Thought of the Day 04.05.10

The Apostle Peter has a reputation for some magnificent failures, but is this a good reading of the passages?

For instance, when walking on the water, Peter started to sink because he focused on the storm instead of Jesus, which was certainly a failure. However, Peter was the only one in that boat full of disciples who both asked permission to be with Jesus on the water and then tried to do so.

On the other, even more famous occasion, Peter denied Christ three times to strangers after having professed that He would never do so. But all the disciples had said this, and they all abandoned Him (Matthew 26:35, 56). At least Peter tried to defend Jesus with a sword (Matthew 26:51, John 18:10), and only Peter was concerned enough about Jesus to risk his own arrest by following Him to His encounter with the Jewish Council. Being close enough to be challenged as a follower of Jesus required him to get that close in the first place, unlike the others.

Thus, right in the midst of his most famous failures, Peter actually showed himself to be more eager for Jesus than the other disciples. If only he had played it safe, his failures wouldn’t have been so well documented. But would that have made him a better disciple?