04/01/2026
A devotion by Pastor Dennis D. Nelson:
For me one of the great joys of Bible study is seeing something that has always been there but I had never noticed before. Such was the case with a couple statements about Peter, which I discovered as I was preparing for the Bible study on Peter that I have been leading on the Wednesday evenings during Lent.
For many years I have been aware of the statement made by the young man dressed in a white robe to the women who had come to Jesus’ tomb early Easter Sunday morning and found that it was empty. “Go, tell His disciples and Peter” (Mark 16: 7). Other translations say, “Go, tell His disciples – especially Peter.” There was special concern for the man who had denied his Lord. “Make sure Peter knows that Jesus is alive.”
The new discovery for me this year was in Luke 24: 34, where the two followers of Jesus from Emmaus, after they recognize the Risen Lord, run back to Jerusalem, find the eleven and their companions, and say to them, “The Lord has risen indeed, and He has appeared to Simon!” Paul also mentions this special appearance of the Risen Jesus to Peter in his First Letter to the Corinthians. “He was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and . . . he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve” (1 Corinthians 15: 4-5). According to John’s Gospel at the empty tomb on Easter Sunday morning Mary Magdalene saw the Risen Jesus, but Peter did not. He only saw an empty tomb. Sometime later on Easter Sunday Jesus made a special point of appearing to Peter.
Think of what that must have meant to Peter – to know that Jesus made a special point of appearing to him. Think of what it would have meant to the lamb in Jesus’ parable, if the lamb had been aware of what actually was going on – to know that the shepherd left behind the ninety-nine to go searching just for him.
What can it mean to all of us – with all the ways that we have failed our Lord – to know that Jesus wants to make sure that His message of mercy, grace, forgiveness, hope, and love also comes to each one of us?
Peter spent the rest of his life boldly proclaiming Christ. Why, then, did all four Gospel writers – when they were recording this part of Jesus’ story - include the account of Peter’s greatest failure as a disciple? The Gospels contain different parts of the story, but they all tell about the collapse of Peter’s courage and his denial of his Lord. Why? I believe that they all told this story because Peter himself told this story over and over again. Peter and the Gospel writers wanted us to see that we all are like Peter and have denied Jesus. We all have lived in ways that our inconsistent with our pledge to follow Jesus. We all have had moments when our witness or example was needed, but we remained silent and did nothing.
Peter’s story shows us that we do not need to be defined by our failures. God does not look at us in terms of the worst thing we have ever done. Jesus uses flawed disciples. And sometimes He uses us even more profoundly and powerfully, not merely in spite of our flaws and failures but because of them.
