Friday, April 13, 2001
Friday, April 13, 2001
Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and
calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.
Think of what Peter is feeling and experiencing that first Good Friday. He follows his beloved
teacher and Messiah out into the Kidron valley to a garden to pray. Judas knows they are going
there and he brings a "detachment of soldiers together with police" (Jn 18:3) to arrest Jesus.
Peter is prepared to protect his Lord. He is not going to stand by and watch them spirit Jesus
away in the night. Peter draws his sword and cuts off the ear of a man named Malchus, the high
priest's servant. But Jesus interrupts Peter's brave stand and says, "Put your sword back into its
sheath. Am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me?" (Jn 18:11). So the police and
soldiers arrest Jesus.
After the arrest, Peter and another disciple follow Jesus as he is being lead to meet Annas, the
father-in-law of the high priest, Caiaphas. Peter is brave, yet his bravery is about to turn into idle
bravado. Soon he will deny he ever knew Jesus.
That can happen to us. We can be brave in dealing with a situation and suddenly turn away. We
who sometimes think we are so strong can prove to be weaklings after all.
However, in our weakness Jesus can make us strong.
(2 Corinthians 12:10
NRSV)
St. John tells us a story about Peter as a back drop to the trial of Jesus. Unlike the other Gospels,
St. John does not give us the details of the trial. As Martin Franzmann has pointed out, "John has
already portrayed the [so-called] 'trial' of Jesus before His own people; the record of John
chapters 7-12 makes clear that they have in effect [already] tried and condemned Him."
Lord Jesus, in my weakness, I am reminded of my great need for you. Amen.
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