As we go through the Bible and especially Genesis and Exodus, we will come across so many situations where we will have to make a decision whether someone was right or wrong, which is a good thing to do. But the temptation is always there to say, “If I was there, I would have done things so much better!” We’re going to use the story of Peter at the Last Supper to talk about why bragging is a bad idea but also about how God knows that we are going to mess up and never gives up on us.
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Hi! I’m Miss Tyler and welcome to another episode of Context for Kids where I teach you guys stuff most adults don’t even know. If this is your first time hearing or if you have missed anything, you can find all the episodes archived at contextforkids.podbean.com, which has them downloadable, or at contextforkids.com, where I have transcripts for readers or on my Context for Kids YouTube channel.
We’re about to head into some exciting stuff in the Bible and what’s more, we’re going to run into a lot of confusing behavior. Noah and his sons, and Abraham and his sons and grandsons and great-grandsons are going to do some really messed up things sometimes (along with some great things) and we’re going to be asking ourselves a lot of questions. Why did they do that? Was that wrong or right? Why did this person do such and such and this other person do the exact opposite? What should they have done instead? What would I have done if I were in their shoes? Well, the answer to that last question should always be, “I have no idea what I would have done.” And that is an important life lesson.
We always like to think that we would make better or different choices if we were in the same situation that someone else found themselves in but the truth is that we just don’t know until it is us and we are there and still, there might be something in their life that would naturally lead them to do something entirely different. Or, we might have something in our own life that prevents us from acting the way we want to think we would. For example, I hate scary movies because they give me bad dreams for like forever, but sometimes I will watch something that’s only a little bit scary and you know, you’re watching people and they should run but they just stand there and scream and I would yell at the screen, “Oh my gosh, you goober, don’t just stand there! Do something! I would have run away five minutes ago as soon as I heard the scary music!” But I learned a big lesson the first night in our new house about fifteen years ago when we were living in New Mexico. What we didn’t know was that a friend of the former owners had a key and was used to letting himself in whenever he drove through on business—and he would stay there. So, he wasn’t a criminal or anything. But I didn’t know that.
Anyway, I was sleeping on the floor and I heard the door between the garage and the house open and I went out in my jammies and there was a guy who was at least 7’ tall towering over me. Okay, maybe not that tall but at least 6’2” and that makes him over a foot taller than me and he was a big muscular guy, not a skinny guy, and for all my big talk, I froze in place and couldn’t move. I was terrified. It was a good thing I already peed before I went to bed. Just sayin’. You see, some people are fighters when confronted with personal danger and some people are freezers. And you can’t choose which of those you are. People like policemen and firemen and soldiers train themselves not to freeze, so you can learn not to, but not at the moment when you first find out. The funny thing is that when someone else is in danger, I can run between them and the person who is harassing them and put myself in danger for someone else. But when I am in danger, I become a stinking popsicle. So, if you are a popsicle too and you freeze in place when you are scared, don’t be hard on yourself—it isn’t something you can just decide one day not to do. Like the day when my five-year-olds both ran to the edge of the Grand Canyon and my legs wouldn’t move to go get them. That was like, just horrible. That’s what being scared does to people and boy am I scared of heights.
But throughout the Bible, you will see people who didn’t freeze—people like King David—and people who did freeze—people like Peter. You will see people who were tempted in terrible ways and who resisted temptation—like Jesus, of course, and people who didn’t—like, again, King David. People are very complicated and although we love to read stories and think about how we would do this or that and would never do this or that, we have to remember that Peter and David also did the same thing—and especially Peter. We’re going to talk about his story today because I have been studying it for my grown-up radio show and so it’s all fresh in my mind right now. What happened to Peter is a good lesson for us while reading the Bible so that we understand that while it is good to look at what people did and decide whether it was right or wrong, because no one except Jesus was ever always right and good, it is not a good thing to always make ourselves out to be the big heroes. In our lives, we are going to sin when we shouldn’t. We are going to freeze when we should run. We are going to fight when we should be peaceful. We are going to lie when we should tell the truth. We’re going to take shortcuts when God tells us to wait. We’re going to try to make God’s promises to us happen in our own way and mess things up instead of trusting Him to know how to keep His own promises. If we know that ahead of time, it will help us not to get too puffed up about what we imagine we would have done and instead, we can read the stories and just learn from them. And one of the most amazing things we will learn is how forgiving God is when we do act like total gooberheads.
