Episode 7 - Peter and the Risen Christ

Luke 24:34 tells us that Simon Peter had a meeting with the risen Christ - what was that like? Pastor Dan walks us through this hidden Easter story

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Hey everybody, welcome to another Sermon Prep Podcast. I'm Dan Metzgram, the pastor at St. Mark's United Methodist Church here in Finley, and I just want to say happy Holy Week to everybody. I don't know when it is you might be listening to this. Maybe it's already past the Easter holiday. But uh right now we're recording this during Holy Week, and uh it's actually um Tuesday. We're gonna be going it tomorrow is Spy Wednesday, the day that we remember Judas betraying Jesus. Uh then we have uh Maundy, Thursday, Maundy from the Latin word for mandatum. Uh the word um that means mandate, and it refers back to Jesus' new command, his new mandate in the upper room, the new command that we should love one another. Of course, then we go into Good Friday and then Holy Saturday, the the remembrance of Jesus being in the tomb, and it felt like death had won and uh like this was gonna be the end, but we know that behind the scenes Jesus is actively defeating death on that day for us. And uh then, of course, the next day we get to Easter Sunday, and uh really excited to celebrate that this coming weekend. Um, we've been walking through the uh the story of the upper room as told in John's gospel here at our church, and uh we're finishing it up this week by looking at um two things. One, the the meal itself. We'll talk a little bit about what that Last Supper meal was and how that kind of ties into Easter. And then we're gonna look in at this story that happens in Luke's gospel. Uh, it's in uh chapter 24, I believe, of um the the two disciples who are walking on the road to Emmaus, and the risen Christ appears to them, they don't know that it's him until they get to their home and they invite him in, and they uh we're told that he um makes himself known in the breaking of bread together. And so that ties in, I think, to the uh whole idea of uh the Lord's Supper, and so we'll talk about that this Sunday. But what I wanted to talk about today, there's um after these two disciples uh have this experience with Jesus, and Jesus breaks bread, and then their eyes are open, they understand that it's him, then he vanishes. They hurry back uh to Jerusalem to find the disciples. And when they get back to Jerusalem, they get back to the upper room, they find the disciples, and they say, You guys, it's true. Jesus is risen. And the disciples say uh in chapter 24, verse 34, there they say, We know he appeared to Simon. And uh that's when they begin to tell their story, they begin to share with one another what's happened and uh how he made himself known in the breaking of bread. But I just want to take a minute and kind of pause and look at this one verse because it's really I I we're gonna read a lot into this today, um, and what this could possibly mean. So uh Luke 24, 34, it says this when they says, after they had got up and returned to Jerusalem, they found the eleven, those who were staying assembled together, and it says, and saying, It is true, the Lord has risen and appeared to Simon, and then the two told what happened on the way. So just in this telling, we we get this um the telling of the disciples to these these two who have come from Maeus, that he has appeared to Simon. That's all we know about this story, really. There's this kind of time, apparently, when Jesus, uh, after his resurrection, appears just to Simon, or we know him also as Peter. Uh, this seems to be confirmed in 1 Corinthians 15. Paul, uh, when he's recounting the resurrection of Christ, he mentions this event that, yeah, after Jesus returned, he went and spent some time with Simon Peter. Uh, he calls him Cephas, it's the Aramaic name for Peter. So there's kind of, and we we never get in any of the Gospels a story of what happened when Jesus appeared to Simon, to Simon Peter, just the two of them. All we know is that it happened. And so I just want to kind of imagine for a moment today what that might have been like. Uh, this had to have been one of the most intense um uh interactions in the Gospels, and we have no details on it. Uh, I can only imagine what that would have been like. So just kind of to recap, of course, um uh Simon is one of the disciples that that's called by Jesus very early on, comes from uh Capernaum. He's a fisherman, he's he seems to be one of the kind of inner three. There's there's uh Simon and James and John. That it kind of seems like that they're all kind of there together. And it's when they are in Caesarea Philippi uh that Jesus says um to his disciples, you know, who do people say that I am? And they say, Well, some say you're John the Baptist, and others say that you're one of the prophets or uh or Elijah or somebody come back from the dead, and he says to them, But who do you say that I am? And it's Simon Peter, Simon, who speaks up and he says, You are the Christ, you are the Son of the living God. And that's when Jesus says, You know, blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, and I tell you that your name is Peter. He gives him this new name. Peter means rock, and it and he says, and on this rock I will build my church, which is really apropos, because they're they're in uh Caesarea Philippi, and there's this big rock outcropping, and there's all of these Roman gods, this pantheon of gods kind of built into it. So it's it's kind of this um play on where it uh where they are in that moment. But from then on, he's kind of known as Peter, like that's his Jesus-given name. He's he is Peter, he's the rock on which the church is going to be built. And of course, you probably know the story then that that you know he he tries to do his best to follow Jesus, of course, later on, right after he gets this new name from Jesus. He messes up almost immediately because Jesus starts saying that I'm going to go and I'm going to be arrested and I'm going to be killed by the chief priests