Long ago on a dark Thursday night, Jesus walked with his disciples to the garden in the Mount of Olives where he often prayed. Then he went nearby and fell on his knees, praying “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”
An angel appeared and strengthened him. He prayed so earnestly that his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. Walking back to his disciples, he found them asleep. He woke them just as a group of people, including soldiers, came up with Judas leading them. Then there occurred that awful moment in the history of the world when Judas betrayed his Master with a kiss.
As the soldiers moved toward Jesus, Peter, always the impulsive one, grabbed his sword and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear. Jesus told Peter to put his sword away; then he touched the man’s ear and healed him.
Seizing and roughly binding Jesus, the soldiers and the Jewish officials led Jesus out of the garden, making their way toward the house of Caiaphas, the high priest. In his Gospel, Luke pens these sad words: “Peter followed at a distance.”
Before morning on that chilly spring night some had built a fire in the middle of the courtyard to warm themselves. Luke pens more sad words: “Peter sat down with them.” Soon what Jesus had predicted happened; Peter denied Jesus three times before the rooster crowed to announce the morning.
In the firelight a servant girl looked closely at Peter and said aloud, “This man was with him.” Peter quickly denied her accusation, saying, “Woman, I don’t know him.” A little later someone else saw Peter and said, “You are one of his disciples.” Bluntly came Peter’s second denial: “Man, I am not!” An hour later a third person asserted, “Certainly this fellow was with Jesus, for he is a Galilean.”
Instantly Peter blurted out his third denial, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Luke pens even more sad words: “Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed.”
In describing the next moment, Luke turns from sad words to these remarkable words: “The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter.” I say “remarkable” because there was forgiving love, not condemnation,
in the eyes of Jesus. Jesus was not so absorbed with his own suffering that he had lost concern for his chief disciple. What Peter saw in the eyes of Jesus was the awesome compassion of God for broken people. The look in his Master’s eyes told Peter that forgiveness was available to him. As Peter stared at Jesus it dawned on him what a miserable failure he had been. And Luke pens the saddest words yet: “And he went outside and wept bitterly.”
In the hours that followed, Jesus was brutally beaten, mocked and scourged by the soldiers. They showed him no mercy or respect. They struck him in the face. They spat in his face. They laughed at him scornfully. Because his hands were bound he could not even wipe the spittle from his face, the face that had revealed to the world the incredible love of God.
The Jewish guards and Roman soldiers beat Jesus within an inch of his life. Then they nailed his battered body to a wooden cross and jeered him while he died. They thought that they had seen the last of Jesus when they dumped his dead body in a borrowed tomb. But they underestimated his Father! Sunday came and he raised His Son from the dead. And soon his disciples were sharing the good news of the gospel – that God’s amazing grace can change a broken person’s life and destiny.
If the gospel is anything, it is the astounding truth that almighty God offers mercy to those who have made a mess of their lives. That truth is seen clearly in the story of the suffering and death of Jesus. Injected into that story is pathetic failure of Peter. The once boastful leader of the disciples is pictured on the eve of his Master’s crucifixion as a broken man, weeping inconsolably with bitter remorse. But that was not the end of the story!
Jesus forgave Peter! At a breakfast by the sea the resurrected Jesus does not ask Jesus about his denials. He asked only one question: “Do you love me?” Assured of Peter’s love for him, Jesus moves beyond Peter’s ugly past; his focus is on the present hour and the future. He gives Peter a second chance and offers him a new assignment: “Feed my lambs.”
The rest is history. Forgiven and restored, Peter became a dynamic and useful servant of his Lord. He resumed his leadership of the disciples. The good news of the gospel is that the same grace is available to us! Delivered from the past and restored by God’s mercy, we can move beyond our failures. We too can be rescued from remorse and set free to live as servants of Jesus.
The remarkable change in Peter’s life gives us glorious hope for a new life. Ponder this: The same man who denied he knew Jesus was the man so changed by the power of God that he would write two letters so good that they are included in the New Testament! In the first chapter of Peter’s First Letter, we find these precious words: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead!” How remarkable!
Consider three lessons we may draw from this marvelous story of redemption. Because Jesus forgave Peter, you can start over after making a mess of your life. Sooner or later every one of us sits in the ashes of failure. Like Peter, we can screw up our lives. But because Jesus forgave Peter, we believe he will forgive us also. I know that from experience. When I was 45, my life was a royal mess. I had been taken by ambulance to a hospital in Fairfax, Virginia. Paramedics rushed me there thinking I was dying. God spared my life but while recovering I wallowed in self-pity, weeping because of my failures as a father, husband and pastor. But Jesus forgave me, told me to stop crying, pick up the pieces and start over. He said he would help me – and He did!
Because Jesus forgave Peter, you can tell broken people they can start over again. This is good news for every broken person in this world. And if you and I are willing, the Lord will open many doors for us to share this good news with those who desperately need to hear it.
Jesus opened the way for me to share this good news with Bruce. He came to see me, crying, a broken man, a failure as a father. I told him that because Jesus forgave Peter, Jesus would forgive him and help him start over – and he did!
Thanks be to God: failure is not fatal! This is the good news: Jesus is ready to forgive us, deliver us from our shameful past, and guide us into a new and useful life.
Someone you know needs to hear this good news from your lips!