Letters to the Prison - Week 159

Hello, everyone.  We’re studying the Gospel of John.  If you need a Bible, ask for one!  Last week, Jesus made a prediction… that he was going where his disciples couldn’t follow (John 13:33).  He then follows this prediction with an extremely important command… that we who claim to follow him should love one another.  This command is so important that Jesus ties our very identity as Christians to our obedience to it (John 13:35).  The disciples think the command is so important that… they completely overlook it:

• Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus answered him, “Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward.” -John 13:36

So, Jesus adds a little more information to his prediction.  He’ll add even more in another verse or two… about Peter specifically, because Peter just doesn’t seem to get it:

• Peter said to him, “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” 38 Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me? -John 13:37-38a

Here Peter is putting on a “brave face,” but Jesus knows him better than he knows himself.  As we close out this chapter, we should recognize that the conversation is far from over.  It will certainly “change gears” entering chapter 14, as we will see.  But what of this moment with Peter?  Jesus has asked an exceptionally difficult question: “Will you lay down your life for me?”  Here, he’s asked it of Peter rhetorically, because he will then answer it himself with startling (and blistering) accuracy:  

• Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times  -John 13:38b

This is the 21st “truly, truly” statement recorded by John… and it is devastating.  Peter will deny even knowing Jesus –let alone lay down his life for him.  In a few chapters, tragically, we will see this prophecy fulfilled with terrible accuracy.  And yet, when we consider the essential command to love one another –the one that went right over Peter’s head—we might perhaps ask ourselves:  Which is the braver thing?  To follow Jesus to an early agonizing death?  Or to live out a life of obedience to that most challenging command:  To love one another the way Jesus has loved us?  Peter would eventually do both.  Much of his work in the church is recorded in the New Testament.  Then, after 30-odd years of faithfully proclaiming the Gospel, Peter would indeed die for Jesus.  He was martyred by being crucified upside-down approximately AD64 at the command of the Roman emperor Nero, according to tradition.  

Jesus’ question is asked of us as well.  Understanding this, when we ask ourselves (as we should) whether we’re willing to lay down our lives for Jesus, we see that our answer has huge implications for how we choose to conduct ourselves in everyday life.  Jesus knows our hearts, too… whether we would lay down our lives for him.  He still calls people to do this very thing –to die for him as martyrs.  Christians around the world die for Jesus every day –murdered because of their faith.  But beyond (and perhaps more bravely) than that, we must die to ourselves every day in relation to one another.  Galatians 5:16-26 and Luke 9:23-27 give us clear and direct guidance about this reality… what it entails and what it should look like.  Pray, dear friends, that we would lay down our lives for Jesus every moment of every day.  We love you.

Dean A.