The Weakness of Man, The Grace of God

Of all the stirring testimonies of Church history I find that the statements made the night before people were martyred to be the most moving. In hearing these accounts one feels the shadow that the following day cast upon these great men and women of God. As we consider Maundy Thursday there is no doubt that Jesus Himself felt this looming shadow. Its what drove Him to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane. He cried out to the Father for strength to drink the cup.

Jesus was fully God but was also fully man and in His humanity He had lived a sinless life up to that point. If anyone had reason to trust in His own history of faithfulness to God it was Him. But despite His perfect track record He cried out to God for strength to be faithful in the following day. Contrast this with Peter - who had lived a life filled with sin and failure. But while Jesus was in great travail as He cried out to God for help, Peter was asleep in the bushes.

If Peter regarded Jesus as the Messiah (which from Matthew 16:16 we can see that he did) then he would have rightly understood the seriousness of what Jesus had told him just that very night:

"Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers." But he said to Him, "Lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death!" And He said, "I say to you, Peter, the rooster will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know Me."

-Luke 22:31-34

Yet when Jesus told him to pray that he wouldn't enter into temptation, Peter couldn't keep his eyes open.  I strangely find Peter's dullness encouraging because I experience this regularly in my own life. He was one of the first people to confess faith in Jesus as the Messiah and had real faith in his heart. But while he believed there was also a hardness. A disconnect between the seriousness of what he was about to face and the urgency in his heart regarding it.

Whatever the reason for Peter's prayerlessness we know that it did not serve him well the following day. He denied knowing Jesus 3 times even though just the night before declaring that he would embrace prison or death for Him. And if the story ended here we would be left with just a powerful word of caution teaching us of the need to admit our weaknesses to cry out to God for strength. But the story does not end here.  

Fast forward to after the Resurrection and we see Jesus restoring Peter in John 21:15-19. Jesus had him confess his love for Him the same number of times that he denied Him. Peter had failed in his own strength and had denied his Lord. But there is no sin Jesus won't forgive and no apostate He won't receive back into His fold. Peter had been faithless but Jesus was faithful.  

We often think that we chose to follow Jesus and that the exercise of our will is what will keep us in the faith. But the reality is that He chose us and the same God who brought us into His fold will uphold us even if we stumble for a time.  Ultimately it wasn't Peter's determination that he was so confident in that kept him but rather Jesus' prayer and His Grace. And so it is with us. The same God who touched our hearts and brought us into the faith will keep us here until He receives us in glory.