It’s shameful!
And yet that same tongue can bring such joy and peace to someone with a kind word, or a simple “I love you”…
Proverbs 22:24 says: An honest answer is like a kiss on the lips.
There is much to be said about the dichotomy of our tongue. I want to take a look at one of the most famous talkers of the Bible: Peter, and his razor-sharp tongue. He didn’t just hurt one of his friends… no he hurt his greatest friend, and his Savior from sin.
It’s a familiar story-
Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane and all 11 of his remaining disciples ran away scared. Jesus is on trial in the temple Court Peter, one of his closest disciples has just denied that he even knows who Jesus is THREE times- calling down curses on him self swearing he wasn’t a friend of God-made-man.
A familiar story, Peter’s denial, right?
Now think of Jesus-
Imagine the pain. The gut wrenching feeling he must have had
When his friends. His BEST FRIENDS- hand picked- his travel partners for 3 years
His buddies, his pals, his band of brothers
Imagine the devastation when they all fled and left him to face his death all alone.
I think we often forget that Jesus’ suffering started long before the first nail was pounded into his hand.
Jesus suffering began with a loneliness that I pray you and I will never even come close to feeling as his closest and best friends not only deserted him, but Peter, the boldest and loudest of them all- denied he even KNEW him.
How that must have cut our Lord to the core.
Recently there was a MSN poll asking what wound people felt would hurt the most –
some listed paper cuts with lemon juice poured in them, someone else put down the times you smash your toe on the door.
Others listed a variety of burns, breaks, slivers under the fingernails. But one response really caught my attention.
When asked, “What wound hurts the most?” someone responded, “Any wound caused by a friend!”
That’s really what we have here today as Jesus is denied by his friend
These wounds are perpetrated not by an enemy, not by an opponent, but by friends – by the people closest to you, people you thought you could rely upon; people you thought would stand by you through thick and thin!
Please don’t think that our Savior was blindsided by this denial-
He warned his disciples just prior to his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane:
But a time is coming and has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home. You will leave me all alone. John 16:32
And even hours before these events, he warned them again:
This very night you will all fall away on account of me…
Yet in spite of these repeated warnings, we are told:
But Peter declared, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.”
Bold words.
And then came the moment when the ships were down – the time of trouble and persecution that Jesus had talked about when everything seemed to be falling apart.
They were surrounded.
Their freedom and wellbeing, their livelihood and their very lives were at stake.
So when the going got tough what did they do?
It’s shameful!
And yet that same tongue can bring such joy and peace to someone with a kind word, or a simple “I love you”…
Proverbs 22:24 says: An honest answer is like a kiss on the lips.
There is much to be said about the dichotomy of our tongue. I want to take a look at one of the most famous talkers of the Bible: Peter, and his razor-sharp tongue. He didn’t just hurt one of his friends… no he hurt his greatest friend, and his Savior from sin.
It’s a familiar story-
Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane and all 11 of his remaining disciples ran away scared. Jesus is on trial in the temple Court Peter, one of his closest disciples has just denied that he even knows who Jesus is THREE times- calling down curses on him self swearing he wasn’t a friend of God-made-man.
A familiar story, Peter’s denial, right?
Now think of Jesus-
Imagine the pain. The gut wrenching feeling he must have had
When his friends. His BEST FRIENDS- hand picked- his travel partners for 3 years
His buddies, his pals, his band of brothers
Imagine the devastation when they all fled and left him to face his death all alone.
I think we often forget that Jesus’ suffering started long before the first nail was pounded into his hand.
Jesus suffering began with a loneliness that I pray you and I will never even come close to feeling as his closest and best friends not only deserted him, but Peter, the boldest and loudest of them all- denied he even KNEW him.
How that must have cut our Lord to the core.
Recently there was a MSN poll asking what wound people felt would hurt the most –
some listed paper cuts with lemon juice poured in them, someone else put down the times you smash your toe on the door.
Others listed a variety of burns, breaks, slivers under the fingernails. But one response really caught my attention.
When asked, “What wound hurts the most?” someone responded, “Any wound caused by a friend!”
That’s really what we have here today as Jesus is denied by his friend
These wounds are perpetrated not by an enemy, not by an opponent, but by friends – by the people closest to you, people you thought you could rely upon; people you thought would stand by you through thick and thin!
Please don’t think that our Savior was blindsided by this denial-
He warned his disciples just prior to his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane:
But a time is coming and has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home. You will leave me all alone. John 16:32
And even hours before these events, he warned them again:
This very night you will all fall away on account of me…
Yet in spite of these repeated warnings, we are told:
But Peter declared, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.”
Bold words.
And then came the moment when the ships were down – the time of trouble and persecution that Jesus had talked about when everything seemed to be falling apart.
They were surrounded.
Their freedom and wellbeing, their livelihood and their very lives were at stake.
So when the going got tough what did they do?
No comments:
Post a Comment