Tag Archives: hope

The Rooster Pulled the Trigger!

Christian Life, , ,

THE ROOSTER PULLED THE TRIGGER!

“Arresting Jesus, they marched Him off and took Him into the house of the Chief Priest. Peter followed, but at a safe distance. In the middle of the courtyard some people had started a fire and were sitting around it, trying to keep warm. One of the serving maids…noticed him…and said, ‘This man was with Him.’
“He denied it, ‘Woman, I don’t even know Him.’

“A short time later someone else noticed him and said, ‘You’re one of them.’
But Peter denied it, ‘Man, I am not.’

“About an hour later someone else spoke up, really adamant: ‘He’s got to have been with Him! He’s got “Galilean” written all over him.’

“Peter said, ‘Man I don’t know what you are talking about.’ At that very moment, the last word hardly off his lips, a rooster crowed. Just them, the Master turned and looked at Peter. Peter remembered what the Master had said to him…He went out and cried and cried and cried.” Luke 22:54-62 (The Message).

Would Peter ever forget that night? Every time a rooster crowed, for the rest of his life he would remember.

I guess that many thousands of sermons have been preached on this passage of Scripture over the centuries, mostly focusing on Peter’s denial and Jesus’ forgiveness. After all, it’s a message of grace that everyone needs to hear.

But God’s grace comes to us in many different ways. Sometimes we identify God’s grace as His direct intervention in our lives; miraculous healing, forgiveness, times when we cope when we have no strength of our own.

At that moment in Peter’s life, I am sure he would like to have killed that rooster because it triggered a memory that brought him to utter despair. What if Jesus had not warned him in advance that it would happen? Would the sound of the crowing rooster have had as much impact on him as it did? Probably not.

He would have felt bad about denying Jesus but, because of the warning, every time he heard the rooster, he would also have heard his own retort at Jesus’ warning, ‘Lord, I am ready to go with you to jail and to death.’ It was not Jesus’ words that haunted him as much as his own.

Peter did not know himself. He had no idea of his weak and cowardly heart until the crowing rooster pulled the trigger! He had a long journey ahead and a lot of growing to do before he could say those same words and mean them.

The rooster was only being a rooster but, for Peter, his voice was a forceful reminder of his fallible humanity and his need for God’s grace because he could not do it on his own. It was his failure that caused him to be aware of his constant need of God and caused him to rest in the power of Jesus to give him strength to stand under testing.

Peter could not have penned the words in his letter to believers under pressure had he not experienced what he did on that terrible night. Only tested faith can come out pure, like gold that has gone through fire. Had Peter not fallen that night, he could have claimed victory through his own will-power, but his crash was the best thing that ever happened to him.

The sound of the crowing rooster was a trigger, not of failure and despair but of hope, a reminder of God’s grace that forgives, restores and gives another chance to those who discover, through experience, how weak they really are, and who learn to rest in the strength that God supplies.

Forgiven

Christian Life, , , ,

FORGIVEN!

“Two others, both criminals, were taken along with him for execution.

“When they got to the place called Skull Hill, they crucified Him, along with the criminals, one on His right, the other on His left.

“Jesus prayed, ‘Father, forgive them. They do not know what they are doing.’

“Dividing up His clothes, they drew dice for them. The people stood there staring at Jesus and the ringleaders made faces, taunting, ‘He saved others. Let’s see Him save Himself. The Messiah of God — ha! The Chosen — ha!'” Luke 23:32-35 (The Message).

Luke’s story has very little detail. It’s almost as though he deliberately pulled the curtain on Jesus’ suffering. He was sensitive and discreet about his descriptions, writing only about those things which related to the character of Jesus and the fulfilment of prophecy — although he didn’t mention that fact in his story. He was writing about the Son of God, not a sensational tabloid account of a criminal’s last hours. Even Jesus’ criminal companions come in for the same kindly discretion.

Right in the middle of this tragic event there stands a shining light of hope for all of them; soldiers, perpetrators, unfeeling crowd, and even the two guilty men hanging on their crosses beside Him. One sentence echoes down through time, embracing everyone, from the first pair who set the ball rolling to every other person who has lived, and will live, to perpetuate the first pair’s rebellion against their Creator.

“‘Father, forgive them. They do not know what they are doing.'”

Jesus encapsulated in His prayer the reason for this heinous deed, the responsibility for which sits squarely on the shoulders of every person who has lived. “They do not know what they are doing.” He extended forgiveness, then, to all of us now, since we have no idea of the implications of our stubborn rebellion against God.

Do you know how far-reaching one act of selfishness can be in your life? One careless word, one lie, one act of treachery or betrayal, one night of lust, one stolen kiss, one impulsive decision, can ruin a life, a family and even an entire community in a split second. We are left with a lifetime to regret what we did in a moment.

The spilt blood of Jesus speaks up for you even in the situations that leave you helpless and condemned. You did not know what you were doing! That does not excuse your behaviour. Jesus’ sacrifice does not remove the responsibility for our sin. He paid the debt by giving His life for ours, blood for blood, so that the Father’s justice would be fully satisfied.

The implications of Jesus’ gift are huge. Not only has the debt of our sin been paid but also the debt of those who have sinned against us. We no longer have the right to punish those who owe us because it is illegal to punish a person twice for the same sin.

This makes the sin of unforgiveness unforgiveable. It would be morally wrong for God to clear our debt if we refuse to clear the debt of someone who owes us. That makes unforgiveness an “unpardonable” sin which can take even a believer into eternal separation from God.

Jesus lived out His own teaching in the midst of His cruellest suffering. He was innocent, yet He forgave those who were responsible for putting Him there. He was there because He chose to be there, willingly submitting to His Father’s will. There was no other way to reconcile God’s wayward sons and daughters to Himself.

Jesus does not expect us to do what He did not do first. He taught us and showed how by His own impeccable choice to obey the Father to His last breath. He led the way and calls us to follow. In that there is life!