John 21 This Week

 

Tuesday I will begin posting a 3-Part Series looking at the “slow repair” of Peter in John 21.

Most of us look for a mentor and inspiration in people who have “made it” or “arrived”.  We stomach their past failures only because they found a way to overcome them.  There aren’t too many people who look up to or seek advice from someone who repeatedly fails the same way.  This is normal and probably wise.  We need some proof they will be worth following.  In this way, I am not sure many of us would look at Peter as a mentor.  A cautionary tail for sure, but not someone who was “successful” at not repeating past mistakes.  Jesus once called him Satan for crying out loud.

So, many of us are only thankful for Peter showing us we aren’t the only one prone to fail spiritually.  But what if only seeing Peter this way keeps us from seeing the larger design of redemption God put in place?  What if our “cautions” with Peter are more about our cautions with God himself?  Peter obviously “got it wrong” and failed plenty of times.  But did God “get it wrong” or “fail” when it comes to the life of Peter?  Most of us would quickly say no because Christians don’t say such things.  But I wonder what we privately think about God allowing us repeatedly fail.  Do we say “you chose the wrong guy” as Moses did when God called him to lead the people out of Egypt?  Do we believe God fails to see how hopeless we are and why he should stop dumping precious resources into us and cut his losses?  What does God want from his people anyway?

Do we look past Peter as someone who can mentor or lead us because he looks too much like us?  Is this just another way we keep ourselves from seeing the beauty being made of our story?  Or worse, do we look past Peter because we struggle to believe in a God who could love him or us?  Maybe Peter has something surprising to show us when he repeatedly says: “You know I love you!” to Jesus’ questions near the end of the story.  Maybe Peter understands the slow pace of redemption better than most of the people we follow, friend request, pin, or subscribe to their post cast.