September 1,2023
Your Strength Can Only Carry You So Far
“Simon Peter said to Him, ‘Lord, where are You going?’ Jesus answered, ‘Where I go, you cannot follow Me now; but you will follow later.’ Peter said to Him, ‘Lord, why can I not follow You right now? I will lay down my life for You.’ Jesus answered, ‘Will you lay down your life for Me? Truly, truly, I say to you, a rooster will not crow until you deny Me three times.’” John 13:36-38 (NASB)
Each one of us has regrets in life. Many of us still think of them today. Peter is about to experience something he will regret for the rest of his life. Later he would make course adjustments and do what was righteous and holy. It helped him stay on mission for the future. He wasn’t prepared for what was ahead. Jesus gave him some insight, but Peter didn’t listen.
“Simon Peter said to Him, ‘Lord, where are You going?’ Jesus answered, ‘Where I go, you cannot follow Me now; but you will follow later.” What a stark contrast to how Jesus responded to the Jews in John 8:21, “Then He said again to them, ‘I go away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot come.’” Peter would follow Jesus later, but the Jews would not. This was divine insight. Luke mentions an additional comment from Peter, “Lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death!” (Luke 22:33). Prison and death? “Peter, like the rest, had not yet grasped the idea of the death of Christ, but, like Thomas (11:16), he is not afraid of danger. He had heard Christ’s words about the good shepherd (10:11) and knew that such loyalty was the mark of a good disciple.”[1] “Peter said to Him, ‘Lord, why can I not follow You right now? I will lay down my life for You.” I imagine Peter as a man not afraid of a fight. He was a hot head. He was not afraid to go head-on with anyone (as in the Garden scene), but in the coming hours, he couldn’t fight the whole city. His strength would be limited by self-preservation. “It was so easy for Peter to measure everything from the perspective of his natural strength. ‘I don’t know about the rest of the group, but I know I can do it! I’ve never backed down from anyone or anything!’ … But that was not all there was to Peter—he also had a great love for Jesus, and he could not bear the thought of being separated from him. The poor man was speaking with his heart and not his head. Jesus answered Peter in verse 38: ‘Will you really lay down your life for me? I tell you the truth, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!’ Peter did not know how weak he was. Perhaps Jesus’ words had an effect because we don’t hear another word from Peter in the Upper Room. Poor Peter. I can see him sulking like a chastened puppy.”[2] “Jesus answered, ‘Will you lay down your life for Me? Truly, truly, I say to you, a rooster will not crow until you deny Me three times.” Jesus was telling Peter, “I know what is going to happen, and your bravery will only carry you as far as my arrest. You are no more ready to fight and die, than you are ripe for the mission ahead.”
All of us have done things in our life which we regret to this day. Some have even affected the course of our lives. Peter was about to learn this lesson. What if today, you were able to see into the future and correct it now? Would you change it? How would you know how to change it? I have an answer to those questions. It is the divine Word of God. When we stick to God’s manual for living, life can be so much better; happier, and more peaceable. When we do, we are endowed with supernatural power to live above anything we could have ever expected!
[1] Robertson, A. T. (1933). Word Pictures in the New Testament (Jn 13:37). Broadman Press.
[2] Hughes, R. K. (1999). John: that you may believe (p. 329). Crossway Books.