Peter Speaks!

He said, “Love each other.” 
I asked, “Where will you be?” 
Evasive? or just sure 
we could not make the grade 
without him? 
 
He knew this too, and said, 
“The only way you can bear fruit 
is to stay attached to me.”
And yet, he went away.
Hope died.

When he came back he
twirled us into dreams
as he spoke peace to us,
and absolutely anything
seemed possible.

With each appearing,
joy grew more explosive – 
I even swam from ship
to shore to savor Jesus
on the beach.

But after breakfast, his words
scorched my heart.
He asked me if I loved him
(traitor that I’d been,
shamed coward)!

Silently I begged that
he would look into my soul.
and know I love him.
He’d always known my
every thought.

Then, having fueled the flame
of my tempestuous love
for all he is, for who
he is to me, Messiah,
master, friend,

he circled back to where we’d
started when our Judas left.
“Feed my lambs,” he said. “Care for 
my sheep.”  And once more:
“Follow me.”

I heard his thought as clearly
as he’d voiced it at the table:
“As I’ve loved you, in this way
now love each other.
Be like me.”

And this is how the world will 
recognize the Family:
our common cup of love
shared round in conscious copy
of our Lord.

I’ve spilled the cup a thousand
times, or maybe more.  But,
knowing what he said,
I bend to towel off the spill
with kindness,

and try to grasp each trembling
cup so tentatively offered
by a sister or a brother.
We’re caring for each other.
Loving him.
 

What would it have been like to be Peter?  He knew he was called, chosen (Mat 4:18-20). He had learned so much while following Jesus those years that passed all too quickly while Jesus was calling other Jewish people to follow his path. He eventually experienced incredible change: he went from promising to never desert Jesus, to denying that he even knew him in a critical moment of self-protection (Mat 25\:69-75), to being ready to die for him if he was doing what Jesus said. He wrote this to other believers:

But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.” (1 Pet. 3:14 NIV)

Don’t be afraid of persecution, opposition that comes from doing justice! Don’t be afraid (and so deny the Master)! And he did die for doing what was right, at the hand of Emperor Nero—tradition says he was crucified upside-down, having begged for that rather than to die the way Jesus did.

What changed him so radically? It was his growth in knowing Christ Jesus better and better, even after Jesus had died, risen and left this earth. He added deep spiritual growth to what he could apply to the knowledge accumulated as one of the twelve disciples. Now he knew personally that his faith was being refined, and his love for the Master was not only deeper but truly joyful. He shared this with other believers when he wrote his first letter:

⁵ You are being protected by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶ You rejoice in this, though now for a short time you have had to struggle in various trials ⁷ so that the genuineness of your faith– more valuable than gold, which perishes though refined by fire– may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. ⁸ You love Him, though you have not seen Him. And though not seeing Him now, you believe in Him and rejoice with inexpressible and glorious joy, ⁹ because you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls (1 Pet. 1:5-8 CSB)

Note the change in how Peter sees what he saw happen to Jesus and his present walk with the Messiah. He had been devasted by Jesus’ crucifixion—what a trial of his faith! How could the all-powerful miracle worker just let this happen? But he saw the risen Christ. And the risen Christ had underlined for him that what now counted was loving him, and seeing the struggles that came as spiritual refinement bringing praise, glory and honor—when Christ returns! Having seen him die and raised to life, he is now confident that his word is true and he will indeed return and be universally recognized, that his promise of salvation and everlasting life is true.

Not only that, Peter remembers how his last personal conversation with Jesus went. The walked along the lake shore and Jesus kept asking him, “Do you love me?”

