“When I was a young man and went to seminary school,” [that’s a Doors reference for the hippies and Xers out there] I found that all the cool kids had bumper stickers. They proudly brandished statements like “Eve Was Framed,” or “Question Authority,” or the truly rebellious, “In case of rapture, can I have your car?”
Naturally, I set about to find a fitting statement – something that was not merely sarcastic, but truly reflective of my faith. And lo and behold, in a shop in Little Five Points in Atlanta, it came to me – “Denial is not a river in Egypt.” I placed it tenderly on the rear window of the cab of my small, beat-up, yellow pickup truck – and everyone who knew me agreed that it seemed fitting.
Naturally, I set about to find a fitting statement – something that was not merely sarcastic, but truly reflective of my faith. And lo and behold, in a shop in Little Five Points in Atlanta, it came to me – “Denial is not a river in Egypt.” I placed it tenderly on the rear window of the cab of my small, beat-up, yellow pickup truck – and everyone who knew me agreed that it seemed fitting.
I won’t go into why, but the answer did seem to vary by the perspective of the individual. In some ways, this is also true of our story today but the fundamental question this story asks us is the same regardless of our perspective. If Peter – the one whom Jesus called “the rock on which I will build the church” in Matthew 16:18–20 – can deny Jesus in his greatest hour of need, how much more likely is it that you and I have and will deny him, too?
That’s a pretty heavy-handed question, and before I go any further into it, I want to acknowledge that it carries a big assumption that we all hold the same belief about Jesus. While some pastors (even today) have said things like “how are you denying Jesus” to justify literal witch hunts, I am saying it to acknowledge that there may be some among us who are less concerned about right doctrine and more concerned about right relationships.
There may be those among us – not just here but in every aspect of our lives – who say that they love the teachings of Jesus, but they don’t see them being put into action by his followers. There may be those among us who find the ideas of a vengeful God in need of sacrifice and a loving, just, and merciful God to be contradictory. There may even be those among us who believe that God revealed Godself in the person and work and life and death of Jesus, but they just can’t fathom the miraculous and divine mythos of Jesus. In other words – the miraculous works and the physical resurrection of the body of Jesus just do not make sense to them.
We could go with Paul’s logic in 1 Corinthians 1:18 and say that the good news is foolishness to those who are perishing, but what does that do besides filling some with false pride and others with animosity? Here’s the good news, though.
The Bible was never intended to be a rational, scientific explanation of the universe and everything in it. Instead, it is – as I have heard it said – a testimony of the deep and abiding love between God and all of creation.
Believe in Jesus or don’t, God’s love is still for you, and the love of Jesus is still poured out for you from the font of grace and the table of mercy.
Now, what does that have to do with Peter’s denial and the metaphorical summer homes we enjoy on the banks of “De Nial?” The first thing I want to note about Peter is not his cowardice, but his boldness. We started with his proclamation that he was ready to die for Jesus in John 13:36-38 and Jesus’s gentle “Oh, Peter…You’re going to deny me three times before the night is over.”
I’ve always thought of this as being a testimony to Peter’s cowardice, but what if it is something more? After all, Peter is the one who went on the offensive after Jesus clearly said, “Take me, not them.” Peter responded by cutting off a servant’s ear, forcing Jesus to say, “Slow your roll, Peter. This isn’t your time.”
All the rest had scattered into the night, but what did Peter do? He went to the courtyard of the Chief Priest and found someone on the inside to let him in. Who was that? Maybe Nicodemus? We don’t know. What we know is that even as Jesus is interrogated by the Chief Priest, Peter is integrated by a servant woman who is literally the gatekeeper of the house. Even as Jesus said, “I have spoken plainly about who I am.” Peter denied his own identity as a disciple of Jesus.
Notice the tension here. Jesus, the one who is from God (whose very name in Hebrew means “I am”), has been saying he is the bread of life and the source of living water, and when he tells the Jewish authorities to ask witnesses to verify it in vv 23-24 they strike him for it.
Meanwhile, Peter stood around a charcoal fire – the same kind of fire on which Jesus will cook fish for him in John 21; a fire made for welcome and hospitality and warmth – and Peter said three times, “I am not.” He did not only deny Jesus. He denied himself.
It may have been self-preservation that motivated him, but I’m not so sure. Aaron Orchart, Pastor of John Calvin Presbyterian in Metairie asked me the other day in a study group, “What if Peter was following orders? What if Jesus’s prediction was as much instructive as it was prophetic?'' He went on to explain that it may have been a little of both, but what we know – which Jesus essentially said in v. 11 – is that Peter’s death would not have served the proclamation of the gospel. It was not time for him to be glorified. It was time for Jesus to demonstrate the love that knows no bounds, and it was necessary that Jesus die so that the active presence of God; the Holy Spirit; the Advocate might be given and known and experienced in ways it never had before!
That doesn’t mean that Peter is totally off the hook, but it does mean that God was with him and worked in and through him even in his darkest moment of doubt and fear.
So it is with you and me as well. We are not entirely off the hook in our denial of God’s active presence in the world, yet God will still work in and through us – even in our darkest moments of doubt and fear.
