I’ve had the pleasure of living in Missouri for my entire life. There are a lot of great things about Missouri. One of them is our state parks. There are state parks scattered throughout the state. What is great about them is that they are each a little different from each other. The state parks represent the diversity of the land in this state. For those of you who are not from Missouri, let me take a minute to tell you about one of them. The name of the park is Elephant Rocks. This is simply an incredible place. It is about an hour or so outside of Saint Louis. Inside the park there are these large granite rocks. The gray/pink color of the rocks resembles the color of elephant skin and gives them their name. The rocks vary in size. Some are only a couple feet tall and a couple of feet wide while others are several hundred feet in either direction. Some of them appear to be perched up and it would seem like you could simply push them over. Regardless of how hard you try(and trust me we’ve tried), none of these rocks are moving. A while back, there was a mining company the quarried some of the granite. You can tell this by looking at some of the rock today. In the rock remaining in the quarry there are holes about 2 inches in diameter about 1 foot apart. These holes were created by the dynamite used to break the rock apart. These rocks are so solid and strong that is the only way to break them apart.
Our Gospel tonight takes us through some important times in Peter’s life. Peter’s original name was Simon. He was called to be one of the disciples of Christ. Early in their time together, Jesus asked Simon who he thought he was. Jesus straight out asks him, “Who do you say I am?”. There are plenty of answers he could have given. This time was one of uncertainty. You had people who said John the Baptist was Christ. You had others who leaned towards the prophets as Christ. Even other disciples were uncertain exactly who Jesus was. But Simon responded solidly to Jesus’ question. Simon said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Wow, what a declaration. Simon stood solid in the midst of all the uncertainty. And what was his reward? His reward was a new name. His new name was to be Peter. This signifies something much stronger then just a name change. You see, the Greek word for Peter means “rock”. Jesus had called Peter not only to be one of the twelve, but to build his church upon. Of everyone that Jesus could have picked, he picked Peter to ensure the continuation of the Christian church. Peter was now tasked with being that stone on which the church would be built upon.
So what happens next? There is a large gap of time between the time in which Peter was named Peter, and the time of our reading from John. This time is certainly key to the life of Peter. Throughout the gospels there are mentions of Peter taking on this role of the “rock”. Peter took the forefront role with the disciples on several occasions. One of the most notable times can be found in Matthew chapter 26 in the 33rd verse. Here Peter says, “Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.” It seemed like Peter was on the high road to early Christian church stardom. Could there be anything to topple this rock? There was nothing to stop him, until he met his dynamite.
So what could possibly cause this rock to crumble? Was it some type of massive group of people confronting him? Was it someone high in the government threatening Peter with death? No, Mark tells us it was a servant girl. This single woman pulled Peter apart. She didn’t threaten him, or bring an angry mob with her. All she did was to ask a question. A simple question of knowing Jesus. And then not once, but three times Peter disowns Jesus in front of her and others who gathered around.
What happened here? Let’s not be too quick to judge Peter. Let’s take a look at our own lives first. Maybe we should do a bit of self-assessment. When you think about it, Peter’s story is actually typical today. Peter, like all of us, had the best intentions. He said he would stand fast, even when others fall away. He wanted to be that solid rock for Jesus. We all want that. But then something happens. Think about the conversations at work or at school. You all know the one I’m talking about. Picture a group of people. The topic is religion. As your palms begin to sweat you stroll up and mix into the circle to listen to the topic. Then someone says, “as long as you have some type of religion, isn’t that enough”. And then someone else says, “I’m a good person so I know I’ll be saved”. And what do we do? Do we stand there silently? Maybe a more simpler situation. How about the merging-lanes-cutoff? Do you reach out your window and give a wave of understanding or do you show off some other gesture? Our daily lives aren’t about our rhetoric, it is about our actions. Our actions speak loudly as to if we are a crumbling rock, or if we stand firm through Jesus.
