Passion Week XIXf

“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” But he said to Him, “Lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death!” And He said, “I say to you, Peter, the rooster will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know Me” (Luke 22:31-34 NASB)

God, the Father, has granted Satan’s request to sift Peter like wheat. But Jesus intercedes for Peter, which is Jesus’ role after His ascension. Awesome! With Jesus interceding, Peter can’t fail, right?  Well, not exactly. In fact Jesus doesn’t even pray that Peter won’t fail. How is that even possible? Doesn’t Jesus want Peter to succeed?  And I think we would agree that, of course, Jesus wants Peter to succeed.  So why didn’t Jesus pray that Peter would succeed?  Trick question alert! If you look at the wording above, you see that Jesus did pray for Peter to succeed.

Jesus didn’t pray that Peter wouldn’t deny Him. He prayed that Peter’s faith would not fail. In other words, the definition we have of failure was different than Jesus’. Success as Jesus defined it wasn’t that Peter never make a mistake, but that Peter never let a mistake keep him from Jesus.  That’s an important distinction. Isn’t it true that when we think our mistakes are failures to Jesus that we also think our relationship with Him is dependent upon us? But when we continually repent of our mistakes, our relationship with Jesus remains dependent upon Him; it’s no longer based on  our success rate.

This is proven when Peter declares his unwavering support to Jesus, and Jesus responds predicting Peter’s denial. Jesus knew of Peter’s denial, and prayed that his faith would not fail.  And what Jesus meant by unfailing faith is found in His continuation, “…and when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”  Success for Jesus is Peter’s repentance back to leading his fellow disciples; his return to his calling.

So, success for me in my walk with Jesus is repentance from my mistakes back to my calling in His service.  It is Satan who wants my mistakes to define me. Only the enemy of my soul has a vested interest in using my mistakes to distract me from my Master’s call on my life.  And when I give in to such distractions, I deny my dependence upon my Master for my relationship with Him.  What is true is that I am Matthew Scott Brumage, son of Lloyd, Knight of the Realm, Servant of the King, and that He loves me, He has my back, and I am at His service; and He has called me to wait, worship, and walk before Him. That is what is true about me.

So, what is your view through your knothole this morning?

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Passion Week XIXe

“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”  But he said to Him, “Lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death!”  And He said, “I say to you, Peter, the rooster will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know Me.” (Luke 22:31-34 NASB)

The beginning of Job is almost as disheartening as the rest of the book (except the ending).  We read that, and think, ‘Wow, that guy was setup!’  And we’re sort of left with the unsettling feeling that God was complicit in the setup, after all, He points out Job to Satan!  Many of us probably settled into some sense of relief that this is the only place we see God do this…except, for this one.

The wording of Jesus in this passage implies that God gave into Satan’s demand.  The context supports that too, but the choice of words and tense support it all on its own.  So, God does this thing using His people in some sort of challenge with Satan, still.  It’s not just with Job.  With Job it was God’s idea, with Peter, it was Satan’s idea.  Either way, it happened again.  And I suspect still happens.

This is one of those places where we experience a sense of depersonalization in our relationship with God that is very counter to our self-centered culture.  Even in those who see themselves as philanthropists, they are generally shocked when they are mistreated and disrespected.  There’s just something about human beings that refuses to let us believe that all this is not really all about us.  Even in cultures that are more enmeshed in either family or cultural groups, they still think life is all about them (examine modern Japanese culture right now…it’s as if WWII never really happened).

On a personal level, the inconvenient or catastrophic circumstances we encounter about which we have no control we consider personal attacks.  But from this we learn that it’s possible it has nothing to do with us at all, and God and Satan are just pushing each other around the “heavenly realms”.  It’s a bet, and we’re the one’s being bet on or against.  We’re the horses, the greyhounds, the players on the field, and we run, race, and play for the sport of others.  It’s gladiatorial combat all over again, and we’re the combatants.  The really frustrating this is that we signed on for this.

