WATCHWORD:
44 ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ 45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ Matthew 25:44-45
69 Now Peter was sitting out in the courtyard, and a servant girl came to him. “You also were with Jesus of Galilee,” she said. 70 But he denied it before them all. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said. 71 Then he went out to the gateway, where another servant girl saw him and said to the people there, “This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth.” 72 He denied it again, with an oath: “I don’t know the man!” 73 After a little while, those standing there went up to Peter and said, “Surely you are one of them; your accent gives you away.” 74 Then he began to call down curses, and he swore to them, “I don’t know the man!” Immediately a rooster started crowing. 75 Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: “Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly. Matthew 26:69-75
Meditation:
I Do Not Know Him!
Time after time, on any given day, we have multiple opportunities to respond to situations, each one calling out for us to respond, and we elect to go in the direction of our comfort zone, or we duck our Christian responsibility, or ignore Jesus’ statement that whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’! Denial!
Have you ever found yourself in the troubled mindset of Peter, in effect, denying Jesus? The opportunity for you to respond in love was there, and you passed by on the other side. Maybe you had a little pinch of guilt as you moved on. That was the cock crowing! What about the woman with the sign at the intersection “I need food for my child” and you avoided looking at her, and you drove away. Ouch! There is that pinch, again.
I wonder how Peter felt when the prediction that Jesus made came true? His Lord has been crucified and the weight of that guilt and grief is fully on him and he’s paying the price of denying his Lord. No wonder he ran as fast as he possibly could to the tomb when he heard it was empty! And why he went with the four or five others to Capernaum, in the faint hope that they might see the Lord as the angel had said. And they did, and they believed, and Peter was restored.
It’s easy for us to forgive Peter, after all he’s only human and his denial happened in the Courtyard when there was still doubt about who this man was, for the resurrection was still days away.
What about us? We deny Jesus even though we know he is our Lord and Savior. We deny Jesus even though the Resurrection is the pillar of our faith, and He is the Messiah. We deny Jesus even though the Holy Spirit within who carries us along keeps pinching us, with echoes of guilt, crowing at us.
We have heard it said that religion is easy, it’s following the Lord that’s difficult. We humans have a wonderful way of avoiding anything that threatens us. We prize our comfort zone, we resist diminshing in any way our wealth, or ourselves.
It is hard for us to come to the end of ourselves, to walk away from all pretenses and stand naked as a child of God. But it is there, at the end of ourselves that we will find God, and in doing so, we follow Jesus’ amonision to “Go and do likewise.” May it be so with each one of us.
— Stan
Prayer:
Oh God, please forgive me when I have passed by on the other side and ignored you there in the homeless shelter, there in the food kitchen, there in pain and without help. I pray for your mercy Lord, for your guidance help me to make the right decisions because right now Lord I’m lousy at it and You know it. I need Your help, Your guidance, Your touch. It’s in Jesus name I pray. Amen.
