I Do Not Know the Man
Rev. Mark Schaefer
Kay Spiritual Life Center
March 20, 2005
Isaiah 50:4-9a; Philippians 2:5-11;Matthew 26:69-75
Isaiah 50 4 The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. Morning by morning he wakens — wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught. 5 The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I did not turn backward. 6 I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting. 7 The Lord GOD helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame; 8 he who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who are my adversaries? Let them confront me. 9 It is the Lord GOD who helps me; who will declare me guilty? All of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up.
Philippians 2 5 Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, 7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, 8 he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death — even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Matthew 26 69 Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. A servant-girl came to him and said, “You also were with Jesus the Galilean.” 70 But he denied it before all of them, saying, “I do not know what you are talking about.” 71 When he went out to the porch, another servant-girl saw him, and she said to the bystanders, “This man was with Jesus of Nazareth.” 72 Again he denied it with an oath, “I do not know the man.” 73 After a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, “Certainly you are also one of them, for your accent betrays you.” 74 Then he began to curse, and he swore an oath, “I do not know the man!” At that moment the cock crowed. 75 Then Peter remembered what Jesus had said: “Before the cock crows, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.
I. INTRODUCTION
Poor Peter.
So much for being “the Rock”. This is the guy who said, “Even though I must die with you, I will not deny you.” He denies Jesus three times. I am sure we all know someone like Peter–pretty big on the talk until crunch time comes, then suddenly they don’t have your back any more. We’ve all seen this phenomenon in life if not in dozens of teenage dramas and movies. Girl makes friends with a popular girl and is slowly invited into her world, then acts like she doesn’t even know her old friends when she sees them in the hallway.
Or the guy who gets the good job and is suddenly elevated out of the economic status of his friends, for whom he has suddenly has very little time. We’ve all seen this phenomenon. How disappointing it is to find out that Peter is such a person.
II. THE TEXT
In the lesson we just heard read, we realize the scope of Peter’s failure. Jesus was strengthened for his trial by praying three times in Gethsemane; Peter falls asleep three times in Gethsemane. Jesus stands firm in his confession before the high priest three times; Peter denies in each of his three confrontations. Jesus makes his statements forthrightly under the probing of the High Priest; Peter is intimidated by the high priest’s maid. Jesus refuses to take an oath in order to confirm his word; Peter volunteers both an oath and a curse in his denial of Jesus. [1]
We read a text like that and we wonder what Jesus ever saw in Peter.
III. DENYING CHRIST
He was after all Jesus’ right hand man. He was Simon, son of Jonah, whom Jesus called “the Rock” (‘Peter’ is the Greek translation of the Aramaic nickname ‘Keyfa’–which means ‘rock’). He and James and John, the sons of Zebedee, were the big three among the twelve. They were the only ones Jesus let in the house with him when he raised the synagogue leader’s daughter. They were the three who got to witness Jesus’ transfiguration upon the mountain. They were the ones that Jesus asked to keep watch with him in the Garden of Gethsemane. Peter is the one who when asked “Who do you say that I am?” answered “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” Peter.
And yet when the situation turns dire, Peter denies Jesus, not once, but three times. Three times is one of those numbers that means he really means it. He formulates an oath, and even uses a curse (probably against Jesus) to make clear his denial. Some pillar of the church, huhn?
A. The Faithless Church
In many ways, though, the church has followed right along. For there are ways to deny Christ that have nothing to do with rejecting belief in or loyalty to Jesus.
The blessing of religious tolerance has brought with it the curious phenomenon of people of faith being embarrassed or uncomfortable about religion. We are reluctant to mention that we are people of faith, and may even let others mock religious belief in our presence without responding. [2] Or we can become so embarrassed by religion that we don’t even share our faith at all in the public sphere, creating the illusion that there is a disconnect between public policy and Christian faith.
We might stand by and do nothing and let other people be subjected to racism, sexism, or other forms of injustice. [3] All too often, the church has stood silently on sidelines as great injustices were being perpetrated. Where was the outrage of the Church during the Holocaust as millions of people were systematically rounded up and executed? Where were the churches when hundreds of thousands more were being rounded up in Rwanda? Where are the churches now when human rights violations flourish around the world? And quite frankly, why have the churches become mute when it comes to discussing the fact that we are a nation at war? Yesterday was the two-year anniversary of the war in Iraq. This nation has been at war for two years and have the Churches even addressed the issue? Even just to talk about it? The church’s silence in these areas is like denying Christ.
Moreover, Jesus told us that when we saw someone who was hungry and gave them food, someone who was thirsty and gave them drink, someone naked and gave them clothing, someone in prison and visited them, someone sick and took care of them, that we had done all these things to him.
And yet, how often do we let the hungry go without food, the thirsty without drink, the naked without clothing, the sick without care, and the imprisoned without our presence? So often, that our inactions become our greatest way of denying Christ.
On Good Friday, we sometimes read a litany called “Christ’s Reproaches against his Faithless Church”. In it are reproaches against the church for faithlessness, intolerance, drawing the sword in Christ’s name, quarreling and dividing, anti-Semitism, violence, complacency.
