{"id":1570,"date":"2022-04-17T08:24:33","date_gmt":"2022-04-17T12:24:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=1570"},"modified":"2022-04-17T08:24:33","modified_gmt":"2022-04-17T12:24:33","slug":"and-peter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2022\/04\/17\/and-peter\/","title":{"rendered":"And Peter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For the four weeks leading up to and going beyond Easter, we’re looking at the life of Peter.\u00a0 Because he\u2019s so often at the center of both the brightest and darkest moments in the Gospels, he has always been a source of hope and inspiration for those endeavoring to follow Jesus.<\/em>


It\u2019s possible that the two most poignant words in the Bible appear in Mark\u2019s account of the resurrection.
\u00a0
Early on Sunday morning, a group of women have come to put spices on Jesus\u2019 body.
\u00a0
It is a Jewish tradition.\u00a0 It\u2019s a lovely thing to do.\u00a0 Jesus was buried so quickly the previous Friday that they had missed the opportunity to provide this final kindness.
\u00a0
Their chief concern is a practical one:\u00a0 How are we going to get inside the tomb?\u00a0 A heavy stone stands between them and Jesus.
\u00a0
As the tomb comes into view, they immediately begin to come to terms with three things that in a million lifetimes they never expected to see:
\u00a0
The stone has been pushed aside.\u00a0
Jesus\u2019 body has vanished.
An angel is sitting there in plain sight.<\/em>
\u00a0
The angel says what almost every angel says in biblical encounters: \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid.\u201d\u00a0

Don\u2019t freak out.\u00a0 Don\u2019t be alarmed.\u00a0 Just breathe.<\/em>
\u00a0
\u201cYou are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified,\u201d the angel goes on.\u00a0 \u201cHe has risen!\u201d\u00a0
\u00a0
While the women attempt to process this cosmos-shifting news, the angel adds an important job assignment:\u00a0
\u00a0
\u201cGo, tell his disciples and Peter, \u2018He is going ahead of you into Galilee.\u00a0 There you will see him, just as he told you\u2019\u201d (Mark 16:9).
\u00a0
\u201cGo, tell his disciples\u201d \u2013 that would be the 11 remaining apprentices of Jesus, since Judas is now out of the picture \u2013 \u201cand Peter<\/em>\u2026\u201d
\u00a0
And those words are almost enough to make us cry.
\u00a0
Peter was obviously one of the disciples.\u00a0 So why the special invitation?
\u00a0
No one in the world that morning needed a word of reassurance more than Peter.\u00a0
\u00a0
No one stood in greater need of a personal invitation to meet the risen Christ than the guy who had crashed and burned in the most dramatic way possible.
\u00a0
Peter had promised so much: \u201cLord, even if everyone else turns tail and runs, you can count on me.\u201d\u00a0 Then, in short order, he had said aloud three times that he and Jesus had never even crossed paths.\u00a0 The very man whom Jesus had said would be the Rock on which he would build his Church had crumbled like a sandcastle on the beach when hit by the first wave.\u00a0
\u00a0
The words \u201cand Peter\u201d appear only in the Gospel of Mark.\u00a0 According to a well-founded tradition, Mark had been the amanuensis or personal secretary of Peter during his later years of ministry.\u00a0 His Gospel is quite likely a \u201cPeter\u2019s-eye-view\u201d of Jesus\u2019 life and death.\u00a0
\u00a0
It\u2019s possible that Peter alone remembered that small detail of the angel\u2019s message to the women at the empty tomb.\u00a0 For him, those two words had changed everything.
\u00a0
And Peter.\u00a0 <\/em>You\u2019re still one of the disciples.\u00a0 You\u2019re still invited.\u00a0 Good Friday wasn’t the last chapter of your story.\u00a0\u00a0
\u00a0
Your story isn’t over yet, either.\u00a0\u00a0
\u00a0
Even if we cannot imagine recovering from the messes we have made of our lives, we\u2019re still on God\u2019s invitation list.\u00a0
\u00a0
He is, after all, in the business of raising the dead.


May you be filled this day with the hope and joy of Easter.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the four weeks leading up to and going beyond Easter, we’re looking at the life of Peter.\u00a0 Because he\u2019s so often at the center of both the brightest and darkest moments in the Gospels, he has always been a source of hope and inspiration for those endeavoring to follow Jesus. It\u2019s possible that the two most poignant words in… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1571,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[76,421],"class_list":["post-1570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-forgiveness","tag-peter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1570"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1572,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1570\/revisions\/1572"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}