So, let’s talk about the story of Peter and the Passover. Not just any Passover, of course, because Peter and all the disciples had celebrated the Passover all their lives. But this Passover was strange. The entire way to Jerusalem, where the Passover was celebrated, starting north of Israel at Mt Hermon and Caesarea Philippi, Jesus had been telling them things they didn’t want to hear. And especially Peter, James and John. Jesus kept talking about how he was going to die but not just that; He was going to suffer and be rejected by the leaders, and even betrayed by one of the disciples and handed over to the Romans to be killed. But the three of them, they didn’t really seem to understand what He was saying and especially when he was talking about rising from the dead afterward. It was all so confusing. When He told them that He wasn’t going to be the kind of Messiah they were looking for (or your Bible might use the word Christ instead they mean the same thing)—well, when He said he was going to die instead of lead them to victory against the Roman Empire, they didn’t respond well. You see, like all of us do sometimes, they wanted to be important people in Jesus’s new Kingdom and they thought that meant getting rid of the Romans who were ruling over them. They hated the Romans.
The disciples didn’t understand that Jesus’s Kingdom is upside down. The last will be first and the first will be last. The people who exalt themselves (which means to make themselves out to be awesome) will be humiliated and the people who are humiliated will become great. As we go through Genesis, we will see a lot of upside-down thinking coming out of God’s Kingdom—God chooses the person everyone else rejects a lot of the time! But they probably thought they would be generals in the war and that they would be important rulers after the Romans ran home to mommy. They didn’t know that wasn’t going to happen—they would spend their lives preaching, teaching, healing the sick and driving demons out of people. They did end up being pretty amazing, but it wasn’t the way they originally wanted.
Now, you might feel like you are a million years away from Peter, James and John and in some ways you are because our culture is very different and people then saw a lot of things differently than they do now but in some ways, you aren’t very different at all. Peter and Matthew were older when they started out because Peter was either married or at least engaged—making him at least eighteen, and Matthew was working as a tax collector. But the others were probably just teenagers, not that much older than you or maybe even the same age. Movies will often show them as older but that’s because all the paintings we have been looking at from artists for the last thousand years has them all with beards. But disciples of a teacher were usually just kids, teenagers. It’s much better that way because grown ups want to do things their own way and Jesus needed people that He could turn into amazing men of God who would help Him to change the world. And they did—but first, they all did something terrible. But it’s when we do terrible things that God shows us exactly who He is. And this story wouldn’t be in the Bible if the disciples hadn’t told it, right? They wanted us to know this story, even though it would have been very embarrassing!
When Jesus announced that He was going to be betrayed, at Passover dinner, the disciples couldn’t believe it. Well, that’s not entirely true—Judas sure believed it because he was going to do it! But the others were begging Jesus to tell them that it wasn’t them. “What? Not me, right?!” each one of them cried. Think of how shocked we would be if it was us! Spending all those years together ministering and walking from town to town, seeing all the miracles—one of them? Betray Jesus? It couldn’t possibly be true and none of them could think of one of the others as guilty either so they each asked if it was themselves. They must have been so scared—looking at each other and wondering what on earth was going to happen. Maybe one of them would do it by accident! That was certainly a better possibility than one of them doing such a horrible thing on purpose.
Then, after dinner, they went to Gethsemane—an olive grove with an oil press on the Mount of Olives to the east of the city of Jerusalem. Jesus told them something even more shocking. He told them that every single one of them would abandon Him—but even though they were going to all run away, He would meet them later in Galilee. Peter was very upset by that—he said, “No way! Maybe these other guys, but not me! Never!” Jesus turned to Peter and said, “Yes, you most of all—before the second rooster crowing (which happened at around 1:30 in the morning) you will already have denied me three times.” Peter was very unhappy about that and said, “No! Never! I would die first!”
