The Good News of Jesus


03/21/2010 - The Power of a Second Chance



Yesterday was the first day of Spring. It actually began at midnight on Saturday, March 20. Doesn't that give you hope? Especially after the gorgeous week we just enjoyed. I'm sure we still have some cold weather ahead, but hopefully the worst is over.

Spring begins with what's called the vernal equinox and that occurs when there's an equal amount of daylight and darkness in the same day. And that happened yesterday. So from now on for the next three months we'll actually be gaining three to four minutes of daylight everyday until summer officially begins on Monday, June 21.

Spring is in the air. And in our household that means baseball is beginning. The Phillies have started spring training and our son has started his high school practices as well. So I've been thinking a lot about baseball this week and also about the passage from Mark that we're about to look at, which brought to mind Bill Buckner. Does anyone recognize the name Bill Buckner?

Bill Buckner was an outstanding major league baseball player. He played 22 seasons for five different teams, collected over 2,700 hits, won a National League batting title, led the league in doubles twice, made the All Star team, and was a superb outfielder who made a lot of great, game saving catches. Some think that Bill Buckner is worthy to be in the Hall of Fame.

But unfortunately for many baseball fans, especially those in the city of Boston, the name Bill Buckner is synonymous with failure and the most famous error ever made in a World Series game. When the pressure was on Bill Buckner didn't come through.

It was October 25, 1986, and the Boston Red Sox were just one out away from winning their first World Series title since 1918, ever since they sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees, almost seventy years before. They were about to break the "Curse of the Bambino" as it was called.

It was game six and the Red Sox had a two run lead over the New York Mets in the bottom of the tenth inning with two outs and nobody on base. One more out and it was all over. Pop the champagne and let the celebration begin!

But then the Mets miraculously came back with three straight singles and a wild pitch to tie the score at 5-5. And with a runner on second base Mookie Wilson hit a soft, routine ground ball to Bill Buckner at first which should have been an easy out, but the ball rolled right through his legs and into right field as Ray Knight crossed home plate to score the winning run.

The Mets went wild! The Red Sox were in shock! That win tied the series at three games a piece and two nights later the Mets went on to easily take game seven and become World Series Champions.

It was nightmare that Boston fans never forgot until they finally won a World Series in 2004. But until then Bill Buckner was vilified by the fans and the media for years. That's all they remembered him for. None of his other statistics mattered. He was most famous for his mistake. He was released by the Red Sox midway through the next season and after he retired he moved his family to Idaho just to get away from the media.

Sometime later the "Buckner Ball" was auctioned off for $93,000 to the highest bidder, Charlie Sheen. And finally, just two years ago he was invited back to Boston to throw out the first pitch of the 2008 baseball season. He received a four minute standing ovation from the sell-out crowd at Fenway Park. It was like a healing moment for him, a second chance so to speak.

And after the game he was asked if he had any second thoughts about showing up and he said, "I really had to forgive, not the fans of Boston, per se, but I would have to say in my heart I had to forgive the media for what they put me and my family through. So you know, I've done that and I'm over that now." Its incredible how one mistake can define a person's life and cause us to forget all the good things that they did.

This morning we look at the Apostle Peter and the one infamous mistake that he made that threatened to define his whole life and obliterate all the courageous things he had done and said up to that point. If you have a Bible turn with me to Mark 14:66.

We are just hours away from the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. It's after midnight on the day we call Good Friday and Jesus has already been arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane and taken to the house of Caiaphas, the high priest, the most powerful person in all of Israel. There Jesus is being interrogated, falsely accused, and beaten for his claim to be Israel's Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One.

It's the first of six trials that Jesus will experience that night, three religious and three civil. It's a kangaroo court in every way and will break all the rules of the Sanhedrin, Israel's Supreme Court, but that doesn't matter now. All that matters is trumping up a charge against Jesus that will get him executed quickly. But since the Jewish people are under the domination of Rome they've lost the right to execute anyone so they have to file a charge against Jesus that Rome will see as worthy of death.

