The
Rooster, the symbol of Peter being smitten by the
love of Jesus
Luke 22:31-34, 54-62
Introduction: On being
‘smitten’; to smite is to harm, but
to be smitten is to love.
Today’s lesson
is about betrayal. If you are old enough
it is likely that you know
the experience and feeling of betrayal.
Someone has been unfaithful to you, you have lost an inheritance
or a
birthright you had been lead to believe was yours.
Someone you trusted failed to defend your
honor, they promised they would be a ‘junk yard dog’ and defend you,
but when
push came to shove they never even barked.
Your freedom, you dignity and your land was taken by force. We can feel betrayed by the leaders of
church, business, nation.
How do you
respond when you
are betrayed? When I see the person
coming down the street I avoid them. I
separate myself and distance myself from the organization.
“Not another red cent.” The
betrayer becomes an emotional dump upon
whom I unload my anxiety; they act like a scapegoat for my trouble. I defend myself, have feelings of
revenge. As the anger flows in as the
trust flows out. In betrayal our trust
is broken. Betrayal is the
spark that may ignite the fire of violence.
In today’s story
there are
two betrayals. The first betrayal is the
betrayal of the disciples by Jesus. I
think they feel betrayed. They had great
expectations of Jesus. He had promised
them land, power, influence, freedom, inheritance, glory.
They felt they were let down by their
leader. He gave up without a fight, was
tied
up and lead away to prison like any ordinary person.
Come on, if he really was the Messiah, he
even said it himself, he could have called 10000 angels.
And, that is exactly what the kind of thing I
would have expected to happen if I were his disciple.
If God came to the aid of Moses and destroyed
the Egyptian army in the sea, then certainly God would come to the aid
of Jesus
who is the Messiah, and destroy the power of the Roman army. Their great expectations were turned to
disappointment and fear, as the prophet ___ had said, ‘strike the
shepherd and
the sheep will scatter.’ The disciples
felt
betrayed by Jesus and they scatter in into the night in fear and
disappointment.
The second
betrayal is the disciple’s
betrayal of Jesus. Betrayal has a cyclical
effect. Earlier in the evening Jesus had
told the disciples Satan had been given permission to test them. Jesus was praying that their faith would not
cave in. Peter said his faith would
never cave in, that he was willing to go to jail or even to die for
Jesus. Jesus told Peter that he would deny
Jesus
before the rooster’s crow at dawn. But
then he added, “Peter, after you get back on your feet, be sure to
strengthen
you brothers.”
As Jesus is
taken captive,
Peter follows from afar. A fire is kindled
in the middle of the court yard where Jesus is being questioned and
people sit
down around the fire to keep warm, Peter among them.
A teen age girl sees Peter in the light of
the fire, stares at Peter, and thinks she has seen him with Jesus,
points to
Peter on the fire’s light, “I think that man was with Jesus.”
Peter shakes his
head, he
says, “Miss, I don’s know him.”
Not long after
another
person looks at Peter in the firelight, ‘You sure you are not one of
them?’ Peter says, very uncomfortable
now, ‘No, not me mister.’
Nothing happens
for a time,
Peter begins to relax, an hour or so later a third person accuses Peter
of
being with Jesus, ‘You must have been with him because you sound like a
Galilean
[Yankee].
[Mark has] Peter
curses and
swears an oath, like, “I swear on my mother’s grave that I don’t know
this man
you are talking about.’ Or worst?
Just them, Peter
hears the
rooster crow and he remembers Jesus words, that before the rooster
crows,
before the light of dawn, Peter would deny he knew Jesus.
“Peter went out and wept bitterly.’
Having been
disappointed by
Jesus, Peter is now even more disappointed with himself.
Disappointment, like betrayal, can also be
cyclical, where disappointment with another often leads to
disappointment with
oneself. As Peter wept he is
overwhelmed
by sorrow, disappointment, a sense of failure.
Jesus is
betrayed by the
disciples. They will all desert
him. Imagine even your dog.
You think she will stand by you whatever
comes your way. One day you are set upon
and your dog run off. Most disappointing. Jesus knew they would all run.
The narrative
does not
present Peter as having a fatal flaw. He
represents the brightest and the best. Strong,
fearless, stable, psychologically healthy.
Jesus names him ‘the rock.’ How much more solid can you get? He is like Abraham and Sara and Moses all in
one. Peter is like Desmond Tutu, Mother
Teresa, and Jimmy Carter all three in one.
There is nothing wrong with Peter, he is as good and strong a
person as you
will ever find. And he denies Jesus.
We are all like
Peter, we
would respond like he did. When things
come down to the wire, we all stumble over a weak crucified Messiah. We don’t understand any better than Peter, we
are disappointed with Jesus. I think
this is the gist of the story, that the normal human response to Jesus
is to
deny him, to deny that he is Messiah and to deny his way of the cross. We all believe I the power of violence,
believe that the way of redemption is through violence and superior
force. He should have called 100000 angels. Peter’s willingness to die with Jesus would
have been as a fellow patriot and arms.
