Jesus revealed himself to his disciples and, when they had finished breakfast, said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He answered him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He then said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He answered him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was distressed that Jesus had said to him a third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.” (John 21.15-17)
For centuries beyond counting, June 29th has been designated as the feast day of Saints Peter and Paul, the day emphasizing their martyrdom in Rome during the reign of Nero who was the Roman Emperor from 54 A.D. until 68 A.D. An ancient tradition maintains that the two apostles were killed during Nero’s persecution of the Christians in the city of Rome, his assault on the Christians an effort to divert attention away from the fire that destroyed much of the city.
Putting the blame for the fire on the Christians allowed him to pursue his own political ends. Although there is no exact date for the martyrdom of Peter and Paul, the year 64 A.D. is usually offered because of its alignment with the burning of Rome. Also, according to an old tradition, Peter was crucified with his body upside down and Paul was beheaded, crucifixion not permitted for a citizen of Rome as Paul was.
There is evidence that the special day commemorating the martyrdom of these two pivotal leaders of the early Christian church was already in full swing in the 4th century. Some scholars suggest that the feast day was begun to replace the pagan festival celebrating the twin founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus. If so, it was not unique in that regard, pagan buildings and pagan festivals often reinvented to support the Christian religion that now served as the official state religion. Christmas was another such celebration superimposed onto the popular pagan celebration of the winter solstice.
Given the fact that the feast has the overlay of the martyrdom of these leaders of the Christian church, it would suggest that our attention today should be directed towards their self-sacrifice and total commitment to the ways of Jesus the Crucified Lord. Like Jesus, Peter and Paul made the ultimate sacrifice, putting their lives on the line for the gospel.
I would agree that the two of them deserve recognition for their faithfulness to the ways and words of Jesus. At the same time, their lives also serve as a challenge to the rest of us who want to answer the call to discipleship, reminding us that the road we walk is a narrow one as Rabbi Jesus warned the apostles, not a wide one with easy passage guaranteed.
However, I think it also benefits us to shift our attention from what ostensibly could be argued as their finest moment and instead look at the long road that they walked that brought them to this last chapter of their lives. There is much for us to see from that point of view as well, since truth be told, few of us are ready to lay down our lives for the gospel. Most of us are works in progress and it should encourage us to know that Peter and Paul also were works in progress, their faith and faithfulness hard-earned and tried and tested along the way.
The first thing I think we should remember is that these two men were very different from the start and it is unfair to them and to us to lump them into the one-size-fits-all notion of discipleship. The gospels make clear that Peter was an ordinary man who made a living as a fisherman. In all likelihood, he had little to no formal education, earning his keep by the work of his hands. In all ways, he probably was rustic and rough, his days spent in a boat alongside other men who had little time for fine manners or erudite thinking.
Born in Galilee, he would be labeled a Galilean all his life, meaning he was from the backwaters, a country bumpkin in every way. He was easily dismissed because of his birthplace, always recognized by the accent that he carried with him, not taken seriously. Of course, it was much the same for Jesus. The Jews asked themselves, “How does he know scripture without having studied?” Likewise, they were quick to say that “The Messiah will not come from Galilee.”
Paul, on the other hand, was a learned man. Born in Tarsus in the Cilicia region of Southern Turkey, he was the first to say that he had been brought up in the city of Jerusalem where he studied under the Jewish teacher Gamaliel. “I was educated strictly in our ancestral law and was zealous for God,” he said of his early years.
As a result, he was an educated man and cosmopolitan in outlook. He could hold his own in any debate on doctrine and belief. He would stand in the Areopagus in Athens and offer a brilliant intro to the Christian belief, telling the Athenians of the city that the altar he saw inscribed in the city with the words “to a God unknown” was, in fact, “the God who made the world and all that is in it, the Lord of heaven and earth.”
So, we find with even a cursory look that these two apostles were very different men in almost every measure, including their education, experience, and personalities. And yet, they found common cause in the way of Jesus and worked together to further his teachings. That is not to say that they agreed on everything. Paul makes it clear that they did not, telling the Galatians that “When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he clearly was wrong.”
Peter, to his credit, came to see that he had been wrong in his thinking about the Gentiles and admitted as much. He was humble enough to see that Paul was right. In one of the letters that carries his name, he offered these wise words, “As each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God’s varied grace.” It would appear that he recognized both the different gifts that each person has and the benefit that comes from those differences when all work together for the good of the gospel. He had learned as much from his own life and from his work with Paul.
As a result, it became clear that Peter’s gifts were better suited for a Jewish audience and Paul’s gifts were more attuned to a Gentile audience. Of course, these were not lines in the sand that could not be crossed, but simply an acknowledgement that gifts varied and, as a result, could be used each in its own way for the furtherance of the gospel.