After that, Jesus took His three closest disciples—Peter, and the brothers James and John—a ways away so He could pray because the Bible says He was very upset. He told them to pray and watch so that maybe they wouldn’t be tempted to abandon Him. Jesus asked God the Father if there was another way to do His will, so He wouldn’t have to go through such a terrible ordeal. He was going to suffer more than anyone has ever suffered. Jesus knew that the Father loves Him and if there was another way to save the world, God would give Him another way to do it. When Jesus finished and went back over to Peter, James and John, they were asleep—they weren’t praying! They weren’t taking the temptation to run away seriously at all! Jesus woke them up and told them to pray so that they wouldn’t be tempted. And then He went back to pray again, but He told God that whatever His decision was, He would do it so that the great plan to save the world would happen as planned, no matter how horrible it was. When He finished praying again, He went back and found them sleeping a second time and woke them up and then again a third time. That’s when Jesus saw the soldiers coming and He knew that this was the only way to save us from our sins. And I have a whole broadcast about that—Episode 18—and I will link it in the transcript.
Jesus saw a crowd of Temple guards and security people armed with swords and clubs and in front of them was Judas, one of His disciples, leading them right to Him. Judas walked up as though nothing was wrong and called Him “Rabbi” (which means teacher) and kissed Him. And the men with the swords and the clubs took hold of Him and then a terrible ruckus broke out. Peter took his sword and chopped off the ear of Malchus, the servant of the High Priest who was probably just a messenger. Jesus healed his ear even though they were arresting Him. And all the disciples—even Peter, James, and John, ran away. Jesus wasn’t going to fight the guards. He never fought anyone except demons. Maybe when Jesus refused to fight, they all got scared because they realized there was no hope. We don’t know for sure. All we know is that Jesus told them that they would all run away and they all did. More about that later.
They took Jesus to the house of the High Priest Caiaphas, and Peter at some point must have turned around and started following them because He ended up in the courtyard. A courtyard was an open space between buildings. People there in the middle of the night would be doorkeepers and guards and servants. And everyone who was supposed to be there in the middle of the night was actually from Jerusalem—and they had different accents than Jesus and his disciples who were from Galilee. They said a certain letter entirely different and it made it obvious. Just think about how easy it is to tell if someone is from different places in your country—unless you come from Germany because I have heard that you guys only have one accent in the entire country. In America, we have at least twenty. Probably a lot more. But just like someone from New York City would stick out like a sore thumb if they were talking to people in Alabama, it would be really easy to tell if there was someone from Galilee around that fire.
And so, there was a servant girl who noticed that Peter didn’t belong to her household, and she recognized him as one of the people who was travelling around the city with Jesus. And she came up to Peter, just a slave girl, okay? No one with any sort of real power. She looked right at him, pointed over her shoulder to the upper room where Jesus was on trial and said, “Hey, you were with that Nazareth guy, Jesus!” Peter must have been scared to death at that point. He had chopped off that other servant’s ear before he ran away. It was actually very brave of him to follow after Jesus to see what was going to happen but now he had been recognized! What if someone recognized him as the guy who attacked Malchus! He waved his hands and shook his head and said, “No way, I don’t have any idea what you are talking about!”
Maybe he realized his mistake right away, as the servant girl’s mouth opened wide at the sound of his voice. Peter backed out of the courtyard into the outer gate area, hoping to get away unseen, but she called to the others, “Listen to him! He is one of those Galileans!” And Peter said, “No! No, I am not!” But then the others came and when they heard him, they agreed with her, “Yeah, you really are from Galilee, you are totally one of those troublemakers!” And Peter, backing away, got really angry and said, “Let me be cursed if I am lying and curse you for lying about me! I don’t know whoever it is that you are talking about!” And just then, Peter heard the rooster crow for the second time that night and he remembered what Jesus had said and broke down and began to cry.
Remember this teaching is about asking ourselves what people should have done and what they shouldn’t have done but sometimes we make the mistake of saying, “I would never do something like that.” How did that work out for Peter? And James and John? They all thought they were willing to die for Jesus and that they would never deny or betray Him but on that night everyone did, in their own way. They all thought they knew the answer about what they would do in a situation they had never been in before and the truth is that none of us knows the answer to those kinds of questions. We hope we will do the right thing but sometimes we don’t even know what the right thing to do is and especially when we are scared or in a hurry or confused. It’s easy to think clearly when we are sitting on the couch and we aren’t surrounded by enemies with weapons. But when it happens, what would we do? We don’t know. But Jesus understands that and it’s why He told Peter, James, and John to watch and pray so that maybe it wouldn’t happen—even though He knew it would.