What is Christ doing during this time of Peter’s denial? This is the time in which he is being judged before the Sanhedrin. Here is how I picture that taking place. Imagine a large courtyard. Up in the front you have the Sanhedrin and the chief priests looking to pass judgment upon Jesus. Then off to one side you have a mass of people. A whole group of people ready to give witness against Jesus. This group of people looking to convict Jesus of anything, even if they had to make it up. Now for the other side. There you see Jesus, alone. No one is there supporting him or coming to his defense. No one is ready to bear witness for him. At the time of Peter falling, here was Christ standing firm. We also abandon Christ for our own concerns. When we all have disserted him, Christ stood alone. We are there at the courtyard gathered with those who are against Jesus.
But there is good news at the conclusion of our readings. After His resurrection, Jesus meets his disciples at the shore. Peter is out in the boat, learns that Jesus is approaching, and then jumps in and swims to shore. There they eat breakfast. After breakfast, Jesus has some unfinished business to complete with Peter. This business had to deal with Peter’s denial of Jesus to the servant girl. But how would Jesus approach this? Well, Jesus starts out addressing him as Simon instead of Peter. He goes back to his original name. It is almost like he is addressing him as before he was a disciple. We don’t have a clear explanation as to the exact reason for Jesus calling him Simon. Here is what I surmise. Take us back to the first time Jesus renamed Simon to Peter. Do you remember what the question was? The question Jesus asked of him was, “Who do you say that I am?”. The time on the shore was just a short time after his denial of Jesus in the courtyard. It is almost like Peter had receded back into Simon.
Now on to the questions. Jesus asks these three questions to Simon. First he asks, “Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?”. Secondly he asks, “Simon son of John, do you truly love me?”. And finally he asks, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”. Did you notice in the first two questions Jesus says “truly love” and the third he asks just “love”? There are two Greek word for love that pertains to these verses. One is agapao and the other is phileo. Agapao love is love that is on a higher level, love that is more divine. Phileo love is on a lower level, it is more human like and basic. Keeping that in mind, Peter replies to the first question by saying “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”. Did you notice the absence of the word truly in the translation? That is because Simon did not use agapao in his response instead he used phileo. I think this is extremely important to note. Because of his experience in the courtyard Peter now has a chastened attitude. He is gaining humility in front of the Lord. Peter’s use of phileo is more reflective on Peter’s feeling of humility instead of Christ’s power and his desire to love him appropriately. In fact, Peter adds laud to Jesus name by responding the way he responded. He responded not directly answering His question but by saying, “You know that I love you.”. That response puts the focus on Christ and God’s omniscient self. Then came the question the third time. This cut to the bone for Peter. First, Christ changed His wording to user Peter’s word of phileo. Also, as Peter declared, our Lord is all knowing. He knew that Peter had denied him in the courtyard three times. This third asking of the question reminded Peter of this.
This interesting combination of emotions was best explained by John of the Ladder in his work, “The Ladder of the Divine Ascent”. There he uses the term, “joy-producing sorrow”. Think of how accurately “joy-producing sorrow” tells or our entire Lenten season. We are filled with sorrow just like Peter over the events that took place Maundy Thursday through Good Friday. Our denials of Christ are well known to God because he truly is all knowing. But there is joy there. We don’t wallow in sorrow because the story doesn’t end at Christ’s death. Joy is brought about with the reflection of the outcome which is Christ’s glorious resurrection and conquering of death.
So where does that leave us? Is it enough to approach our love for the Lord with humility as He stood alone for us when we disserted Him at His death? No, not at all. Jesus makes that clear during this banter back and forth with Peter. After Peter speaks of his love, Christ has some commands for him. The words Jesus use point to feeding and shepherding. The words point to the total “taking care” of the sheep. That is Christ’s command to us too. We are not to be bystanders in the lives of others. We are to be there each step of the way. Although Christ stood alone, He does not want any of His followers to stand alone. Don’t dissert each other. Stand next to each other in your time of need. Not only will you be there for each other, but we also have the blessed assurance that Christ will be standing there with us as well. Amen.
