Sunday presented me with a challenging text -- John 13:21-28. In these verses Jesus predicts the betrayal by Judas, announces his imminent glorification in the cross, gives the new commandmnet to his 11, and then tells Peter he will deny his Lord. Now there is a mix of issues.
As I prayed I determined that the story of Judas and Peter was not a moral message -- the evils of betrayal. Dante puts Judas in the depths of hell in his classic work The Inferno. But I do not think that is what John is doing. Peter's sin was not less than Judas' sin. From Jesus perspective, they were both self-serving.
As I read I saw that the people reading the story already knew the fate of Judas and Peter and that meant the point of this section was not to highlight greater or lesser sins but to remind us that one great sinner fled from the cross and perished and the other great sinner fled to the cross and was a leading apostle.
It was also clear in John that Jesus was not a victim of circumstance -- he knew what he was about and what would happen. He was actually making it happen. Here was sovereignty over-ruling human sin.
Then God showed me something -- here we are at then end of Jesus three years with these men and their sin is so deeply rooted that their hearts remain the same! They had spent intense time in the presence of a perfect example and nothing had changed their hearts. They needed a Savior, not an example. And Jesus is not despairing of their lack of progress. He expects it. They are all great sinners -- the other 10 will desert him too.
Because they are such great sinners, Jesus must go to the cross and be glorified as Savior. And Jesus is glorifed when he saves true sinners. When we cover up our sin and try to act perfect we diminish the glory of Jesus as he is seen in us.
My application was certainly not an encouragement to sin -- but an encouragement to put aside the idol of thinking we are the good news. We want our lives and our marriages and our families to be "showcase" for Jesus. We get embarassed when our children sin publicly and we think it ruins Jesus reputation! In reality we want people to be impressed with us.
But sin keeps showing up and needs fresh grace to put it to death. Our sin is evil but it is not an embarassment to Jesus -- it is a reminder that we need grace all the time. We need a Savior all the time.
I am not impressed with the 12. They never get it right. But Jesus always does. The church is composed of people just like Peter -- great selfish sinners who have seen their sin at the foot of the cross -- and express that grace to each other in their pursuit of holiness.
I finished studying this section with the ugliness of human sin and I was amazed at the greatness of the Savior who would die for folks like them -- and folks like me.
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