(Note: This blog entry is based on the text for “When You Think God Hates You”, originally shared on April 28, 2022. It was the 210th video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.)
This is our 210th blog, which is appropriate because, like
the 210 Freeway, it contains anguish and bewilderment, it seems to go slow but
then it goes fast, and it is a stark reminder of human limitations in the face
of the call to obedience. In the end, it gives us both hope and direction.
In our last blog, Breakfast on the Beach, we looked at a passage from
John where Jesus had appeared to his disciples for the third time after his
torture, death and his resurrection. He was hanging out with them at the Sea of
Galilee, and he had organized the breakfast on the beach.
The disciples were kind of discombobulated
by what had happened, and who wouldn’t be. Not only did they have no context
for believing that Jesus had risen from the dead, even though he had said that
he would, and they had seen and interacted with him, but all of them had
abandoned Jesus when things got rough.
Let’s just say that his appearances felt a
little awkward for all of them, but especially for Peter. He was the big guy,
the impulsive believer, the bold actor. After the Last Supper, this had
happened, in Matthew 26:31-35
31 Then Jesus said to them, “You will all become deserters because of me
this night; for it is written,
‘I will strike the shepherd,
and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’
32 But after I am raised up, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.” 33 Peter
said to him, “Though all become deserters because of you, I will never desert
you.” 34 Jesus said to him, “Truly I tell you, this
very night, before the cock crows, you will deny me three times.” 35 Peter
said to him, “Even though I must die with you, I will not deny you.” And so said
all the disciples.
So, how did that turn out? Here’s what
happened, in John 18:15-18, and 25-27
15 Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus. Since
that disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the courtyard
of the high priest, 16 but Peter was standing
outside at the gate. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest,
went out, spoke to the woman who guarded the gate, and brought Peter in. 17 The
woman said to Peter, “You are not also one of this man’s disciples, are you?”
He said, “I am not.” 18 Now the slaves and the
police had made a charcoal fire because it was cold, and they were standing
around it and warming themselves. Peter also was standing with them and warming
himself.
25 Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. They
asked him, “You are not also one of his disciples, are you?” He denied it and
said, “I am not.” 26 One of the slaves of the high
priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, “Did I not see
you in the garden with him?” 27 Again Peter denied
it, and at that moment the cock crowed.
Here they are now on the beach in Galilee as Jesus had predicted, with
the disciples who had all deserted Jesus in his hour of need as Jesus had
predicted, with Peter who had denied he even knew Jesus three times, also just
as Jesus had predicted, in John 21:15-19,
15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son
of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know
that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” 16 A
second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to
him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my
sheep.” 17 He said to him the third time, “Simon
son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third
time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you
know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. 18 Very
truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and
to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your
hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do
not wish to go.” 19 (He said this to indicate the
kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him,
“Follow me.”
If anyone could have thought that God hated them, it would be these
seven disciples, who after two post resurrection appearances by Jesus had left
town and gone back to what they knew: commercial fishing on the Sea of Galilee.
So, what happened when Jesus appeared to them again, nearly 80 miles
from Jerusalem? Did Jesus say, “I told you so” to any of the disciples? No. Did
he express anger? No. Hatred? Rejection? Even disappointment? None of the
above.
In fact, Jesus gave Peter, who had denied Jesus three times, the chance
to repent and be reconciled to God three times. He asked Peter if he loved him.
How many times? Three times, to the point of Peter’s, even now, uncomprehending
hurt feelings.
How did Jesus answer when Peter responded to Jesus’ questions with
statements of faith? “Feed my lambs.” “Tend my sheep.” “Feed my sheep.” He
recommissioned him. He called him. He invited him to be his disciple.
But’s what that’s business about old age? Anyone who’s been to a convalescent
hospital lately has seen people with cloth tied around them so that attendants
can grab them to keep them from falling. It’s not a pretty picture. They say
that inside every old person is a young person saying, “What happened?” I
believe that’s true. I saw a T-shirt the other day that said, “It’s weird being
the same age as old people.” Who knows where we’re heading? God knows.
There’s something else here, though. Having your hands tied, being bound
and led away is what happened before an execution. The “old” Peter would learn
this when his life was not about what he wanted but about following Christ,
this time all the way to the cross. His cross. It’s said that Peter was
sentenced to be crucified but protested that he was not worthy to die as the
Lord, Jesus Christ, did. So they crucified him upside down. Who knows where
we’re heading? God knows.
I’ve heard people joke that if they ever went into a church the roof
would fall in on them. They were joking,
but I think that there’s an element of real fear there, too. Where do they get
that?
Are they afraid of being judged? Have they listened to the voice of the
devil saying, “Give up! You’re such a hypocrite. Give up!” Do they think that
God hates them?
Today we see how God is disposed to sinners at the breakfast in the
beach.
So, how is this event on the beach in
Galilee like the 210 Freeway? It contains the anguish and bewilderment of Peter
in the presence of Jesus, it seems to go slow but then goes fast into a word of
grace and recommissioning, it is a stark reminder of human limitations and the
call to obedience even in the face of death. And, in the end, it gives us
guidance and direction in the call of Jesus: “Follow me.”
Jesus calls us to repentance and faithfulness and restores our call to mission
in an act of re-mission. Jesus opens the way by his death on the cross and
calls us to new life. As Augustine said, “There’s no saint without a past, and
no sinner without a future.”
Why did Jesus do this? Why did he give his life to reconcile all we
sinners, deserters, and deniers to God? What is God’s response to those who are
afraid that God hates them? The answer is the good news, the gospel, expressed
in what 16th century church reformer Martin Luther called the gospel
in miniature in John 3:16,
16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only
Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal
life.