There is one more thing I want to note about Peter though. Ok, maybe two things. The first is that he was questioned by someone with provisional authority, then by those gathered, and finally by one he had directly harmed. The “servant girl” as scripture calls her is someone who has authority within a system that still holds her as less than others. We don’t know how she felt about Jesus. We just know that she was part of a system that held others in greater value and relegated her identity to a function. She was seen as a servant and a girl, even if she was the gatekeeper and a woman.
The second group may have been part of the crowd that arrested Jesus. They were certainly stakeholders in the outcome. They were there to show us that this was not a Jewish issue or a Roman issue. This trial and the outcome it would bring would clearly affect them all.
Finally, the cousin of the man whose ear Peter had removed said, “Something about you looks familiar. Did I see you in the garden with Jesus?” Yup. That was awkward. I can’t say that I blame Peter for that one. What really matters (and this is the second thing) is that Jesus still comes to Peter in John 21:15-19 and offers redemption. He asks Peter three times, “Do you love me?” and allows confession to cover the sin of denial.
Friends, the reality of our lives is that we deny Jesus in small and large ways all the time for the sake of convenience or out of fear of loss, but God is still at work – even though you and me. Thank God for that, because there are systems set up to make life better for some and harder for others that reduce us all into categories and functions and factions of hatred and division.
There are people across every walk and way of life who are waiting for liberation or vengeance or whatever they think will make them feel safe and valued and purposeful. There are people that the church of Jesus Christ have wronged – even in our zeal to follow Jesus – and we need to be as honest about that part of our church’s history as we are about the expectation that God is working in our midst to bring about the new life that moves us beyond denial and into a future of hope in the resurrected lives that we live out together, today!
In a way, it reminds me of that old, yellow pick-up. A friend had sold it to me and let me pay in installments because I needed it for seminary. I barely paid him what the thing was worth, and it wasn’t worth much. When I proposed the idea to him he said, “Why would I let you pay me in installments. What if it breaks down on one of your trips from Richmond to Atlanta before you finish paying me?” I said, “You’re right. It’s not very smart. I could get stuck paying you for a broken-down truck.”
We agreed it was worth the risk because we shared a faith in the one who works through broken down things. That old truck lasted me almost all the way through seminary, and then I donated it to the Public Radio Station to sell for parts. There was no denying the limitations of that truck, but it had a proclamation to offer the world and it had a new life and a legacy that followed it.
Denial is not a river in Egypt. It is the river that flows in and through those spaces where we live with rejection and fear of our true selves, of our neighbors, and even of those we claim as enemies. The good news is that there is a river of life that flows in and through God’s people! The good news is that there is a God who loves you and cares for you whether or not you love and care for God! The good news is that even Peter denied Jesus, and it did not stop Jesus from loving him and working through him to demonstrate love and hope and justice and mercy!
That doesn’t mean that we can game the system and do what we want expecting God to forgive us when we are intentionally selfish and hurtful. It just means that God’s faithfulness is not dependent on your actions or mine. It means that even though we might be in places where we feel like we can’t proclaim God’s grace and mercy, God is still going to get it done.
All thanks and praise to God that we might yet be a part of what God is doing, even in times of doubt and fear, and to God be the glory, now and always. Amen!
That’s a pretty heavy-handed question, and before I go any further into it, I want to acknowledge that it carries a big assumption that we all hold the same belief about Jesus. While some pastors (even today) have said things like “how are you denying Jesus” to justify literal witch hunts, I am saying it to acknowledge that there may be some among us who are less concerned about right doctrine and more concerned about right relationships.
There may be those among us – not just here but in every aspect of our lives – who say that they love the teachings of Jesus, but they don’t see them being put into action by his followers. There may be those among us who find the ideas of a vengeful God in need of sacrifice and a loving, just, and merciful God to be contradictory. There may even be those among us who believe that God revealed Godself in the person and work and life and death of Jesus, but they just can’t fathom the miraculous and divine mythos of Jesus. In other words – the miraculous works and the physical resurrection of the body of Jesus just do not make sense to them.
We could go with Paul’s logic in 1 Corinthians 1:18 and say that the good news is foolishness to those who are perishing, but what does that do besides filling some with false pride and others with animosity? Here’s the good news, though.
The Bible was never intended to be a rational, scientific explanation of the universe and everything in it. Instead, it is – as I have heard it said – a testimony of the deep and abiding love between God and all of creation.
Believe in Jesus or don’t, God’s love is still for you, and the love of Jesus is still poured out for you from the font of grace and the table of mercy.
Now, what does that have to do with Peter’s denial and the metaphorical summer homes we enjoy on the banks of “De Nial?” The first thing I want to note about Peter is not his cowardice, but his boldness. We started with his proclamation that he was ready to die for Jesus in John 13:36-38 and Jesus’s gentle “Oh, Peter…You’re going to deny me three times before the night is over.”
I’ve always thought of this as being a testimony to Peter’s cowardice, but what if it is something more? After all, Peter is the one who went on the offensive after Jesus clearly said, “Take me, not them.” Peter responded by cutting off a servant’s ear, forcing Jesus to say, “Slow your roll, Peter. This isn’t your time.”