So they charge Jesus with being a false prophet, performing miracles to lead Israel astray. But that charge won't get him executed. So they charge him with threatening to destroy the Jewish Temple and build another one in its place in three days, but that accusation isn't worthy of capital punishment either.

Then Caiaphas in his exasperation asks Jesus point blank if he is the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One? In other words, are you the anointed one? Kings were anointed with oil and so the term Messiah means king. The Messiah that Israel was looking for would be the next and final king.

And when Jesus says, "I am," "Ego eimi," Caiaphas goes ballistic because not only does Jesus claim to be the Messiah, but when he quotes from Psalm 110 and Daniel 7 he's claiming to be more than the Messiah. He's claiming to be on par with God himself! And that was blasphemy, a crime in Israel worthy of stoning.

So now Caiaphas has all the ammunition he needs. Blasphemy will be the charge that he'll bring before the Jewish people. And sedition will be the charge that he'll bring before the Romans. Jesus was claiming to be a rival king and Rome would have none of that. So if the Jews couldn't stone him for blasphemy then let Rome crucify him for sedition.

So they take Jesus and start mocking him and beating him and spitting on him. They blindfold him and hit with their fists and say, "Who hit you, Jesus? Bet you can't guess. If you're a prophet tell us who it was? Prophesy!"

And the irony of it all is that while they're mocking Jesus as a false prophet inside, the prophecy that Jesus gave about Peter just a few hours before is being fulfilled outside in every detail.

Look at verse 66, While Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant girls of the high priest came by. 67When she saw Peter warming himself, she looked closely at him. "You also were with that Nazarene, Jesus," she said. 68But he denied it. "I don't know or understand what you're talking about," he said, and went out into the entryway.

Last week, I mentioned that before we look at the three denials of Peter we have to be impressed with his reckless courage. Let's not forget his impressive statistics and all the good things he said and did. This man loved Jesus. There's no doubt about that. He was prepared to stick with Jesus to the bitter end. That's why he followed him through the darkness to the house of the high priest, while all the rest of the disciples took off the other way.

Peter was ready to die for Jesus. That's why he pulled out his sword to defend him in the garden. He was ready to cut the head off of Malchus, the servant of the high priest. So you would think that the last place Peter would show up that night would be the house of the high priest for fear of retaliation for his reckless attempt at murder. But he loves Jesus and he's determined to keep his word not to fall away. And we have to admire him for that.

Yet sometimes people who love Jesus a whole lot can make big mistakes and that includes you and that includes me. And it seems to me that we're more prone to make those mistakes when we think too highly of ourselves and become over confident in who we are. That's what Peter did. It's good to remember what Jesus said in the garden, "The spirit if willing, but the flesh is weak." That's true of all of us. Boasting about our devotion to Jesus puts us on very shaky ground. It's a risky thing to do.

Following Jesus is a day to day journey. It's a walk, not a sprint, not even a run. And any success we had yesterday, doesn't guarantee success today or even tomorrow which is why we need to stay close to Jesus because when we try to follow Jesus at a distance, which is what Peter did that night, we can get into all kinds of trouble. That's a good reason to practice the spiritual disciplines and to go to the places where we know Jesus shows up ... in the Scriptures and in prayer and in worship and in community and in mission and in giving and in serving. That's how we keep close to Jesus. We go where we know he goes.

And when we start warming ourselves around the enemy's fire which can be anything that lures us away from Jesus, that's always a dangerous thing to do. "Pray that you do not fall into temptation," Jesus said. Temptations are short cuts that promise to fulfill us and yet instead end up destroying our lives.

But that's what Peter's doing. He's warming himself around the enemy's fire. And when one of the guards throws another log on the fire flares up. And in the light one of the servant girl's looks closely at Peter and says, "You're one of them, aren't you? You were with that Nazarene, Jesus." But Peter says, "I don't know what you're talking about." And he gets up and heads to the archway.

