Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Resurrection 101 - Peter and the Déjà Vu



This is not the first time that Peter and the boys came home empty-handed after an all-night fishing trip.  The scenario that changed the direction of Peter’s life back then is replayed with uncanny similarity.  They go from empty to overflowing at a word of a Stranger standing on the beach and they know this is not just a coincidence.

It is the Lord!

Indeed, it is.  Jesus makes an early morning breakfast for the seven exhausted, floundering disciples.  He breaks the bread and hands it to them. Another déjà vu. The memory of that night sweeps over Peter in wave after crashing wave.

This is My body, broken for you... for you... for you...

As the breakfast is wrapped up, and dishes put away, the silence becomes deafening.  

They all failed Jesus.  They all fled. They all left Him alone in His darkest hour.

But, Jesus doesn’t offer reproach.   He doesn’t scold them with an embittered I-told-you-so.

He turns to Peter with a simple question that sinks with laser-sharp precision into that unscalable black hole, catching that rusting nail of regret by its head:

Do you love Me?

Do you love Me?

Do you love Me?

And Peter reaches in, deep within, beyond words, beyond proclamations, beyond fear and lies and betrayal, beyond tears, and grief and regret and finds that he does love his Lord. He loves Him, he loves Him, he loves Him...

But, how do you look in the eyes of the One you betrayed and say... that you love Him?

Lord, You know all things.  You know... that I ... do ... love...  You.

And right there and then, Jesus doesn’t change Peter’s past, because the past, even with the resurrection, can not be changed.  But, with three simple words, three ordinary, common words, He forever re-frames it.  He re-frames it for Peter … and He re-frames it for me and you. 

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