Introducing Simon Peter

Peter was one of the most prominent of all Jesus' disciples. Of course we first encounter him in the Gospels. I love Mark's account where we see Jesus walking by the sea of Galilee and encountering Simon and his brother Andrew casting their net into the sea. The casting of a net in order to catch fish is an art. It takes skill, grace, and energy. We can imagine the two brothers happily at work when this fellow Jesus suggests that they leave their work there and become "fishers of men" (Mark 1: 16-18). And that's just what they did. 

Over the next three years, we learn how Jesus healed Peter's mother in law (Matt 8: 14-15); we hear Simon's insightful declaration that Jesus is "the Christ, the Son of the living God" and Jesus loving response "Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona...thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matt 16: 13-20); we hear about Simon the disciple as he joins James and John at the transfiguration scene (Mark 9: 2-10). Of course there are many other scenes that help us get a picture of Peter, who struggled with his conscience when Jesus was arrested, and who was at the sea of Tiberias after the resurrection (John 21) where Jesus pointedly queried Peter's ongoing mission and instructed him to "feed [his] sheep".

The book of Acts of course gives us a picture of Peter coming to grips with his life's work. We see him rise to meet the needs of the new era, for which his Master had prepared him and his fellow-disciples. I especially love the account in Acts 12 which describes the tragedy of James' murder by King Herod and the subsequent imprisonment of Peter. How his fellow disciples must have prayed that day! And with what gratitude they must have welcomed Peter into the home of "Mary the mother of John" after his escape from the prison. (This story reminds me of Adrienne Vinciguerra's departure from Stalag 17A, recounted in A Century of Christian Science Healing pages 136 - 145, where she recounts picking up her Bible, Science and Health, her German Herald and a few personal things, and simply walking out in broad daylight, knowing that "man - as he really is - cannot be detained in a prison, he cannot be confined in a camp, but he is as unlimited and unbounded as God.") 

Eugene Peterson describes Peter as "a breath of fresh air" in his Introduction to the books of First and Second Peter in The Message.  His strong leadership qualities did not morph into lordship over anyone; he remained a humble, solid, and staunch witness to the resurrection of his Master. 

(First and Second Peter: Peterson tells us that these two letters were written between AD 60 and 68, when the Chinese were inventing paper and porcelain!)

The opening salutation is to the "strangers" (cf Deut 10: 19 "Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt") of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, in other words, to those refugees scattered all over the Roman Empire. (There's a nice map here - https://literaryloudmouth.wordpress.com/2014/03/29/297/).

How interesting it is to read about the germination of Christianity!

Julie Swannell