This kinds of denials go far beyond our social discomfort with talking about religion. These denials embrace more than words and embrace our very being.
Like, Peter’s, our denials are just as often out of fear–fear of social embarrassment. Fear of consequences politically or economically. Yet in many ways, our denials can be greater and more profound than Peter’s direct “I do not know the man.”
IV. ”I DO NOT KNOW THE MAN”
It occurs to me, that when Peter says “I do not know the man” he might be telling the truth–perhaps more than he realizes. Because he is evidencing a real lack of knowledge of who Jesus is. In a very real sense, Peter doesn’t know the man.
Think of what Peter believed was happening. He and the rest of the Twelve had followed Jesus to Jerusalem for the Passover. The Twelve clearly believed that it was going to be at this time that Jesus would inaugurate the Kingdom of God, freeing them from oppression and bringing about a major change in their reality. They even would debate amongst themselves as to which of them was the greatest and which of them would hold positions of authority in the Kingdom.
Four days earlier, things had been going so well. They came into Jerusalem and everyone was shouting praises and hosannas and proclaiming Jesus to be the Son of David.
And what happens instead? Jesus is betrayed by one of their own. He is arrested. Rather than welcomed by the leaders of their people, he is arrested by them, to be handed over to the Romans. And here is Peter, standing outside the high priest’s house, with guards standing all around, probably wondering how he could have been so wrong as to have backed this man. This man who was within hours of being crucified by the Romans. Peter probably felt that he really didn’t know the man. Everything he thought he knew was in ruins and about to get worse.
Had he known, really known, who Jesus was, he might not have acted so clearly out of fear. And yet, fear dominates him.
A. Knowing Jesus
Peter is not alone, of course. We all fail to really know who Jesus is. It’s not always from lack of trying.
For centuries we have been seeking to know who Jesus is. For two centuries, we have been involved in a number of quests for the “historical Jesus”–that is the Jesus we can demonstrate through modern tools of historical critical research. You usually see something about this ongoing quest around this time of year in the major magazines Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report. They usually come out with their Jesus issue around now–because of the ongoing quest to learn who Jesus was.
A very interesting thing happens to our images of Jesus when we go on these searches, we tend to find Jesuses who look just like us. In the 19th Century, Jesus looked a lot like a 19th Century German Liberal Protestant. In the 60′s Jesus was a hippy. In the 70′s and 80′s he was a revolutionary. In the late 20th, Jesus looked like a post-modern sage, preaching a gospel of postmodernism.
We have often found Jesus to be exactly who we went looking for. Sometimes that can have humorous consequences, and sometimes very scary consequences.
Jesus can often be co-opted by power or by the mainstream of society as a way of propping up that power or preserving the comfort of the mainstream. Jesus whose blessing of people is confirmed by their wealth. Or whose blessing of nations is confirmed by their power. Jesus who likes war. Jesus who helps people score touchdowns. Jesus who is an ardent capitalist. Jesus who is a socialist. Or most frighteningly, Jesus who could be experienced through the power of the Führer (there are statements from German churches in the 30′s that proclaim this frightening vision of Christ).
We fail utterly to apprehend who Jesus was and is. Christ is so much more than all the petty political and religious agendas that we keep attaching him to, like a mascot, or a banner we can wave in support of ourselves. When it comes right down to us, we are left there in the courtyard, frightened and feeling alone and saying “I do not know the man.”
V. CONCLUSION–CHRIST KNOWING US
You know, reflecting back on that, we might wonder what Jesus ever saw in us.
We are all Peter.
We are often silent when we should speak up. We deny Christ as much with our inaction as with any verbal denial. And we continue to be guilty of not knowing Christ. We consistently get Jesus wrong and have since the very beginning. Had any of us been there, we would have acted in exactly the same manner.
And yet, what is most important is that Christ knows us.Jesus knew that Peter would deny him and yet still declares him to be Peter–”the Rock”–upon whom he will build his church. Christ has faith even in those who lose faith in him.
We are bound to screw up. We are bound to be silent when justice requires us to speak out. We are bound to be afraid to proclaim our faith. We are bound to break fellowship and bonds of relationship with one another. And yet, God loves us and will continue to love us.
Jesus not only loved Peter, and continued to love Peter, he went to the cross for Peter. He went to the cross foryou. He went to the cross for me.
I confess that it is hard for me to say with certainty that I know the man. I have a hard time fathoming that kind of love and grace. Would any of us give a second chance to someone who had betrayed us like Peter betrayed Jesus? Would any of us be willing to go to the cross, to die a gruesome death all so that God’s love might be demonstrated to the world through the glory of the Resurrection? Would we do that for people we didn’t like? For people who had been mean to us? For people who had broken our trust?
Forget about us knowing Jesus. None of use knows anyone like that.
The message that we proclaim on Palm Sunday is that we are in relationship with a God who defies our expectations, a God who is willing to suffer for the sake of reconciling us to Godself. Sometimes it is enough for me to know that while I cannot claim to perfectly know the man, Christ knows and loves me. Christ knows and loves us. All of us, without distinction and unconditionally. That is something that we can know. And that will be enough.
[1] NIB, Vol. VIII, p. 481.
[2] Ibid., at 716
[3] Ibid.
