Mercy!

 

Text: John 21:15-19

Focus: Mercy

Function: to help people see how God restores us in failure

¹⁵When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” ¹⁶A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” ¹⁷He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. ¹⁸Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.” ¹⁹(He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, “Follow me.”

Good morning to the beloved of God!

I want to bring you greetings from the Warren County Correctional Institute where I spent yesterday and last weekend witnessing the mercy of God as it was poured out on a group of men whom society has rejected and deemed unworthy of freedom.

I am profoundly struck by the passage in Matthew 25:34-40: ³⁴Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, ³⁵for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, ³⁶I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ ³⁷Then those who do justice will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food or thirsty and gave you something to drink? ³⁸And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you or naked and gave you clothing? ³⁹And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ ⁴⁰And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.’

This morning, when I call you the beloved of God I mean it based again on this passage that I just read because it names you, right here at Painter Creek as “Blessed by my Father” because of the way you encourage and support our ministry to the prison.

There are a lot of rules about going into the prison and not everyone can get in, or is equipped to do this kind of work.

What you did for me last weekend by baking cookies, praying, and allowing my absence for a Sunday and at yesterday’s meeting was you also visiting the prisoner vicariously through our collective work together.

It is good to be blessed by the Father.

And last weekend, I saw a lot of mercy happening.

Our text for today is about mercy after failure.

I punctuated the title with an exclamation point to illustrate the wonder and awe we feel when we experience God’s mercy.

Let me give you a background to our story this morning.

Peter is a rock, according to Jesus, but he is also impetuous, according to me. What I mean is that while Peter is zealous and seems to be the first one to speak, he sometimes speaks before he thinks. Jesus has to correct him a few times in the gospels, and Paul, later on in the epistle to the Galatian church. But his heart is pure and he loves the Lord. His problem is our problem, he is not yet perfect.

So, earlier, when Jesus tells the disciples that he is going to be betrayed and they will desert him, Peter, knowing his heart and devotion to the Lord, brags that he will die with Jesus before denying him. And the rest of the disciples join in.

But Jesus calls out his confidence in his own ability and zeal and prophecies that he will deny him three times before the night is over. Which he does and weeps bitterly when he realizes his failure.

You know the story, Jesus is arrested, the disciples flee, one of them was grabbed and slipped out of his tunic and escaped naked according the gospel of Mark. Except. Except Peter who trails the arresting party and follows Jesus. He is holding to his bravado.

I mentioned Jesus calling out his confidence in his own ability because that seems to be the spiritual lesson that we learn from Peter’s failure.

Jesus is telling him, and us through Peter’s failure, a few things. The first is that God is the one who keeps us faithful and inspires us. We do not need to worry if we will react correctly when being tested for our faith because God will give us the confidence we need when we are faced with a crisis situation.

The second thing Jesus is showing comes from today’s passage and that is again, Mercy.

Peter denies Christ three times and in this story of redemption when Jesus rebuilds his confidence in God’s plan for him, Jesus re-commissions him for his ministry.

In response to the three denials, he asks him three times if he loves him and by the 3^rd time, Peter is upset that Jesus is questioning his loyalty. Then we figure out that Jesus isn’t questioning him, but forgiving him and including Peter with all of his human weakness to be a part of God’s great redemption of the world. God includes you and I as well.

Peter fails three times and three times Jesus re-instates him to what our Roman Catholic sisters and brothers call the Pope. And Peter, as the head of the Church, is entrusted with caring for the flock of God.

God redeems the church and then the church cares for its own and builds its own up, nurtures them and gives them a future and a hope.

Again, Peter’s sin is not zeal. It is zeal without knowledge of the power of God’s mercy.

It isn’t that Peter has a death wish, but his faith is so strong that he is certainly willing. And Jesus tells him, in the last few verses of the passage, that he will also be given the courage to face death again and this time, not cower away in fear. It is the Holy Spirit that gives us strength to bear witness to Christ with our lives and actions.

Incidentally, history records that Peter was eventually crucified for his faith, but he was crucified upside down so that he would not take away from the image of Christ crucified for us as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Now, we are three weeks post -Easter in our worship.

It is a time when we focus on the fact of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

I suppose the martyrdom of the Apostles, like Peter being crucified for his faith, is another proof of the resurrection. Why would they have been willing to die for a lie if it wasn’t true?

And I submit they their willingness to follow Christ came from the kind of faith that God promises to plant inside of all us to take us through trials and bear witness to God’s love.

God’s mercy extends through our weaknesses.