It is a good reminder to us that authentic discipleship is never cookie-cutter, everybody bringing to the table the same tools and outlooks, but instead is a patchwork quilt made up of differences in perspectives and personalities united in a common effort to bring the good news of Jesus to a world very much in need of good news.
Another thing that the lives of these two chief apostles makes abundantly clear to us is that both of them made mistakes along the way. They were wonderfully imperfect as is every other person. They had past failures and shameful moments that they were not proud of. In other words, they did not come out of the womb as born saints. Any saintliness that they acquired along the way came from hard work and from learning from their mistakes.
As the gospels make clear again and again, Peter was often clueless and slow to get the message. He often tried to get Jesus to play the game of least resistance, wanting him to back away from conflict or from possible danger. He tended to believe in the “play nice” school of thought, or at least in the “let’s not ruffle feathers” stance.
So, Jesus had to remind him at every bend in the road that standing up for what is right and just requires backbone and strength of character, the opposite of becoming like silly putty in the hands of antagonists. At one point, after Peter has chastised Jesus for walking on the side of danger, Jesus rebukes him, saying, “Get behind me, Satan.” That reprimand was more than a slap on the hand.
Of course, as we know only too well, Peter failed miserably in the moment, going so far as to deny any association with Jesus when the chips were down and Jesus’ life was on the line. “I don’t know the man,” Peter said when there was the suggestion that he also was guilty by association. The gospel tells us that it was not a single denial, but one done three times in close succession, cementing his cowardice and proving him to be a fair-weather friend.
Paul, for his part, did no better, becoming a vigilante against the members of the early Christian community in Jerusalem. Later, he would be the first to admit the error of his ways, confessing that he had “persecuted this Way to death, binding both men and women and delivering them to prison.” He even carried letters from the Jewish religious leaders that allowed him to “bring back to Jerusalem in chains for punishment those” who practiced the way of Jesus.
Years later, he still carried the guilt of his wrongheadedness, writing to the people of Corinth that he was “the least of the apostles, not fit to be called an apostle because he had persecuted the church of God.” His persecution was so zealous that it would take much work and much time for him to be accepted into the community of believers in Jerusalem, everyone questioning if he truly had changed his ways.
Which moves us to a third consideration. Both men grew into better people. A moment came in their lives when they made a change, switched directions, and became the men they were meant to be. It was a long time in the making, but when it happened, they apparently did not look back, deciding that they would stand with Jesus regardless of the personal cost to themselves.
For Peter, that moment may have come when the Risen Lord asks him a simple question, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” We are privy to that conversation, given to us today in our selection from the gospel of John. It was one of the post-resurrection appearances of the Lord Jesus, and the painful question that he directs to Peter not once, but three times, seems to serve as a corrective to the cowardice that he had shown only days before.
Denying Jesus three times in the courtyard of the high priest, Peter now is given the opportunity to make amends, assuring the Risen Lord that he does love him, giving the answer three times to erase his earlier three denials of Jesus. Perhaps the question is meant to force Peter to search his heart and to go on record that he will now follow the ways of Jesus wholeheartedly, not only when it serves his interest.
Of course, we are all familiar with the story about a similar moment that comes in the life of Paul while on his way to Damascus when he was knocked from his horse and a light from the sky blinded him. “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” the Risen Lord asks him. For three days he was without sight, but on the third day his eyes were opened when scales fell from them.
In that moment, he made a 180 turn in his life, proclaiming Jesus in the synagogues, confounding his listeners because they only knew him as the man who had persecuted the followers of Jesus. It would take three years before he met with the apostles in Jerusalem and proved to them that he was the real deal, now committed to the ways of Jesus just as they were.
Writing to the Corinthians much later, he told them, “By the grace of God I am who I am and his grace to me has not been ineffective.” Indeed, it was not. As he neared the end of his life, he could honestly speak the words that he spoke to his protege Timothy, “The time of my departure is at hand. I have competed well. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.”
In a short while, he and Peter would meet their deaths at the hands of the Roman emperor, accepting their end with confidence and with trust that they had done the work assigned to them. Each one of them was different from the other in many ways, but each one was committed to the way of Jesus. Their past failures were behind them and now, in the words of Paul, “I have been crucified with Christ. Yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me.”
Today, we remember these two men and we honor them for becoming faithful followers of the Risen Lord. Their lives serve as worthy examples for us who still move towards that same faithful discipleship, summoning us to accept the Lord’s call to love and to serve others as he did, asking us also to put all on the line for the One whom we profess to be the way, the truth, and the life.
–Jeremy Myers
Sunday Brunch 