Yearly Archives: 2012

Try Again (…from yesterday)

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The thorny Q&A session between Jesus and his buddy Peter was awkward at best. Jesus initiated:

“Peter, do you agape me?” (Greek word for pure, sacrificial, God-like love)

“Yes, Lord, you know I phileo you.” (Greek word for best-friend love)

Then Jesus asked the same thing again and got the same answer:

“Peter, do you agape me?”

“Yes, Lord, you know I phileo you.”

But the third time, Jesus changed his question a little, using Peter’s word. “Peter, do you phileo me?”

Peter heard the switch and may have sighed and slumped his shoulders before answering. “Lord, you know everything. You know I phileo you.”

*                 *                 *                 *                 *                 *                 *

What was the point of that conversation?

I agree with scholars that Jesus asked Peter 3 questions to symbolize his 3 denials, giving him a chance to confirm love rather than betrayal, but something else was going on, too.

This was Peter’s second chance to say the right thing, and this time he wanted to be impeccably honest. So when Jesus asked if he had a pure agape love for him, Peter’s only correct response had to be, “Yes, I really love you, Lord, but I’m only as good as phileo. Remember, I’m the betrayal guy, which proves how far I have to go to get to agape.” Having to answer Jesus as he did probably stabbed Peter in his emotional heart, but at least he knew he’d told the truth this time.

But Jesus plowed ahead and asked the question again! Ouch. Peter probably thought, “Didn’t he hear me? Or is he unhappy with my answer?” But he stuck with the truth. When Jesus asked a third time, Peter was beside himself… until he realized Jesus was communicating a quiet message of acceptance and understanding. “Ok Peter. So you love me with a brotherly phileo love, is that it?”

The text says Peter was really hurting, but he responded appropriately. “You know everything, so you know that phileo is the best I can do.” Jesus was satisfied with his response, because immediately after that he changed the subject.

Something about this conversation increases my love for Jesus. He did two important things for Peter in their exchange. He gave him a chance to redeem himself from his awful betrayals, and he let Peter know he accepted him just as he was, duplicity and all.

Jesus is still doing those same two things for us today, handing us 2nd chances (and 3rd, 4th, 5th) to redeem our past mistakes, and showing us that no matter what we’ve done, he still accepts us. We may never reach agape here on earth, but I have a hunch once we’ve moved in with Jesus, he’ll show us how.

A third time he asked him, “Simon son of John, do you phileo me?” Peter was hurt that Jesus asked… a third time. He said, “Lord, you know everything. You know that I phileo you.” (John 21:17)

 

I can’t deny it.

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Hollywood and the Bible have something in common: they’re both full of stories, not to mention the colorful personalities populating them. God’s plots and those of filmmakers could be skewed any way the authors choose, but the movie that sells the most tickets is usually the one with the most reprehensible characters in its script. We’d rather see actors make trouble than watch halo-worthy people do everything right.

God knows that, which is why he’s included so many off-kilter stories in the Bible. It’s more of a tell-all book than a goodie-two-shoes tale. He could have shown us only the holy side of his players, but instead he spells out the whole story, even the seedy parts.

How come?

It’s probably to convince us his Word is about real people, people who may have lived thousands of years ago but are really very much like us. Once we buy into that, we can learn from their rebellious behavior (and its resulting consequences) as much as from their cooperation with God. Probably more so.

Lively guys like superman Samson, bully Goliath, longsuffering Noah, first-man Adam, temper-tantrum Jonah, and dancing David are intriguing. All of them got into massive messes, and as we study those exciting (and sometimes far-fetched) stories, we shake our heads and remember what not to do.

When Jesus arrived on the biblical pages, he continued to acquaint us with people who were out-of-the-ordinary, even strange, putting his words and experiences into everyday contexts. Take his 12 disciples, for example, men of all ages, educational backgrounds, and professions. Some were gracious, others abrasive, but as we get to know them, we can see ourselves in their behavior.

Personally I relate to Peter the most. During the 3 years of Jesus’ ministry, Peter was probably about my age, older than the rest of the men and because of that, supposedly wiser. Instead we’re shown an impetuous character who was often reckless in his responses to circumstances. For instance, betraying and abandoning his dear friend Jesus when he needed him most.

In another incident (this one in John 21), Peter plays the lead in a grilling session that takes place at the beach, and I don’t mean on a Weber. Jesus had risen from the dead, and a handful of his disciples had just finished a spontaneous picnic breakfast with him at the edge of a lake.

Peter, probably unsure of where he stood with Jesus after his 3 blatant lies about him (using swear words for emphasis), was no doubt thrilled to be sharing a meal with him again. After they’d all finished eating, Jesus turned toward the impulsive Peter and zeroed in on him with a thorny Q&A session.

(Concluded tomorrow)

Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord.” (John 21:12)

Well Care

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Throughout the childhoods of my 7 children, we used only one pediatrician, Dr. Bernard Hankin, and during 34 years of active parenting, we visited him hundreds of times. On one of those occasions, when I was toting a feverish child, I said to him, “How do you stay well with a continual parade of sick kids coming to you?”

“When I was a young doctor,” he said, “I caught all kinds of things. But I’ve built up immunity to almost everything now, and I virtually never get sick.”

Going through sickness can build resistance to more of it. The vaccines Dr. Hankin gave our children were examples of the same principle, an intentional but small dose of the disease in exchange for not having to fight the full-blown version.

God sort of inoculates us in similar fashion. He lets us take on some of the disease of sin, hoping we’ll quickly identify it as a “sick” way to live and immediately step away from it. If we insist on experiencing sin’s “illness” in a full-blown version, he lets us have it.

Today’s youngsters are fortunate in not having to suffer through many of the childhood diseases my generation did: measles (several kinds), mumps, chicken pox, even polio for some. The generation before mine had to deal with all that, plus whooping cough, tuberculosis, diphtheria, typhoid, small pox, and killer infections. As science continues to gain knowledge of infectious diseases, the rest of us gain the benefits of fighting them more effectively.

Fighting the disease of sin, though, is a different story. It’s negative consequences don’t usually appear immediately, just as being exposed to a disease doesn’t produce symptoms for several days. But at that point, it may be too late for God’s preventive medicine. He might say, “I’m sorry you had to go this route, because doing things my way would have been like using a protective vaccine. But now you’re choosing the full-blown disease.”

Thankfully, the Lord doesn’t turn away after that. Just like a parent goes out of his or her way to soothe an ailing child, God administers reassurance and doesn’t let us wallow in our misery without offering to help us. When we finally say, “I can’t heal myself!” and recognize his way is the only way to rid ourselves from sin, he shows us the route back to good behavioral health, through Jesus. I know this from harsh experience and have gradually grown to be a devotee of his preventive measures.

Our friend and medical mentor Dr. Hankin is now in his 80’s, and though my children are too old to bring in for exams, he’s still active in his pediatric practice. His conservative approach to doctoring was something Nate and I appreciated, and his medical advice always yielded good results. Because of that, each time we left his office we were faithful to follow his orders.

If only I could always follow God’s instructions with the same faithfulness.

“Godliness with contentment is great gain.” (1 Timothy 6:6)