Here’s the deal.  God and Satan argue over us.  When Scripture says that Jesus intercedes for us at the right hand of the Father, we need that for reasons we aren’t even aware.  We think it’s to help us in our lives, make us happy, something like that.  But now we see that  actually it’s to help us survive the game the Father and Satan are playing.  That sort of changes how we see this relationship with God which we have given everything to gain.  We give up everything to be pawns and gladiators in the cosmic contest in the heavenly realms between the Father and Satan.  But it’s okay, because we have Jesus interceding on our behalf with the Father; kind of like “legal cheating”.

If this all sounds like we have been duped, then now is the time to read the end of Romans 8.  We win and our victory is inevitable.  We cannot be separated from the Love of God in Christ Jesus, not even a little.  We win.  To be specific, we are on the winning side when we give everything to be a disciple of Jesus.  The alternative is to be on the losing side, just to state the obvious.  So the question is how valuable is it to us to be on the eternal cosmic winning side.

But to those of you still stinging from our lack of status, or feeling duped because we’re merely pawns, let me just ask, “So you thought the Maker of the Universe would make you some sort of ‘general’ in a fight you didn’t even know was raging?  What are you, some sort of numbskull?”  I’m sorry to burst your bubble that this really isn’t about you at all, but it isn’t.  It’s about God, Maker of the Universe (and probably a lot more) soundly and embarrassingly humiliating the rebellious pompous narcissistic enemy of all creation.  You want in on it, then you get in as a private; not a sergeant, not an officer, not a specialist, or corporal; a private.  That’s the deal.  Study to show yourself approved a workman rightly handling the Word of truth, and you can be a “lead private”.  But seriously, until you actually get there and see the fight, how would you even know what you’re doing?

Trust that God has it all under control, stay the course, fight the good fight you have before you, and hang in there until you finally get to see what’s really going on.  You do that, and maybe in the Kingdom to come you gain rank.  Until then, just hang in there.

That’s part of my view through this knothole.  The other part has to do with the foreknowledge and grace of Jesus’ statement.  But that will be for tomorrow.

What’s your view through your knothole?

Netting Disciples: Third, Provide Perspective

When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.”    Simon answered and said, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets.”    When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break;    so they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, so that they began to sink. (Luke 5:4-7 NASB)

Once Jesus had brought the party to Simon, once He had Simon captive in the boat, Jesus then deals with what seems to have captivated Simon’s mind and heart.  The sound of a tired man can almost be detected in Simon’s response to Jesus’ request to put out and fish.  The driven ambitious fisherman doesn’t have to be told twice to fish, it’s what he does.  He realizes the only thing he has to lose is sleep.  He won’t have fewer fish to sell, that’s for sure.  He obviously won’t make less money.  But he is tired, and you can sort of hear it in his word choice.

Netting Disciples: Second, Capture Their Attention

And He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little way from the land. And He sat down and began teaching the people from the boat. (Luke 5:3 NASB)

Simon was someone people followed.  They didn’t follow because he was perfect or kind or smart.  They followed him because he led, even if it was to nowhere, it at least had a direction.  He was driven, relentless, ambitious, and tough.  Those qualities may have made him difficult to follow, but the fact that he had a direction to go and seemed to know how to get there made up for it.  He may have been wrong, but never seemed aimless.  People like that sort of certainty, it’s comforting.  So Jesus knew that to ‘net’ the others, He had to first net Simon.

Netting Disciples: First Bring The ‘Fun’ To Them

 Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around Him and listening to the word of God, He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret; and He saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake; but the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets. (Luke 5:1,2 NASB)

One of the problems with following Jesus is how His requests are so unrealistic.  For instance, Simon (soon to become Peter) had heard Jesus teach, had invited Him into his home, Jesus healed his mother-in-law, and his house became the scene of many miracles performed throughout the night.  Then Jesus disappears to go about to other villages to do the same thing.  This is essentially how Luke 4 ends.  But now Jesus is back.  The crowds are following Him around, He leads them down to the Sea of Galilee, and to the boats of Simon and Zebedee.  The fishermen are tired, dejected, and busy washing nets.