When they had eaten breakfast, Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he said to Him, “You know that I love You.” “Feed My lambs,” He told him. ¹⁶ A second time He asked him, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” “Yes, Lord,” he said to Him, “You know that I love You.” “Shepherd My sheep,” He told him. ¹⁷ He asked him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved that He asked him the third time, “Do you love Me?” He said, “Lord, You know everything! You know that I love You.” “Feed My sheep,” Jesus said.  ¹⁸ ” I assure you: When you were young, you would tie your belt and walk wherever you wanted. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will tie you and carry you where you don’t want to go.” ¹⁹ He said this to signify by what kind of death he would glorify God. After saying this, He told him, “Follow Me!”  (Jn. 21:15–19 CSB)

His love for Jesus was now cemented; he would do anything for him, even move toward the death Jesus predicted. He would follow him anywhere.  He had seen him. Now the believers that he was writing to in his letter were following Jesus too, even though they had never seen him. And Peter was confirming that this what matters. He was passing on what he had been taught, what he had learned during his own refinement. He was shepherding Jesus’ sheep, showing them the right path to follow.

So how about us? Are we doing what Jesus said, loving him and following him? If so, we must do what is essential for all of us on this Jesus Road:

“I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you must also love one another. (Jn. 13:34 CSB)

The Chosen People had been told long ago how important it was to love God and love their neighbor, fulfilling the laws that came with the covenant God put in place with Moses:

Do not take revenge or bear a grudge against members of your community, but love your neighbor as yourself; I am Yahweh. (Lev. 19:18 CSB)

But now he was making a new covenant with his people. Jesus was clearly stating the conditions that came along with entering into this alliance with God. It would be lived out by humbly serving one another (John 13:14-15), and it would require a new standard of love:

 “I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you must also love one another.” (Jn. 13:34 CSB)

 It is only “new” because it means our love is now measured by how self-giving it is, not by how much we love ourselves! It requires humility and putting the good of others above our own.[1]

And these were some of Jesus’ last words to his disciples before he was arrested. The next days were full of incomprehensible loss, for Peter and the others who loved this extraordinary man. They were made even more unbearable for Peter as he realized that his denial of knowing Jesus was contrary to the new covenant law: self-sacrificing love for others, not selfish safeguarding of one’s own interests!

We, like Peter, are empowered to move forward by Jesus’ forgiveness—not just once, when we join ourselves to him, but every time we fail and come to him with true repentance. We literally have to stay “attached to the Vine” (John 15) in order to have his strength flowing into us, making us able to do what he says and actually produce fruit.

Remain in Me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me. (Jn. 15:4 CSB)

And a crucial part of that fruit is love for others. Peter had to learn it, and he passed on this lesson in his first letter, underlining what it means to be an eternally living new being, born again by obeying the truth—and Jesus is the truth:

²² By obedience to the truth, having purified yourselves for sincere love of the brothers, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, ²³ since you have been born again– not of perishable seed but of imperishable– through the living and enduring word of God. (1 Pet. 1:22,23 CSB)

For what purpose are we to purify ourselves?  To be able to love each other sincerely, without corrupting our “love” with selfish motives. And where do we find the truth that we must obey? What attaches us securely to the Vine?  “The living and enduring word of God”! We need to take this seriously and digest that word, letting it become a part of us, living it out.

 Peter closes that first letter with an impassioned plea that applies even more to us now, since we are even closer to “the end of all things,” whenever that will take place. We are not to live in fear, or contribute to division. We are to cling to the Vine, spending time in conversation with him, our source of truth and strength. And we must love each other!

⁷ Now the end of all things is near; therefore, be serious and disciplined for prayer. ⁸ Above all, maintain an intense love for each other, since love covers a multitude of sins. ⁹ (1 Pet. 4:7 CSB)

Jesus taught his disciples and they passed it on to us: love each other the way Jesus Messiah has loved you! Even when we were still trapped in sin, he loved us and gave himself for us. Are we pursuing that intense love that forgives and produces the fruit our Beloved Master desires?

Peter moved from a life of just catching fish to working diligently for his Master, becoming a “fisher of humans”—bringing them into the Kingdom, and lovingly teaching them how to live as citizens and workers there. This is for us, too. We are now serving the Master who bought us with his own blood, “slaves” in the only wonderful sense of that word—rescued from bondage to evil and freed forever, given the gift of being servants to the God of love. Let’s show the world that this status is real! Let’s show love!

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[1] ^[1] D. A. Carson, “The Gospels and Acts,” in NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, ed. D. A. Carson (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2018), 1923.