Look at verse 69,When the servant girl saw him there, she said again to those standing around, "This fellow is one of them."

70Again he denied it. After a little while, those standing near said to Peter, "Surely you are one of them, for you are a Galilean."

Not only did they recognize Peter's face, but they recognized his voice. Galileans had a distinct accent that was different from those who lived in Judea which is where Jerusalem was. In fact, there was a law on the books that said a Galilean could not read the Scriptures in a Jewish synagogue anywhere in Judea because their accent was so guttural and strong. "Surely you're one of them. You're a Galilean. I can hear it in your voice!"

Verse 71,He began to call down curses, and he swore to them, "I don't know this man you're talking about."

Peter calls down curses on himself asking God to strike him dead if he's not telling the truth. Literally, "I'll be damned if I know him." And just as he says that we read in verse 72,Immediately the rooster crowed the second time. Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken to him: "Before the rooster crows twice you will disown me three times." And he broke down and wept.

What a horrible feeling! The very reason Peter had gone to the house of the high priest, at great risk to himself, was to support Jesus and be there for him. Yet while he's there he ends up doing the very opposite, denying he ever knew him. So he breaks down and weeps bitterly.

In Luke 22:60-62 we read, Just as he was speaking the rooster crowed. 61The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him, "Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times."62And he went outside and wept bitterly.

Apparently Jesus was coming out of the palace in shackles on his way to his next trial when Peter denied him for the third time and when he did Jesus looked straight at him. And we can only imagine the look in Jesus' eyes. I don't think it was an "I can't believe you did that" look. I don't think it was an "I told you so" look. I think it was a look of love and compassion and sadness for the anguish that Peter was going through.

Who knows what the next three days were like for Peter? I'm sure he was going through his own private hell while Jesus was experiencing his. As Scott taught us a few weeks ago, he may have thought it was all over for him. There was no way he could fix this, no way he could take those words back. His career with Jesus was finished. He might as well go back to his fishing business in Galilee and reinvent himself all over again.

"I don't know this man you're talking about." These are the last recorded words of Peter in the gospel of Mark. That's incredible to me. As we've already said Peter is the source of the material that Mark uses to write his gospel. He didn't have to put those words in there. He didn't have to put this whole ugly episode in there either, but he does. In fact, Peter's denial of Jesus is found in every one of the four gospel accounts which speaks volumes to me of the accuracy and the authenticity of the written record we have of Jesus' life.

What other movement that you know of contains the failure of its most prominent leader written out for all to see in its foundation documents? None that I know of. Instead, we tend to romanticize our leaders and glorify our founding fathers like George Washington and Benjamin Franklin as if they never did anything wrong. But there's nothing romantic about this episode in Peter's life. It was ugly and now it's exposed for all to see.

Fortunately, it wasn't the end of the line for Peter. By God's grace he will rebound from this disaster and be restored by Jesus in John 21 as Scott pointed out. He will go on to become the recognized leader of the early Christian movement. He will go from being a man full of himself to being a man full of the Holy Spirit. And encountering the resurrected Christ is what made all the difference. The resurrection of Jesus turned his life around and it's meant to turn our lives around as well. Jesus is alive and that validates everything he said and did.

This story always reminds me of the grace and mercy and forgiveness of God. I think that's why it's in here. We too will all fall to various degrees. People who love God can make big mistakes. And when we do it's because, like Peter, we've put too much confidence in ourselves, and followed Jesus at a distance, and warmed ourselves at the enemy's fire. But like Peter, God is in the business of forgiving us and restoring us and giving us another chance to get back in the game. And we need to give that chance to each other as well. Just like in the case of Bill Buckner.

History tells us that Peter eventually ended up chained to a pole in complete darkness standing in human waste up to his knees for nine months in the Mamertine prison in Rome. After that he was led out to Nero's Circus to be crucified for his faith. But before he was he said to the guards, "I'm not worthy to be crucified like my Lord. Crucify me upside down." And they did. He didn't deny him this time. That's the power of a second chance.