“Unlikely Heroes of the Faith: Peter”
Mark 8:27-35

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Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Pentecost—November 15, 2015

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Our sermon series this month is on “Unlikely Heroes of the Faith.”  Maybe sometimes you don’t feel or act like what we think a “saint” should be, a hero of the faith.  It may surprise you to learn that the great saints of old often felt the same way.  We continue this morning with today’s Gospel Reading, and the confession of faith in Christ proclaimed by the Apostle PETER. 

Recently in the comic “Family Circus,” Billy was reading a Bible storybook with a picture of Jesus as a boy.  In the caption, Billy asked, “Did Jesus get to take off his HALO to go play?”

It wasn’t Christians who first pictured a glow, or halo, around the head to represent holiness. Halos were actually a Greek, Roman, and even Buddhist artistic invention, in the years “B.C.,” before Christianity.  Much later, Christians borrowed this symbolism as a way to designate Jesus and other holy persons in Christian art.

Halos feature prominently in the great works of Christian art from the Middle Ages and Renaissance. But, while halos are now a beautiful part of traditional Christian art, maybe they give us a false impression, that these believers of old were perfect, SUPER saints, detached and other worldly.  They’re sometimes called “plaster saints,” because they seem no more lifelike than the plaster statues used to represent them.  Did these perfect, plaster, super saints so long ago really know what it’s like for you, your life, and the struggles that you face?

But, despite their halos, Peter and the other Apostles were no plaster saints.  In fact, one strong testimony to the authenticity of the New Testament is that it does NOT attempt to cover up the foibles, faults and failings of Jesus’ inner circle of 12 Apostles.  On the contrary, again and again the New Testament reports, in embarrassing detail, how they doubted Jesus, argued with him and one another, fought over who among them was the greatest.  Even at the Last Supper, it appears that they were jockeying for the best seat at the table!  And that night, one of their inner circle went so far as to betray Jesus to death.  If the New Testament was a concocted story, it would NEVER include such unflattering portrayals of the men who became the leaders of the early Church.

At their very first encounter the Bible records, Peter doubted Jesus. After preaching from Peter’s boat to a crowd gathered on the shore, Jesus told him, “Put out into the deep water, and let down your nets for a catch.”  But, Peter replied skeptically, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything.”  After they miraculously caught so many fish that their nets began to break, Peter fell on his knees before Jesus and cried out, “Depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man!”  So, Peter himself says that he’s no plaster saint, not perfect or holy in himself, but he too is a “sinful man.”

We see an example of that in today’s Gospel Reading.  Jesus speaks plainly about his suffering and death, and Peter takes him aside to rebuke him:  “‘Never, Lord!’ he said. ‘This must never happen to you!’ . . .  But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. ‘Get behind me, Satan!’ he said. ‘You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.’”  Jesus actually calls Peter “Satan,” because Satan was using Peter to try to get to Jesus, to tempt him not to fulfill his mission in this world.

Another example of Peter’s doubt is the story of Jesus bidding Peter come out to him on the water walking on the water.  But, Peter sees the sees the wind and waves and is afraid.  He doubts that Jesus can make him walk on water too, and sinks.  That’s how we often are when buffeted in our lives by the storms and winds and waves of this world.  We doubt Jesus’ power and sink. “You of little faith,” Jesus says to him, “why did you doubt?”

At the Last Supper, Peter solemnly swore to Jesus, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never deny you.”  But, just a few hours later, he swore again, this time to the crowd warming themselves around the fire in the courtyard of the palace of the high priest, where Jesus was on trial for his life.  “Surely you also were with Jesus of Nazareth,” one of them said to Peter.  And he called down curses on himself and swore to them, “I don’t know this man you are talking about.”  Matthew says, “Immediately a rooster crowed.  Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: ‘Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.’ And he went outside and wept bitterly.”

Doubting, denying Peter, who was not a rabbi or scribe or trained as a theologian, but a former fisherman, seems a MOST unlikely candidate for HEAD of the Apostles, and HERO of the faith.  This is another powerful testimony to the authenticity of the New Testament and our Christian faith.  How can it be that the largest, most successful organization in the history of the world started with this little group of nobodies, from a backward corner of the Roman Empire, with all their admitted foibles, faults and failings, led by a former fishermen?

This phenomenon was already inexplicable in today’s Reading from the Book of Acts: “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished.”  Peter explains the courage and zeal of himself and the other Apostles in today’s Epistle Reading: “We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.” 

“‘But what about you?’ Jesus asked Peter.  ‘Who do you say I am?’ Peter answered, ‘You are the Christ.’”  That was an extraordinary turning point in the ministry of Jesus, in the life of Peter, and really in the history of the world.  For the first time, Peter, speaking not only for himself but on behalf of all the Apostles, declares that they believe: “You are the Christ.”

There is so much meaning packed into those four words: “You are the Christ.”  Because, “Christ” is actually not Jesus’ last name, but a title signifying his office, like “Pastor Vogts” or “President Obama.”  “Christ” is the Greek word for the Hebrew “Messiah,” the long-awaited, promised Savior.  When Peter declares, “You are the Christ,” THAT is what he is confessing, on behalf of all the Apostles.  As they say in today’s Reading from the Book of Acts, “We cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”  What they have seen and heard convinces them of something extraordinary: Jesus of Nazareth IS the Messiah, the promised Savior, the Christ.  THAT is the source of the Apostles’ extraordinary courage and zeal and success.  THAT is how a handful of nobodies from nowhere conquered the world, so that 2,000 years later, on the other side of the globe, in an land then unknown, we are here today, worshipping the Christ they preached.

In the first sermon given by a Christian preacher, recorded in the Book of Acts, Peter puts it this way:  “Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know.  This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. . .  God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. . .  Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”

In his First Epistle, Peter explains the importance of Jesus’ death and resurrection for you:  “Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. . .  you were redeemed . . . with the precious blood of Christ.”  That’s what the confession “You are the Christ” means: Jesus is your Savior, who took all your sins upon himself on the cross, who paid for them all and redeemed you with his precious blood.

Peter continues: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept for you in heaven.”  Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, you have eternal life.

You see, another reason God inspired the writers of the New Testament to INCLUDE the foibles, faults, and failings of Peter and the other Apostles is to comfort us.  For, these examples show that heaven is NOT reserved for plaster saints, but for sinners like you and me, who trust in Jesus the Christ for forgiveness, whose sins are washed away by his precious blood, who are saints not because we are holy and perfect in ourselves, but because the holiness of Jesus the Christ covers over your sins and makes you a holy saint in the sight of God.

It seems Peter anticipated that some day we would paint a halo around his head and look upon him as a super saint, a plaster saint.  For, did you notice how he begins today’s Epistle Reading?  “Simon Peter, a servant and Apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received A FAITH AS PRECIOUS AS OURS.”  What amazing words, from the great head of the Apostles and hero of the faith, Saint Peter: “[You] have received A FAITH AS PRECIOUS AS OURS.”