Comfort foods for the soul (14): All don’t matter now

Words have consequences.

This often recited political slogan recently became viral again.

As soon as the alleged assassin rushed the ballroom in Washington Hilton Hotel where the White House Correspondents Dinner was being held.

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Republicans were quick to condemn the rhetoric used in recent months against President Trump had consequences.

People were prone to act, incited by the rhetoric.

“Words have consequences.”

The debate will ring for a while but we are not here to muddy the pool.

After all, these are, in reality, debates on inconsequential utterance.

Instead I’d propose to deal with those that brought a world’s difference, to the person who uttered it, and to world history as it unfolds.

There was a man, often dead serious in the moment, most likely honest too, unfortunately stuck his foot in his mouth at the most consequential moment of history.

He was Simon Peter.

His most lamentable utterances recorded in history can be found in the following:

(Gopsel of Matthew 26:74-75)

Then he began to call down curses, and he swore to them, “I don’t know the man!” Immediately a rooster crowed. Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: “Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.

(Gospel of Mark 14:71-72)

He began to call down curses, and he swore to them, “I don’t know this man you’re talking about.” Immediately the rooster crowed the second time. Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows twice you will disown me three times.” And he broke down and wept.

(Gospel of Luke 22:60-62)

Peter replied, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. 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.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.

This was the moment when his master, Jesus, was being ridiculed and interrogated in the most adversarial and humiliating environment.

The moment when support was most needed.

Simon Peter uttered his denial, no doubt to save his own skin.

El Greco (1541–1614): Tears of St. Peter (El Greco, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

The sad thing was Peter had vowed he would never deny Jesus even when all others would.

Sadder was Jesus had told him that the cock crowing would reveal Peter’s failure and unreliability!

No wonder the three passages above all recorded Peter broke down, in tears at the crow.

Of the four gospels, Gospel of John is the only one that mentioned the denial but saved Peter’s face by not mentioning his tears:

Again Peter denied it, and at that moment a rooster began to crow (John 18:27, NIV) .

I have always harboured the thought that John was particularly kind and tender to Simon Peter.

I can’t prove it but evidence suggests that the Gospel of John is the only one that mentions Peter’s rehabilitation by the resurrected Jesus, in front of all other apostles.

In John 21, Peter is recorded as being reminded by Jesus of his denials, three times, and John registers Peter’s grief, not tears, at the third time.

But Peter’s reply at the third time comes across like a refreshing wind, one that comes as a rain clearing a storm: a heart to heart confession that says “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”

That’s a surrender.

A confession that needs no further defence.

No need for proof.

For Jesus knows all.

More than that.

It’s an echo of the Greek version of Psalm 139:4 “Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely.”(NIV)

Peter spoke the three denials.

Words on his tongue.

All of them he now said Jesus knew it completely.

There’s no place to hide.

Honesty is the best policy.

Unsaid might well be Peter’s proclamation of his love of Jesus would also have been known to Him.

That John rehabilitated Peter is made official in John 21 recording not just these exchanges but that Jesus gave Peter the job of a shepherd, of His sheep no less.

And underlined it twice, “Follow me.”

For Peter, at this point, all don’t matter now.

What does is that He knows.

Failures and love.

What a relief.

How comforting.

He knows all things.