He will wipe your slate clean!!

We all know the story of Peter in the Bible. Where Peter denied Christ three times, and the hook phrase is that it all happened before the Rooster Crowed.  We all know that story. but have we ever taken a deeper look at that story, and more importantly compared it to your story?

In reading Matthew 26:55-75 you see that story play out.  You see how Peter allowed, all of the things around him, his surroundings, and his emotions get the best of him.

We know Peter to be a deep lover of Jesus.  To be a stringent follower of Jesus, and in fact one of the first disciples.  We know that Peter had a heart for God and believed before he was told, that Jesus is the Son of God.  Peter was one of the first to connect to his spirit, and allow his spirit to deepen his relationship with God, and with Jesus.

Peter, I think is the one anyone would want on their team and I believe that Jesus was very proud of Peter.  Though He knew Peter had faults, but none that couldn’t be overlooked by his teachable heart.

I am sure that Peter was just as amazed, surprised and shocked as we were to find out that he would betray Jesus three times, before the rooster crowed.  I am sure that Peter was certain he would never do such a thing, or even think it, so Jesus must be confused about this one. 

Peter, I am sure, even up until the rooster crowed, was probably grieving inside and amazed that the words denying Jesus even came out of his mouth.  We know that the things in our hearts end up coming out of our mouths, so where even inside of Peter was this denial of Jesus, this rejection of the Man he loved so very much?

I think the truth is hidden in the package.  Peter is a man, a human man.  Peter is able, just like you and me; to sin, lie, be confused, be overwhelmed by our emotions and speak without thinking.  Peter just like us, speaks to protect himself when placed in fear of the unknown.

You see Peter, and the rest of the disciples, were leading a pretty interesting and courageous life, but at the same time pretty cushy, they were following Jesus, so they could expect to be protected, to be shielded and to be safe, while following and learning from Jesus.

They knew that Jesus would meet their needs emotionally, physically and spiritually.  They knew they had nothing to fear, until they did. 

I am positive that when Peter, James and John went with Jesus to pray in Matthew 26 they were confused and probably a little worried to see Jesus in such a state of anguish.  Jesus told them that He was deeply depressed and needed to be alone to seek the Father.

Imagine how that felt to these three men who are used to seeing Jesus as the strong stoic type.  Here he is depressed, saddened and frightened by what lies ahead of Him.  

I am sure just like Peter, any one of us can recall a time when we also denied something or someone out of fear.  We were unsure of what was going to happen to us, and all we knew to do in that moment was save ourselves, and that’s exactly what Peter did.

Now, I am not saying that what Peter did was right, but I am saying, we can learn from what Peter did.  We can learn that when you are put into a high stressful, high fearful and emotionally charged moment, you are not going to be speaking from the overflow of your heart, but from self-preservation.

I believe the three different times we read that Peter denied Christ are the three times that Peter was afraid for his life.  I believe after witnessing Jesus being taken forcefully away from the disciples, and then watching the rest of them flee, Peter was scared.

I believe that when Peter watched them beat, hit, punch, spit on and whip Jesus, Peter was scared.  I also believe that when they sentenced Jesus to death, for doing exactly what Peter had been doing, Peter was very scared.  

All of these emotions, feelings and worries led Peter to speak in a way or manner, even he never imagined he would speak, and he denied Christ.  His best friend,  His Savior, His Teacher, His Mentor, His Provider and the Son of God. 

Can you think of a time when you have done something so bad, or something like this and the pain you felt immediately after.  The pain was so much, that you wanted to invent a time machine to erase the words that had slipped from your mouth, without even filtering through your brain.

I can think of many!                                               

We all can, if we are honest. 

And just like Peter we can’t take them back.  We can’t change the words or actions and make them not happen.  We can’t erase the pain that they caused or repair the fractured hearts that happened in the aftermath.  

All we can do is cry, just as Peter did. 

There are many lessons to be learned from this story of Peter, and the two that stand out to me is, you can never underestimate the power that fear has on you, and the enemy is truly out to kill, steal and destroy.

Personally, I think this was satan, all three times, feeding Peter the words to say to deny Christ, in the hopes that Peter would be finished in serving God.  I believe that satan wanted to do whatever he could to separate Jesus from Peter and Peter from God, but you see, just as we have all seen, and experienced so many times, satan’s trick failed.

Peter did what we all would do in his place, he wallowed in his sadness.  He hung his head in shame, and then didn’t show his face to Jesus when He went on the Cross. Peter did what we all do when we are afraid, he ran.  He ran from himself, from his feelings, from his friends and reverted back to the person he once was. 

Peter went back to fishing!

Have you ever had someone run on you out of fear?  Have you ever run out of fear? I’ve experienced both and both are equally as damaging and painful for both the person running and the person left behind.

The wonderful thing about this story is we can learn from Peter. We can learn to be on guard in those times when we feel overly confident and smug, but also those times when we are extremely insecure and vulnerable.

We are always open for attack from the enemy, but he comes harder, I think, when you are weakened.  When you are vulnerable, or over secure, I think you can expect to see satan try to wipe you out.  He tried with Peter and wasn’t successful! 

Now, we all know why he wasn’t successful and that’s because of our Hero in this story, Jesus.

Jesus shows us exactly how we are to respond to situations like these when they occur in our lives. 

After Jesus was resurrected from the Cross, three days later, He rose again, and upon being seen he directed Mary to go tell the disciples and Peter!

AND PETER!!

You see, Jesus shows us that forgiveness is the only way to match denial.  Forgiveness is the only way to beat anger, rage, lies, denial and the master of all those things, satan.

When Jesus said go tell the disciples and Peter, He was wiping the slate clean.  He was saying to Peter you are still the man that I called and still the man I am calling today.  You are still my friend, and I am still very much with you and teaching you.

Jesus is saying and doing the same things for us today. 

Jesus is saying go tell the disciples and YOU.  There is nothing, no-thing, you can do to make Jesus not love you.  You can deny Him three times, like Peter did, but He will still love you, and still give you another chance.  Jesus will always be standing outside the door asking for you, knocking for you, calling for you. 

Jesus will always be saying go tell the disciples AND YOU…  He’s here waiting for you, be like Peter and come to Him and allow Him to wipe your slate clean!