He would die fighting like __ in Brave hart, but not without a
fight. We all stumble over the teaching
and example of Jesus, the way of the cross is just plain stupid and
doesn’t
make sense.
In the ninth
century a Pope
decreed that the rooster would symbolize the betrayal of Jesus, so he
ordered
all Catholic churches in Europe to place "weathercocks" on their
steeples
as a reminder to parishioners of Peter's betrayal and their duty to
pray each
morning—when the cock crows. Other Christian churches followed suit,
topping
their steeples with weathercocks. In
A ‘Weathercock’
is defined
as an inconstant person, one who is fickle and prone to changing their
mind. The
rooster reminds us not to be like Peter.
Another spin is to let the rooster remind us that we are like
Peter. We would not want Jesus to die any
more than
he would. We would have been
disappointed with Jesus. He should have
called 100000 angels; he should not give up without a fight.
Peter: “I don’t deny that he was a good man, I just
deny that he was Messiah.”
Jesus should
have been like
Mr. Rowdy rooster, kung fu critter, symbol of pride.
Surprise a rooster, walk into his barn yard, and
it doesn’t matter if you are the barn yard bull, that rooster will
attack, flap,
peck, strut, kick, fly into a frenzy.
Provoke a rooster and you have a fight on your hands. Jesus is no rooster but a dove; he will
overcome evil with good. He will not
resist with violence, he will love his enemies, he will not fight but
submit to
the way of the cross.
Our story does
not end with
the death, disappointment and betrayal but with resurrection, joy and
forgiveness. Human denial of God does
not lead to God’s denial of the human.
Although we deny Jesus, Jesus will not deny us.
This is what makes the story an epoch.
Like Peter we
are embedded
in the way we are. The survival of the
fittest, the rule of tooth and fang, the way of revenge, we trust in
the god of
redemptive violence. We are as sinful as
the next fellow; any attempt to exalt ourselves only increases the
power of
evil. It is Jesus whose truth reveals
our sins, who love forgives our sins, and whose power releases us from
our
bondage to our sins. Jesus saves. The human species is infected with a
propensity to war and madness, to rivalry and addiction, we desire
everything
but God. It is in our blood, the way we
are, that evil arises from within us, evil is of anthropomorphic origin. The love of God is revealed in human form and
our response is to kill.
If you ever
sleep on a farm
that has a working rooster you know that roosters can crow all thru the
night. A rooster can be an annoying
presence. I think there is a change or
transformation
is under way.
The rooster crow
is not just
an annoying remainder of our denial of Jesus, a sign of our failure,
but a sign
of God’s forgiveness, of restitution, human conversion, an
awakening to the truth revealed in Jesus. When
the rooster crowed Peter stumbled and wept….but
after the resurrection of Jesus, whenever a rooster crowed I think
Peter got up
out of bed and smiled. All that ends
well is well. .
The disciples
hear Mary pounding
on the door yelling, Jesus is risen, let me in, let me in.’ The disciples don’t open the door for fear of
the Ghost of Jesus has come back to get even.
It was reported that the ghost of Jesus actually passed thru the
locked
doors in a room in which they were hiding, hiding from the authorities
or
hiding from the ghost of Jesus. “I’m
going to get you.”
Jesus says? PEACE.
DON’T BE AFRAID. I HAVE
RISEN. DO YOU LOVE ME?
IF YOU LOVE ME, FEED MY SHEEP. WAKE
UP NOW, GET UP SLEEPYHEAD, A NEW DAY IS
ARISING, THERE IS WORK TO BE DONE.
PETER IS SMITIAN
WITH THE
LOVE OF JESUS. IT IS SECOND
CONVERSION. THE FIRST BEING A CONVERSION
OF HIS HEAD, BUT THE SECOND BEING A CONVERSION OF HIS HEART. FROM THAT DAY ON PETER WILL NOT JUST KNOW
JESUS HE WILL LOVE JESUS, FOR HE IS HAS A PERSONAL EXPEREINCE OF BEING
FORGIVEN
AND RESTORED BY THE LOVE AND MERCY OF GOD IN JESUS.
***********************************************************
Time
permitting
¨
personal application:
How might this
work with
regard to our own disappointment and betrayal?
How can our betrayal and disappointment be transformed and
converted? [thinking here of my sisters
divorce or my father being scamed]
‘For whom does the Rooster crow, the rooster crows for
thee.”
That the rooster’s crowing will not longer remind me of
failure and betrayal but
serve to
awaken me to the possibility of a new day.
That this transformation is accomplished by the
experience of being smitten by the
love
of Jesus.
The experience of God’s love and forgiveness gives us the
will and the
power to forgive ourselves
and the failure of others. MAY WE BE
SMITTEN WITH THE LOVE OF JESUS.
¨
A closing story about pride:
Hans Christian Anderson’s story of
the Weathercock: With that the
Weathercock broke off; but he didn't fall on the Farmyard Cock and kill
him,
"although he intended to!" said the hens. And what's the moral of
this? "It is better to crow than to be 'stuck-up' and break off!"