Inspiring Women

"And now I'm going to tell you who you are, really are. You are Peter, a rock" (Matt 16:17 Message).

        Alan didn't know his father would die from a heart attack at age 39. If he had, maybe he would have bit his tongue.

"I hate you!" he declared one day in anger. The words slipped out of his mouth faster than a spit wad out of a straw. Unfortunately, they were the last words he ever spoke to his father. 

The angry outburst would haunt Alan for years. Tormented by the anguish he feared would never be resolved, Alan spent many nights trying to swathe his sorrow.

Final dialogues are often echoes in our mind. They ricochet back and forth while an invisible amplifier magnifies their volume. Imagine Jesus' last words to Peter. "Before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times."

"Never!" declared Peter. And yet, later, when he heard the rooster's crows, the sting of this unimaginable prediction pierced Peter.

 

The word "deny" comes from the Greek word, aparneomai, which means to affirm that one has no acquaintance or connection with someone. Like a divine annulment, Peter was saying the love he felt for Christ never existed. And he didn't just simply state he didn't know Christ; Peter added some colorful dialogue that Matthew edited out of his gospel. In his manner-of-fact tone, Matthew writes, Then began he to curse and to swear, [saying], I know not the man. And as soon as the dreadful words rolled off his tongue, Matthew records with the precision of a dramatic Hollywood screenplay: Immediately the cock crew (Matt 26:74 KJV).

            Yes, Peter the apostle was a wimpy coward and yet, just ten chapters earlier, Christ said this to him:  read the rest