All the rest had scattered into the night, but what did Peter do? He went to the courtyard of the Chief Priest and found someone on the inside to let him in. Who was that? Maybe Nicodemus? We don’t know. What we know is that even as Jesus is interrogated by the Chief Priest, Peter is integrated by a servant woman who is literally the gatekeeper of the house. Even as Jesus said, “I have spoken plainly about who I am.” Peter denied his own identity as a disciple of Jesus.
Notice the tension here. Jesus, the one who is from God (whose very name in Hebrew means “I am”), has been saying he is the bread of life and the source of living water, and when he tells the Jewish authorities to ask witnesses to verify it in vv 23-24 they strike him for it.
Meanwhile, Peter stood around a charcoal fire – the same kind of fire on which Jesus will cook fish for him in John 21; a fire made for welcome and hospitality and warmth – and Peter said three times, “I am not.” He did not only deny Jesus. He denied himself.
It may have been self-preservation that motivated him, but I’m not so sure. Aaron Orchart, Pastor of John Calvin Presbyterian in Metairie asked me the other day in a study group, “What if Peter was following orders? What if Jesus’s prediction was as much instructive as it was prophetic?'' He went on to explain that it may have been a little of both, but what we know – which Jesus essentially said in v. 11 – is that Peter’s death would not have served the proclamation of the gospel. It was not time for him to be glorified. It was time for Jesus to demonstrate the love that knows no bounds, and it was necessary that Jesus die so that the active presence of God; the Holy Spirit; the Advocate might be given and known and experienced in ways it never had before!
That doesn’t mean that Peter is totally off the hook, but it does mean that God was with him and worked in and through him even in his darkest moment of doubt and fear.
So it is with you and me as well. We are not entirely off the hook in our denial of God’s active presence in the world, yet God will still work in and through us – even in our darkest moments of doubt and fear.
There is one more thing I want to note about Peter though. Ok, maybe two things. The first is that he was questioned by someone with provisional authority, then by those gathered, and finally by one he had directly harmed. The “servant girl” as scripture calls her is someone who has authority within a system that still holds her as less than others. We don’t know how she felt about Jesus. We just know that she was part of a system that held others in greater value and relegated her identity to a function. She was seen as a servant and a girl, even if she was the gatekeeper and a woman.
The second group may have been part of the crowd that arrested Jesus. They were certainly stakeholders in the outcome. They were there to show us that this was not a Jewish issue or a Roman issue. This trial and the outcome it would bring would clearly affect them all.
Finally, the cousin of the man whose ear Peter had removed said, “Something about you looks familiar. Did I see you in the garden with Jesus?” Yup. That was awkward. I can’t say that I blame Peter for that one. What really matters (and this is the second thing) is that Jesus still comes to Peter in John 21:15-19 and offers redemption. He asks Peter three times, “Do you love me?” and allows confession to cover the sin of denial.
Friends, the reality of our lives is that we deny Jesus in small and large ways all the time for the sake of convenience or out of fear of loss, but God is still at work – even though you and me. Thank God for that, because there are systems set up to make life better for some and harder for others that reduce us all into categories and functions and factions of hatred and division.
There are people across every walk and way of life who are waiting for liberation or vengeance or whatever they think will make them feel safe and valued and purposeful. There are people that the church of Jesus Christ have wronged – even in our zeal to follow Jesus – and we need to be as honest about that part of our church’s history as we are about the expectation that God is working in our midst to bring about the new life that moves us beyond denial and into a future of hope in the resurrected lives that we live out together, today!
In a way, it reminds me of that old, yellow pick-up. A friend had sold it to me and let me pay in installments because I needed it for seminary. I barely paid him what the thing was worth, and it wasn’t worth much. When I proposed the idea to him he said, “Why would I let you pay me in installments. What if it breaks down on one of your trips from Richmond to Atlanta before you finish paying me?” I said, “You’re right. It’s not very smart. I could get stuck paying you for a broken-down truck.”
We agreed it was worth the risk because we shared a faith in the one who works through broken down things. That old truck lasted me almost all the way through seminary, and then I donated it to the Public Radio Station to sell for parts. There was no denying the limitations of that truck, but it had a proclamation to offer the world and it had a new life and a legacy that followed it.
Denial is not a river in Egypt. It is the river that flows in and through those spaces where we live with rejection and fear of our true selves, of our neighbors, and even of those we claim as enemies. The good news is that there is a river of life that flows in and through God’s people! The good news is that there is a God who loves you and cares for you whether or not you love and care for God! The good news is that even Peter denied Jesus, and it did not stop Jesus from loving him and working through him to demonstrate love and hope and justice and mercy!
That doesn’t mean that we can game the system and do what we want expecting God to forgive us when we are intentionally selfish and hurtful. It just means that God’s faithfulness is not dependent on your actions or mine. It means that even though we might be in places where we feel like we can’t proclaim God’s grace and mercy, God is still going to get it done.
All thanks and praise to God that we might yet be a part of what God is doing, even in times of doubt and fear, and to God be the glory, now and always. Amen!
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