Jesus had the inner 12 friends whom we call his disciples and for some reason he paid closer attention to Peter and prepared him to lead the others when he leaves. Talk about succession planning!
When Jesus died, the bible records that on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and discovered that the stone had been rolled away, she naturally ran to the leader that Jesus had appointed and reported what she saw. Is it not amazing that Peter was not the one who is checking up on Jesus, having been with him and witnessed all sorts of events, the voice from heaven, the transfiguration and the prayer sessions that Jesus made sure he saw? Yet, not only did he deny Jesus when push came to shove, he moved on with his old life right away. Not believing one word that Jesus told him.
Mary’s report must have surprised and shocked him so he left to confirm for himself. What happened when he saw that Jesus’ body was no longer in the tomb was the most shocking for me. John 20 vs. 10, “Then the disciples went away again to their own homes”. Jesus tried to get them off their homes while He was with them. He told them that if they want to follow Him, they must deny those family ties and focus on the mission with Him. How quickly that fell by the way side!
The bible records that Mary stayed back there. NO matter what critics say about this woman, she was one person who understood the mission of Jesus and one person who believed what Jesus said. She was not about to give up on her Lord yet.
What does Peter make of all these? He said to the group that Jesus had given him charge over “I am going fishing”… meaning “I am returning to my old ways, my old profession. “I am not sure I understand this Jesus anymore. It must be over now. The guy is dead and even His body has disappeared. Let me return to the life I know”.
The bible records that the others followed him immediately without any persuasion and that they went fishing and caught nothing. What a waste of time!!! They caught nothing. How many man hours that was… fully wasted. Peter is no different from me and all of us. We hear God speak to us and give us charge and instructions and somehow, along the way we take one or two steps and some challenges show up and we quickly retrace our steps backwards. Once God has asked you to move on to something else, do yourself a favour…do not return to the old job, old profession, old way of life… God has closed that chapter of your life. He has relocated you. If you do, you will be like Peter and the rest of the disciples that went fishing when Jesus had said… you shall no longer do this but will be “fishers of men”. They did not say No and that was an agreement.
With God an agreement stands except He changes it.
Can you imagine if Abraham went back to Ur in Chaldeans after God had said “Move”? He could have gone back when he was faced with Egypt and the loss of his beautiful wife and so many other challenges… he understood that God had relocated him and there was no going back.
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