This week is passion week. As Christians, we reflect on the last week of Jesus' earthly life. As I thought about the events leading up to the death of Jesus, I can relate to Peter on so many levels.
Peter loved Jesus. The day before Jesus' death Peter told Jesus he would die for Him. Now that is full allegiance! But immediately following Peter's proclamation, Jesus told Peter that before the rooster crowed that very night, Peter would deny Jesus three times.
Peter vehemently proclaimed that he would not deny Jesus. Peter should have begun to see that he was having a bad day. Can you relate? Even when you try your hardest, everything seems to go bad. Some days we make bad decisions and must accept the consequences.
Peter must have been very upset at the words Jesus had spoken concerning his denial. How could this be happening to him?
Jesus then brought His disciples to the garden of Gethsemane. Jesus took his closest disciples (Peter, James, and John) aside and told them to pray. None of them could stay awake. Peter wanted to pray but his body kept going to sleep. He should have been awake and praying when Jesus needed him the most but he kept falling asleep. He was having a really bad day. Can you relate? Are there times when you want to do what is right but seem to fail anyway?
Jesus is arrested. Peter is lurking in the shadows of the courtyard trying to follow the proceedings against Jesus. He is scared and hiding. He is asked if he knows Jesus and denies it three times. It happened to Peter just as Jesus had said earlier. Peter was devastated!
Peter's day had to be the worst day of his life. His Lord Jesus was put to death. Not only that, he had fallen asleep when Jesus needed him to pray. Then, on top of that, Peter had denied even knowing Jesus.
Peter didn't know what was up ahead. He didn't understand that Jesus would be raised from the dead. He didn't understand the work Jesus had come to do at all. He thought it was all over and he was just a giant failure.
I've had some bad days but never one of this magnitude. Can you relate? Have you had a bad day where it seemed like you messed up even when you tried real hard not to?
Here's what I love about Peter's bad day... Peter was restored. Jesus took Peter aside and told him that He still loved him and wanted to use him.
God does the same thing for us today. Sometimes we do fail Him. Sometimes we don't listen to the Spirit of God as we should. Sometimes we make bad decisions. Sometimes we sleep when we should be praying. Can you relate?
No matter how big our screw-up, God is ready to restore us just as He did Peter. Our bad day doesn't have to be our demise. God wants to use it to restore us for even greater days of service ahead!
