Revelation as an admonition to the community of faith in Ephesus. We may be able to draw a straight line linking Ephesus and Peter on this point for our own admonition. When conflict of fear, doubt and failure collide in our lives, we certainly begin to default back to what we remember as comfortable and safe. Peter certainly felt this in his own life. I have to believe that Peter must have felt he was an even greater traitor to Jesus than Judas of Kerioth. Did he dare consider “At least Judas had the dignity to take his own life. As for me, I hid out in dark shadows, around corners, in an upper room, curled up in a ball like a fetus praying I could be born again and have some kind of “do over.” Even as evidences of Jesus’ resurrection were offered to him, the burden of guilt wrapped itself around him like a blanket. Grief will continue to walk with us all the days of our lives. The question is not its presence but its control. The very promise of God and Christ was that they would always be with us. It did not mean a dissolution of grief, sorrow and sadness in this world. Jesus told the disciples “In this world there will be trouble. Don’t fear it, however, but know that I have overcome the world!” (John 16.33) Jesus said this before He was crucified. So this overcoming was more than resurrection. It was a coming to terms with the inevitable “trust in the Lord with all your heart, mind and soul; love others as you would love yourself; seek first His Kingdom and its righteousness and all that is needed will be provided.” It was these terms that Jesus had confronted and overcome in their antitheses which bolstered His decision to press into the moment of decision. His Garden declaration “Not My will but Yours, Father, be done” becomes the exclamation point.

Peter was struggling, wandering, waning and in terms of a fisherman- floundering it. He was a ship without a rudder, an oar or a sail. Jesus had made a commitment to Simon bar Jonah that day at Bethsaida by the Sea and He was going to make good on it. That promise was “I will make you a fisher of men.” How did Jesus make good on that promise? There by the sea, Jesus gave Peter his anchor, his oar and his sail. Three times Jesus asked as a means of reminder for Peter, “Do you love ME?” With each affirmation, Jesus conferred the power of duty for Peter, for the disciples and for the mission which represented “Jesus to the world.” Mighty ones of God, this is intended to be our affirmation as well. Jesus desires to get us back on the straight/strait and narrow. We have a mission to fulfill and a message to declare. We have a hope that is fulfilled and a promise that has been kept. We have a goal in mind and a destination that is prepared for us. His name is Jesus the Messiah.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN LIGHT OF GOD’S WORD:

Father, You have revealed to us best in Jesus the Christ. By Him and Him alone shall we gain the eternal life and our place in eternal rest, living for You always. Show us more and by Your Holy Spirit instruct us in the way we should go, the truth we should reveal and the life we shall live with you forever. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.