You know what’s kinda funny? Even when God knows that we are going to mess up and make the wrong choices, He still tries to help us make the right decision anyway. He doesn’t give up on us even when He knows our future. How amazing is that! He still gives us the benefit of the doubt and still teaches us. That should make you feel very safe to put your trust in God, that He does that for us. I mean, it would be just as easy for Him to just punish us before we do anything wrong or call us hopeless, right? But He is always wanting what is good for us. He is always teaching us a better way and preparing us to do better the next time. He is always waiting for us to get back up, say we are sorry, and try again. He loves that. After all, He created us and He knows we aren’t perfect. He didn’t make us to be perfect, He made us to make our own decisions and He does His best to teach us how to make the right ones.
But how do you think Peter felt after that? Sad? Ashamed? Angry at himself? Worried about Jesus and blaming himself for not being braver? Like he was the lowest of the low and the worst person who ever lived? That’s how I would have felt. I wouldn’t be remembering how Jesus said He would meet us in Galilee after he rose from the dead if I was Peter. I’d feel as though I failed God entirely and was just a lost cause. Have you ever felt like that before? Have you ever committed a sin or make a mistake or hurt someone so terribly that you thought you were unforgivable or at least that you would never be able to forgive yourself? If you have, then you aren’t alone. Everyone has felt like that. Sometimes, we just think such great things about ourselves and when we fail to live up to our own expectations, we are so embarrassed that we want to die. But those feelings never last forever even if they feel like it—believe me. God helps us to get over those hurts and disappointments. Sometimes it takes a long time, but not forever.
And even though what Peter did was just terrible, Jesus had already told him that he would be forgiven. How did He do that? By telling Peter and the rest of them that even though they ran away and abandoned Him, that He would meet with them again where it all began in Galilee. Probably in Capernaum, by the Sea, where He first met Peter and Andrew and James and John while they were ending a long night of fishing. Did you know that Jesus is always willing to meet up with you after you mess up too? He doesn’t like it when we mess up, but He does understand and He doesn’t stop loving you, not at all.
I am going to tell you right now that it is a whole lot easier to forgive ourselves and move on after we mess up, and also easier for people to forgive us, when we aren’t bragging about what we would and wouldn’t do in certain situations. When other people do that, how often do we just roll our eyes and say, “Yeah, sure, whatever…” because we see that they are just bragging and we know darned well that they have no idea what on earth they would do if they saw a dinosaur running down the street after them. All I can tell you is that at some point I would probably pee my pants. I feel pretty confident about admitting that. But I would probably freeze and the darned thing would eat me unless I had a heart attack and dropped dead first. That’s the truth. Whatever ended up happening, it wouldn’t be because I was thinking, “Hmmm…look at that T-Rex running down the road…I wonder what the best solution is?” No, I will be thinking the sound that people make when they are screaming, that’s all I would be thinking. In other words, I would not be thinking.
And, you know what? That’s okay. If you freeze, or run, or panic when you are really, really scared, then you have a lot in common with those guys who Jesus chose to take the message of the Kingdom to the ends of the earth. Pretty amazing, right? How badly we can mess things up and still—what do you know—God can use us to do unbelievable things. Small people, big people, girls, boys, married people and single people, people with kids and people without kids and even kids and people who are ninety years old! God is just looking for people who have learned, the hard way, that they are fallible—meaning that they make mistakes—and that God is the only one who has to be perfect. Starting with Noah here, we’re going to come upon person after person in the Bible and they are going to really mess up—in small and huge ways—and we will wonder why they are still a part of God’s plans, but they are. God likes to work through the kinds of people no one else thinks can do it. And sometimes they will do such terrible things that you even want God to turn them into a grease spot on the pavement—but then He gets them to repent and they’re sorry and they begin to do good again. So, are you like that? I bet you are.
I love you. I am praying for you. And I hope you have a wonderful week studying the Bible with the people who love you.