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Peter
Among the apostles, the
one absolutely stunning success was Judas, and the one thoroughly groveling
failure was Peter. Judas was a success in the ways that most impress us: he was
successful both financially and politically. He cleverly arranged to control
the money of the apostolic band; he skillfully manipulated the political forces
of the day to accomplish his goal. And Peter was a failure in ways that we most
dread: he was impotent in a crisis and socially inept. At the arrest of Jesus he
collapsed, a hapless, blustering coward; in the most critical situations of his
life with Jesus, the confession on the road to Caesarea Philippi and the vision
on the Mount of transfiguration, he said the most embarrassingly inappropriate
things. He was not the companion we would want with us in time of danger, and
he was not the kind of person we would feel comfortable with at a social
occasion. Time, of course, has reversed our judgments on the two men. Judas is
now a byword for betrayal, and Peter is one of the most honored names in the
church and in the world. Judas is a villain; Peter is a saint. Yet the world
continues to chase after the successes of Judas, financial wealth and political
power, and to defend itself against the failures of Peter, impotence and
ineptness. ── Eugene Petersen quoted
in: Tim Kimmel, Little House on the Freeway, pp. 191-192.
Called to be a disciple
(Jn. 1:40)
Called to be a constant
companion (Mt 4:19, Mk. 1:17, Lk 5:10)
Called to be an apostle
(Mt. 10:2, Mk 3:14, 16, Lk. 6:13-14)
At one time Peter had
wayward feet, but Andrew brought him to Jesus. And then one night Peter had
some wet feet because he was walking on the water. Then he had washed feet when
Jesus knelt before him and washed his feet (John 13). He had wandering feet when
he denied the Lord. Here he had willing feet. "How beautiful are the feet
of them that preach the gospel of peace" (Rom 10:15). What kind of feet do
you have?── W. Wiersbe, Something
Happens When Churches Pray, p.104.