In my progress through the Gospel of John this year, I recently arrived at the story of Peter’s bold proclamation to Jesus:
I will lay down my life for you.” Then Jesus answered, “Will you really lay down your life for me? Very truly I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times! (John 13:36-38)
Like many well-known passages, familiarity has rubbed all the sharp edges smooth on this one. It’s easy to chuckle at Peter’s misplaced self-confidence without probing any deeper into ourselves.
Thankfully, my companion through John’s gospel (F. Dale Bruner’s commentary) served me well by collecting comments on Peter that span almost 20 centuries.
The best words I can offer you today are not mine, but these reflections on Peter’s weakness:
“…you will learn by experience itself that your love is of no account unless grace from above is present. From this it is clear that Christ permitted [this] fall of Peter’s because of His concern for him…so that he might learn his own weakness.”
Chrysostom (349-407), Archbishop of Constantinople and Early Church Father
“Peter, humanly, attributes too much to his own strength. Let us learn to distrust our own strength.”
John Calvin, founder of the Reformed movement in the Protestant Reformation
“The most secure are commonly the least safe; and those most shamefully betray their own weakness that most confidently presume upon their own strength.”
Matthew Henry (1662-1714), popular bible commentator
“It is therefore clear that the following of Jesus is not an act of heroism. Whoever should think that—this is the meaning of the prophecy of [Peter’s] denial—will come to grief; the world will very quickly become lord over him, as it was really lord over Peter already.”
Rudolf Bultmann (1884-1976), renowned New Testament scholar
“Peter thinks…that the Christian faith is mainly something we disciples do for Jesus and not, supremely, what Jesus does continually for, to and through disciples.”
F. Dale Bruner, Gospel of John
Admitting Weakness
Not long ago I was introducing myself to a mission agency that might support my ministry coaching leaders interested in transformational growth. I wrote about the many positive transformations in the congregation I served in California over 21 years, often backing up my statements with specific numbers about budget growth, numbers involved in small groups,
The director of the group replied with a quiet rebuke—yes, it was fine to talk about what I had accomplished, but his mission had a policy of downplaying numbers. I replied, “Yes, I know what you mean, but today to get a hearing about what you can offer, it seems you need to convince them with numbers to get their attention.”
I reflected later that, for much of my pastoral ministry, I was frustrated by the church growth movement’s fixation on numbers as the only measure of success. Now, as the cartoon Pogo classically stated, “We have met the enemy…and it is us!”
In today’s world, capturing attention is the coin of the realm. And, I freely but sadly admit, I am now in that same jostling crowd seeking attention.
Earlier generations—even in my lifetime—greatly admired humble people. Humble people also captured attention, but without trying to do so, usually even without awareness that anyone else was watching them.
“The most secure are commonly the least safe…and those most shamefully betray their own weakness that most confidently presume upon their own strength.”
Does this sentence stop you dead in your tracks? It does me. When I “confidently presume upon my own strength,” I am the least safe!
If I’m to have a tiny smidgen of Jesus’s life rub off on me so that I move counter-culturally towards humility rather than away from it, I must cling for dear life to my weakness!
I must admit my weakness to myself (and others) at every opportunity. And I must not simply admit weaknesses, but take time to reflect on them. (Paul: “When I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:10)
If I do not admit and reflect on my weaknesses, I will inevitably end up displaying them by acting on them (even without realizing it, as Peter does). This is inevitably what happens to all who “confidently presume upon their own strength.
We all face the same simple choice—either openly admit our weakness or openly display our weakness to the world (as Peter does after the cock crows).
Hero Complex
“You are going to lay down your life for me?” Jesus queries, in what appears to be genuine astonishment.
“Peter, you have the whole thing upside down,” we can almost hear Jesus saying.
“I am going to lay down my life for you. I tried to show you this at the foot washing a little while ago, and you only belatedly got it then, if you got it at all.
How many times do I have to tell you: You are not the hero in this story. You are going to come perilously close to being a villain in it.”
F. Dale Bruner, Gospel of John
Of all the sobering comments above, the one that most gets under my skin is by Rudolf Bultmann:
“It is therefore clear that the following of Jesus is not an act of heroism. Whoever should think that…will come to grief; the world will very quickly become lord over him…”
The Spanish Inquisition had no doubt they were heroes defending God by rooting out the unholy, even if their methods were more ungodly than any crimes they uncovered.
The Protestant vs. Catholic conflicts like the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) that caused immense human suffering across Europe for generations were fought by heroes convinced God wanted to punish their opponents through them.
Today, white evangelicals assume they are God’s heroes, spitting in the eye of secular elites while manning the last bulwark defending a (white) Christian America, no matter what biblical principles they sacrifice to do so.
It is perilous whenever we think we are the heroes! Church history shows that all these stories end the same way: Christians intending to be heroes end up as villains. How can good motives become so perverted?
Whoever should think that [he is a hero for Jesus]…will come to grief; the world will very quickly become lord over him…”
The world inextricably seeps into every heroic human emotion. Soon the world, not God, provides the model for how these heroes operate.
- Worldly heroes seek and need power. God’s heroes (Jesus) give up power.
- Worldly heroes fight their enemies. God’s heroes (Jesus) love their enemies.
- Worldly heroes win through winning. God’s heroes (Jesus) win through losing.
Jesus’ temptations by Satan in the desert are all the same. All are temptations to use his power to overcome and win.
At the cross, Jesus trusts his heavenly Father that he will win by losing. Human heroes never want or intend to lose. Human heroes can’t stand losing.
Which brings us back, finally, to weakness. Following Jesus is not an act of heroism. It is an act of weakness.
We have absolutely nothing to offer God, especially our heroic defense of God’s honor.
Only by God’s grace can we discover how incredibly weak we truly are. Only then can we leave winning in God’s hands.
Such a powerful reminder that we must act as if we believe what we pray- that “God’s Will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven.” God’s Will. Not our will. Remembering this is difficult in today’s society as one’s power increasingly is a measure of that individual’s worth. Thank you also for affirming that the true measure of walking with Jesus cannot be tallied with spread sheets and account balances. In a world consumed with such displays of power, thank you for pointedly asking us to recall Christ’s Words.