Luke 22:61-62

Luke 22:61-62 

English Standard Version 

   Peter weeps bitterly, but all is not lost.  There is still a path forward.

  You and I have wept over things in the world.  We have wept for what is lost, for broken things that can never be repaired, for pain that cannot be undone, for loss that forever leaves a scar in the soul.  We have cried endless tears, to the point where it feels like there are no more tears, and yet still we weep.

  These are the tears that Peter cried.  We've been there, and it aches in an exhausting way.

  And yet, even here, in our tears, even the tears that we cry when we have failed, when we have given up ourselves and broken our own hearts due to poor choices, there is a path.  There is grace.  This is not the end.

  The Gospel shows us a way through everything that would tear our souls apart.  Jesus reminds us that there is light for the darkness, living water for our parched and weary souls.  There is hope for us.

  So do not dismay, even in your tears.  Look to the hills, and be reminded that there is hope in Christ.

The Difference Between Problems and Mysteries

What if some of the most important things in life are not problems to solve? French philosopher Gabriel Marcel distinguished between a problem and a mystery. A problem stands in front of us. We analyze it, work on it, and try to reach a solution. A mystery is different. We are already inside it. Love. Grief. Hope. Suffering. Faith. Even our own existence. These are not questions we can simply step outside of and solve from a distance. They are realities in which we participate. Marcel worried that modern life tempts us to treat everything—and sometimes everyone—as a problem to be managed. But perhaps wisdom begins when we learn that some realities must be encountered, lived, and received rather than solved. What in your life might be a mystery to inhabit rather than a problem to fix?

Luke 22:54–60

Luke 22:54-60 

English Standard Version 

  I sometimes walk into the grocery store and tell myself that I'm only going to guy the things I need, and then I walk out with some obscure thing that I rarely buy but looked good and I was hungry and so I threw it in the cart without thinking and I end up telling myself that I'll do better next time.  

  For this reason alone, and so many others, this story is such a wondrous inclusion in the Gospel.  

  Take a step back and think for a moment -- Peter was the one who was charged to lead the church after the ascension of Jesus.  Now, Peter could easily have killed this story, and everyone would have went along with it, because who wants the leader of the church to look bad?  Or later on, the Catholic Church could've found a way to bury this story.  But they didn't.  

  Why?

  Because it's so accessible.  For all the different stories in the Bible where we read them and think to ourselves that we could never do that or be that... here we are, looking at the leader of the church, who bravely told Jesus that he would die at the side of Jesus before he ever let him down, and as soon as he's confronted by a servant girl, he denies even knowing the very man who he has followed for the past 3 years, such is Peter's fear and desire to save his own skin.

  I can relate to this.

  You can probably find a way to relate to this.  

  This is the same Peter who, when he meets Jesus on the shores of the lake after the resurrection, will be embraced by Jesus and charged with leading the church.  This Peter, the one who fails, has a big role to play.

  So do you.  Even when you fail.  There is a place for you in the church and in the lives of others.  We forth to feed Christ's sheep, to tend to his beloved.  Just like Peter.

Luke 22:52–53

Luke 22:52-53 

English Standard Version 

  Things are different at night.  Sounds that you hear in the deep of night bother you in a way they wouldn't if you heard them at noon.  Things can feel more eerie.  Dark provides cover for many strange activities.

  Jesus points out that they could have arrested him any time they wanted.  It's not like he was hiding from them.

  But they waited until night, in the garden, where hopefully less people were watching.

  Were they ashamed?  Were they afraid?  We don't know.  But they didn't want people to know.  This was their hour -- the power of darkness.

  It's a good time to be afraid.  And yet... Jesus is there, and so there is still hope.  Even in the power of darkness -- there is still hope.  

  So do not give up when the darkness is closing in.  No matter how dire the odds may seem, because of the power of the Gospel, we still have hope.