Closing the Gap

This is my follow up to Following at a Distance. It is the good news which follows the bad news of our betrayals, our denials and our shame. It is the good news in light of the reality that even as zealous, ardent and passionate believers, we can, and often do follow Jesus at a distance. Then when we are on the way at our safe, yet uncomfortable distance, we feel that piercing gaze, we remember our bravado, our resolve and our boldness… and we weep bitterly. Today, I want to share with you about how Jesus closed the gap of Peter’s distance.
Who knows where Peter, having been cowed by a servant girl and after bringing down oaths and curses on two men who dared to remember that Peter had been with Jesus (although that fact a week earlier as Jesus rode the colt into Jerusalem would have been a badge of honor), went. Maybe he fled to his boat. In fact, I rather think he went someplace far away from the other disciples. His shame and guilt might have forced him to seek isolation (it has a way of doing that). And if he went to some place where the disciples and he might have been with Jesus, perhaps they all exchanged “how awful I am” stories. (Isn’t that what we do?) Beloved, the fact is, when we have disappointed ourselves and our Lord, we so often want to hide from others and from the Lord. We get consumed by the “how can He ever forgive me” thought. So the default thought is, how can I undo this.
The beauty of Resurrection Sunday is we can do nothing. But oh, can God ever do the impossible. Let’s look at how Jesus restored the relationship with Peter. Peter’s denial and betrayal started with following at a distance. That denial created a breach, a break, a chasm, a gap in the relationship. Jesus restored it; I call that restoration, closing the gap. It really happens in three separate steps. First, we see that God raised Jesus from the dead. Second, Jesus calls for Peter specifically. Third, Jesus has a heart to heart conversation with Peter which restores him and renews him. And it really is all about Jesus and at the same time it’s also all about Peter, just because He loves Peter.
No one can really describe how God raised Jesus from the dead. No one knows what that looked like. All we know is that everything was very neat. It’s not as if Jesus exploded out of the tomb, although He could have. I don’t really picture Him as the Incredible Hulk bursting out of His grave clothes and shattering the tomb’s opening. God doesn’t leave messes. The grave clothes were lying there in the tomb, and the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head was neatly folded. (John 20) The stone which had covered the tomb was rolled away (Luke 24). The fact is, somehow between Friday and Sunday morning, Jesus was raised from the dead. That event was critical and crucial to Peter’s restoration yet Peter had nothing to do with it and no one ever saw it happen. Peter, like most of us, when he saw the strips of linen, just “went away, wondering to himself what happened.” (Luke 24:12)
The second part of the restoration happened when the angel told Mary, the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene and Salome, “But go, tell his disciples and Peter, “He is going ahead of you into Galilee.” (Mark 16:7) He could have said “go tell those disciples of Jesus…” He could have said tell all the other disciples except for Peter who denied Him three times, I’m going to really make him pay for that one.” He could have said “tell anyone who really cares about me and really is serious about following Jesus.” But the angel didn’t. The angels get their marching orders from God; they say what they’re supposed to say. And this angel was very specific: tell the disciples and Peter. That’s beautiful. That’s merciful. And that’s incredible. Jesus just wanted Mary to make sure that Peter knew He really was alive just as He had said. When I ask one of my kids to call everyone for dinner and make sure you get so and so up, because they are sleeping, the one who has received the instruction will scream from the bottom of the steps for everyone else, and then go straight into the sleeping child’s room and yell into his or her ear: DINNER, NOW! If I want to make sure one person in particular gets the message, I single them out using their name. It always works. Jesus singled Peter out. Peter was going to get the message: He has risen. He is not here. He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see Him, just as He told you.”
Now here is the critical third part of closing the gap, friends. We don’t read anything else about Peter for a while. There are more times that Jesus appears to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, to all the disciples, a special appearance for Thomas. Though we have every reason to believe that Peter was present when Jesus appeared to the other disciples, we do not have restoration between Jesus and Peter yet. It takes more than Jesus being raised from the dead, and it takes more than Jesus calling Peter. In point of fact, it is a week, other appearance and a special conversation before restoration occurs.
It happened on the beach and is recorded in John 21. It’s really quite amazing because Peter knows Jesus is alive, risen from the dead, just as He said. But he clearly has no idea what he is supposed to do with that piece of remarkable information. So, being Peter, he declares: “I’m going out to fish.” I sort of imagine Peter thinking to himself: I may not know what to do with Jesus, but I do know how to fish! Of course, he catches nothing. Jesus, standing on the shore watching all this unfold, suggests a better fishing hole and immediately John recognizes Jesus. Peter jumps overboard into the water (no walking on water for him this time) to Jesus. “They knew it was the Lord.” (v. 12) And here Jesus initiates the most critical conversation Peter would ever have: “Simon, son of John, do you truly love me more than these?” It is the kind of question that would take Peter’s breath away because it might have reminded him of his declaration that “even if all fall away on account of you, I never will. … Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” (MT 26: 33, 34) And Peter would instantly know that in Jesus’ three questions, He was recounting three denials. Beloved, this was not a case of Jesus rubbing salt in Peter’s wounds. It was Jesus dealing with Peter’s guilt and shame and taking it away, every painful and bitter piece of it. That is how the gap has to be closed; that is how we are restored: by letting Jesus initiate and letting Him lay before us our guilt and shame and allowing Him to take it away.
There was nothing Peter could do to close the gap. There was nothing he had in his human, fleshly arsenal that would ever make up for following at a distance and for denying and betraying three times. It takes a God who raises Jesus from the dead. It takes a God who calls us by name and says: I just want you to know: I’m alive and I did just what I said I would do. It takes a God who sits on the shore with us and commissions us to love and feed His lambs.
Friday I wrote about how we choose to follow at a distance because it is simply too painful to stay close to Jesus; we are afraid. I didn’t even realize at the time I wrote that I was really writing about me. It took Good Friday for me to realize that I was following at a distance. I have more in common with my friend Peter than I like to admit. However, Saturday morning I let Him take away my guilt and my shame and we had a little heart to heart. You see, He still closes the gap for each one of us. Whether it is Peter, or you or me, we have all chosen at times to follow at a distance and in His grace and mercy He comes forward in gentle power, calls us by name and restores us.
It’s Sunday…Resurrection Sunday. Hallelujah, He is risen indeed.