{"id":1576,"date":"2022-04-19T08:33:59","date_gmt":"2022-04-19T12:33:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=1576"},"modified":"2022-04-19T08:33:59","modified_gmt":"2022-04-19T12:33:59","slug":"what-about-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2022\/04\/19\/what-about-him\/","title":{"rendered":"What About Him?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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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>


A story is told about a businessman who ended up seated on a plane next to Albert Einstein.
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A few minutes into the flight, Einstein proposed a game.\u00a0 \u201cl will ask you a question, and if you can\u2019t answer it, you pay me fifty dollars.\u00a0 Then you ask me a question, and if I can\u2019t answer it, I will pay you five hundred dollars.\u201d\u00a0 The businessman knew he couldn\u2019t hold a candle to Einstein\u2019s intellect.\u00a0 But he figured he could at least come up with a few vexing questions \u2013 and at 10-1 odds, he could probably stay in the game.\u00a0 \u201cLet\u2019s do it,\u201d he said.
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Einstein went first.\u00a0 \u201cHow far is the Earth from the sun?\u201d\u00a0 The businessman had no clue.\u00a0 He reached into his pocket and handed over fifty dollars.\u00a0
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Then it was his turn.\u00a0 He asked, \u201cWhat goes up the mountain on three legs but comes back down on four?\u201d\u00a0 Einstein thought for a moment, then admitted he was stumped.\u00a0 He reached into his wallet and produced five hundred dollars.\u00a0 \u201cBefore I ask you my next question,\u201d he said to the businessman, \u201cwhat does<\/em> go up the mountain on three legs but comes back down on four?\u201d\u00a0 The businessman thought for a moment, shrugged, then reached into his pocket and gave Einstein fifty dollars.\u00a0
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Unanswerable questions fall into several categories.\u00a0 There are those that are designed to trip someone up, like the one posed by the businessman.\u00a0 He couldn\u2019t answer it himself.\u00a0 Then there are those that can\u2019t be answered because they defy logic, like the famous Zen Buddhist koan<\/em>: \u201cWhat is the sound of one hand clapping?\u201d\u00a0
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Then there are the questions concerning which God clearly has the answers, but which he is unlikely to share with any of us.\u00a0
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At the end of the Gospel of John, Peter asks Jesus just such a question.\u00a0 He wants to know God\u2019s plan for someone else\u2019s life.\u00a0
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Sorry, Peter.\u00a0 You don\u2019t get to know anyone else\u2019s story but your own<\/em>.\u00a0
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To be fair to Peter, he has just heard some unsettling news concerning his own future.\u00a0 \u201cI tell you the truth,\u201d says Jesus in verse 18, \u201cwhen you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.\u201d\u00a0
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Modern readers may say, \u201cOh, I recognize that.\u00a0 It\u2019s called assisted living.\u00a0 My kids keep trying to move me into a retirement home.\u201d
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In Bible times, the words had a more ominous ring.\u00a0 John explains, \u201cJesus said this to indicate the kind of death\u00a0by which Peter would glorify God.\u201d\u00a0 Later in life, Peter will find himself at the mercy of people who will lead him to martyrdom.\u00a0
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All too often, the Christian life is \u201csold\u201d on the premise that if you simply trust in Christ, you get your ticket stamped for the happiest of all destinations: eternal life in the presence of God.\u00a0 What isn\u2019t preached nearly as loudly, however, is that the pathway that takes us to heaven \u2013 also known as the Jesus-following life \u2013 will sometimes take us to places where we would rather not go.\u00a0 We will have to let go of possessions that we would much prefer to keep.\u00a0 From time to time we\u2019ll be called to surrender relationships that we can\u2019t imagine living without.
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For Peter and for all of us, it\u2019s a lot to take in.\u00a0
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So he changes the subject.\u00a0 Turning around and noticing that the disciple John is just a few steps away, he asks Jesus, \u201cLord, what about him?\u201d\u00a0 Jesus replies, \u201cIf I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?\u00a0 You must follow me\u201d (John 21:20-22).\u00a0

It’s easy to become fascinated with the lives of other people.\u00a0 They may appear to be enjoying an amazingly happy existence, with more luck or less suffering or better DNA or a nicer spouse or greater blessings or a more spectacular Facebook page.\u00a0 Our feelings about them may swing wildly from appreciation to envy to flat-out judgment.\u00a0\u00a0

No wonder Jesus tells us to look away and look instead at him.\u00a0\u00a0

It is not our call to know anybody else\u2019s story.\u00a0 Truth be told, most of the time we will hardly understand the broad outlines of the story that God is writing for each of us<\/em>.\u00a0
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But one thing will always remain the same.\u00a0 Jesus says, \u201cFollow me.\u201d
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Those are the words Peter heard when he was first called.\u00a0 Now they are the words he hears at his recommissioning.\u00a0\u00a0
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It\u2019s so tempting to look ahead and try to imagine the future, or to look around to see what everyone else is doing.
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But Jesus reminds us what it means to pay attention in the kingdom of God:
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\u201cJust keep your eyes on Me.\u201d<\/em>

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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. A story is told about a businessman who ended… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1577,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[421],"class_list":["post-1576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-peter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1576","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=1576"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1578,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1576\/revisions\/1578"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}