and the and the elders, and then on the third day I'll rise again. And Simon Peter, he takes Jesus aside and says, You can't talk like that. And Jesus says, Get behind me, Satan. So he goes from being Peter the rock to Satan in like just a few minutes. It's not great. Uh, but he he's mostly he's kind of bumbling. We know this, we know that he he's well intentioned, but he messes up all the time, it seems like, and is uh always quick to speak and slow to think, uh, which I have that problem sometimes also. Um but he he try he's trying his best and he's one of the leaders and and we know this. And uh at the Last Supper, Jesus tells them after Judas has um he sends Judas away, knowing that Judas is going to betray him. Jesus tells all the disciples, tonight all of you are gonna fall away. Um and they all say, No, Lord, we would never do that. And Peter is adamant, Lord, I will never fall away. Everyone else might leave, but I won't. And Jesus says, Won't you? This very night before the rooster crows, you're gonna deny me three times. You're gonna deny that you even know who I am. You're gonna uh pretend like you don't even know me before this night's out. And Peter says, even if I die, I would never deny you. He's so well-intentioned and he's so adamant. I mean, he's the rock. He's the rock on which the church is gonna be built. Like he's he's Jesus' right-hand man. And of course, they go to the Garden of Gethsemane, the the soldiers come to arrest Jesus. Peter tries to make good on his promise. He draws his sword, he's ready to fight, cuts off the ear of a servant, which I don't know how you just cut off someone's ear without also getting into the shoulder. How do you swing the sword and do that? I don't know. Uh, but regardless, that we're told that's what happened. Jesus says, put your sword away, heals the man, and Peter, not being allowed to fight, doesn't know what else to do. And so he slinks into the shadows. But he follows at a distance. He follows as they take Jesus and they they take him to the house of the high priest. Uh there's a place you can go today in the Holy Land, um, the church of Saint Peter in Galankantu, which means um uh of the rooster crow. And uh there's a statue of this, it's this pillar with a rooster on top, and and Peter sitting down at the bottom of it, and people questioning him, asking, Aren't you one of his followers? As Jesus is in the house being questioned, Peter's sitting out in the courtyard, he's trying to hear, and these people are coming and they're asking him, Aren't you, aren't you? You're a Galilean, you've got to be one of his. Listen to your accent. I think I saw you with him. And three times Peter says, I don't even know the guy. I don't know the man. I don't know him. And after he says it for the third time, uh, we're told in the Gospels that he locks eyes with Jesus and the rooster crows, and Peter realizes what he's done, and he he goes off and he's weeping bitterly. Um, I you gotta give Peter a little bit of grace, though, here, right? I mean, for a couple of reasons. One, it's a scary situation. He's tried to fight on Jesus' behalf. Jesus tells him not to. He doesn't know what to do. He's trying to be there, he's trying, but he doesn't know what to do in this moment. And and and I just kind of think about like, I don't, I was thinking about this today. What would have happened if he had answered differently? No, yeah, I know the guy. I'm his right-hand man. Get me in there with him. I mean, what's our what does our religion look like today? What is our what does Christianity look like today if Peter insists on staying by Jesus' side? Does Peter end up on a cross? Uh does Peter end up beaten and thrown out into the street? Do they just laugh at him? Um, I I don't know. Like it's it's interesting to think about like what that what that could have been. Because um, we know one of the prophecies that that one of the the or that the gospels mention is that um Jesus doesn't lose any one of his followers in the midst of all of this. All of his followers stay safe. Now later on, they would run into trouble, but in the midst of all of this, he doesn't lose any of them. Um so we know that that's like a part of the fulfillment of of all of this stuff, all of this messianic prophecy stuff, is that they would all stay safe. But also Jesus needs Peter safe. He's like he needs him to be the one who's gonna carry this thing on later on. He needs him to be watching from a distance. And um he's being tested in this moment. Jesus even says that in one of the um in one of the gospels where it talks about Jesus uh letting Peter know at the Last Supper that you're gonna deny me three times. He says, you know, Satan is sifting you like wheat. This is this is gonna be a challenge for you, Peter. And so Peter is he's at a distance, he's watching all this happening, he's denying, and he ends up running off. We don't get any mention of Peter being there at the crucifixion the next morning. The only disciple we know that was there is John, and and then John is of course there with um with Jesus' mother Mary and some of the other women, and we'll talk about that a little bit on Sunday. But uh who knows where Peter is at that moment, all feeling pretty sorry for himself, I'm guessing. Maybe scared, maybe can definitely confused, um, not knowing what's gonna be next. And then the next thing we know, um it's Sunday morning. Some women come and say the tomb is empty, we don't know what's going on. Uh we're told that Peter is one of them that runs to the tomb. Peter and John run to the tomb, and um and they find the tomb to be empty. And then the next thing that we know, we get this story in the Gospel of Luke, where these guys from Emmaus come back and they say, Hey, we've seen the Lord, and the rest of the disciples say, Yeah, I think Peter has seen him also, except for they don't call him Peter, they call him Simon. And I think that's on purpose. All throughout the you know, Luke 22 and 23, and all this, uh he's referred to as Peter. He's Peter, that's the name Jesus gave him, and now he's he