In the last three verses of John 13, we see the
focus is centered on Peter. He was a man who was slow to listen but fast to
speak. What’s worst was that he would often speak without thinking through.
Earlier we saw how he had refused to let Jesus washed his feet. Then a few
words from Jesus, he vacillated and asked Jesus to wash his whole body. He was always
swinging from one extreme to another like a pendulum. In reality, most of us
can identify with Peter in some ways. Hence his life has much to teach us on
the practical side of Christian living and service.
Jesus was about to go to the
cross. Judas had left and gone
into his night. The rest of them were still reclining and conversing with Jesus
around the table in the upper room. With the betrayer gone, the Lord began to
talk freely about His glorification. It appears that Peter had evidently missed
what Jesus said about the new commandment to love one another. He only caught
the last part of Jesus’ sayings when He told them that where He was going they
could not follow. So in verse 36, he asked, “Lord, where are You going?” Jesus in response, explicitly
told him, “Where I go,
you cannot follow Me now; but you will follow later.” Thoughtlessly, he protested and retorted saying “…why can I not follow You right now? I will lay down my life for You.”
This is typical of Peter,
slow to listen and quick to speak. He was being presumptuous. Don’t for a moment think that Peter was just
bragging. He seriously meant all that he said.
However, Peter had over-estimated himself. His was his mistaken zeal and
his failure to have a proper estimate of his own ability. He had over rated
himself and showed us that he was a person with a shallow understanding of what
it truly meant to follow Christ at that point. To be true to the Master would
require more than natural human determination, ability and self-will. It
requires that we deeply connect with the Lord and allow Him to take a full
right to control our life.
What Peter had said
revealed that he was too cocksure. He did not give room to the fact that he was
made of clay. Leaning on his own human strength, he wasn’t aware of how weak
and vulnerable that strength could be. But credit to him, he loved Jesus deeply
and could not bear the thought of being separated from Him. Jesus would now
bring Peter to reality, to help him see the real him. So He told Peter in verse 38: “Will you lay
down your life for Me? Truly, truly, I say to you, a rooster will not crow
until you deny Me three times.”
John left us hanging with that statement.
However, we all know that everything fit to the dot on the night of the Lord’s
trial, just as Jesus had told him. The night the cock crowed, something inside
of Peter died. The self-assured, presumptuous Peter saw how self-deluded he was,
and went away to weep bitterly. However, God was not through with him and we
will catch a glimpse of it in John 21.
What happened to Peter to a certain degree
depict us who follow Christ. We can walk the path of the presumptuous Peter, if
we are not rightly connected to the Lord and learn to lean on His strength. If
we fail to make time for quiet reflection of our life in the light of His word,
we may also digress off course. We need to know that our sufficiency is only
found in Christ. Tuck this somewhere in our mind: God is still in the business
of perfecting us. He wants to take us from where we are and bring us to where
we ought to be. His grace will be sufficient for us. Weak as we are, when we
lean on Him, our weakness will
be made perfect through His strength.
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