is messed up big time. He fell away, he denied Jesus all this stuff, and you can own you can almost picture like the first time somebody says, uh, one of the other disciples, you know, talks to him, says, Hey Peter, what should we do? And he says, Don't call me that. Call me Simon. I'm not worthy of the name Jesus gave me. Like I'm kind of reading into that a little bit, but can you hear that happening? Can you imagine that happening? Like that name must have hurt to be called Peter because he feels like he's failed. He feels like he's messed up, he's not worthy of it. There's no way he's worthy of it. And I'm just imagining, I think it's so fascinating that we get no details of this story of just the two of them, just the risen Christ and Simon Peter, who's obviously off by himself somewhere. He's not hanging out with the disciples in this moment because it's just Simon Peter and Jesus together. How long did they sit together? What did they talk about? Who was allowed to talk? Was Peter allowed to talk, or did Jesus say, I need you to just listen? And or were there no words exchanged? Was it just an embrace? Was it just a hey, it's okay, I love you, I forgive you. We don't know, we don't get anything here. But I just have you ever had a falling out with someone, and then you unexpectedly like run into them somewhere, like at a grocery store or somewhere, and like, what do you say to each other? Especially if you're the one who was in the wrong and you owe that person a huge apology. Like, what do you what do you say? Can you work up the courage for it? Do you just turn and walk the other way and hope that they didn't see you? What do you do in those moments? What does Peter do in that moment when Jesus just shows up in the most unexpected way? Now, later on in John's Gospel in John 19, we get a little bit more, we do get some insight into a story of the resurrection, resurrected Christ and Peter. Um, they've gone back up to Galilee, Peter's gone out fishing, a guy on the and they're catching nothing, which is pretty much a story. Every time you see Peter fishing, he's catching nothing. He's a he's not just a fisherman, he's a bad fisherman. And somebody from the shore says, Hey, throw your net on the other side, which has happened to him before. He does it, there's a miraculous catch. Peter realizes it's Jesus, jumps out of the boat and swims to shore. And then uh the rest of the disciples are left to bring in the catch of fish. They bring it in, and Jesus has a charcoal fire made there. He's ready to cook dinner for them. He cooks some fish and he sits there and he says, Simon, son of John, son of Jonah, do you love me? And uh Peter says, Yes, of course I love you. And he says, Good, feed my sheep. And he asks it to him two more times. And he says, Feed my lambs, feed my sheep, tend to my sheep. And over and over, like he's asking, and and Peter's like, Yes, I love you. And Jesus' reply is, Well, then take care of my sheep, take care of my people. It's his way of reinstating Peter. He three times he denied him, three times he says, Do you love me? Yes, then feed my sheep. You are still Peter. You are still who I called you to be. I didn't call you because I thought you were perfect and you weren't gonna mess up. I knew who I was calling, I know what you're like, I knew it was gonna be messy with you. I didn't call you because you wouldn't mess up. I called you because you are mine and you are just this is who you are meant to be. And I I I wonder how often we feel like we've disqualified ourselves from service for Christ. Like I mess up so often. I am um, I see other pastors, other churches, I see the things that they're doing. I'm like, oh man, I'm I'm not I'm not doing those things, I'm not at that level, or just things in my life where I like, I'm like, man, I messed up. I'm such a messy person. Um, you know, we're we're all sinners who fall short of the glory of God. And at some point, you know, it's easy to say, I'm not worthy to be where you've put me to be. I should just go back to being a fisherman. Uh, but Jesus is constantly saying, no, I'm not, I'm not calling the qualified, I'm qualifying the the called. The people that I want to come in to do my ministry. Um, and that's what he's doing with Peter. He's saying, I know that you're you're a mess. I know that that you've not done everything right, but you are who I've called you to be. You are Peter. This is who you are. Uh so anyway, I just think I know we're reading a lot into all of this, but man, yeah, I just wonder what it's like that that first time. We get this story in John's gospel, which is cool, we're getting an insight into how they talk to each other, but wouldn't it have been amazing to be there uh for that private meeting between Jesus and Peter and to hear what he said. And you have an option, one of the beautiful things about your life and about the way Jesus interacts with us now through the Holy Spirit is um every day you have a chance for that private one-on-one interaction with Jesus that no one else gets to hear, that doesn't get recorded for everybody else. And I wonder what you do with that. I wonder who gets to speak. Is it you talking to Jesus? Is it Jesus speaking to you, or is it a time where it's just this embrace? An embrace that lets you know that everything's okay. And in in the in the true beauty of the resurrection, Jesus reminding you that the worst thing is never the last thing. That you are never so messed up, you've not you're never so far gone that you are unworthy of love, that you are unworthy of being called to do his great purposes and his work. And so my encouragement to you during this Easter season is that you would take that moment for a private moment with just you and the risen Christ. Maybe there's some things you need to say, maybe there's some things he needs to say to you, or maybe it's just a time where you need to sit in his embrace. I hope you have an awesome Easter season. He is risen, he is risen indeed, and uh, I hope you find somewhere to worship this Easter and to celebrate the resurrection.