The door would slam against the sultry summer afternoon. My ball glove would be tossed deftly into the cubbyhole behind the door and I would take the stairs two at a time up to the kitchen. Then I would spit out the words, “I’m never playing with Freddy again!”
My mother had been through this scenario before. She wouldn’t even turn from the sink where she was preparing supper. “Never,” she would say, “is a long time.” And, sure enough, within an hour, I was back out playing with the boys, Freddy included.
Three times Peter made rash “never” statements. And three times the Lord graciously rebuked him. In each there are lessons for us.
The first occurred in the Upper Room. The Lord Jesus, in eloquent humility, had removed His outer garments, girded Himself with a servant’s towel, and stooped to wash the feet of “His own.” When He came to Peter, the impetuous disciple responded, “Thou shalt never wash my feet.” But the Lord Jesus answered him, “If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with Me” (Jn. 13:8).
Peter’s never anything immediately changed to now everything: “Simon Peter saith unto Him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head” (v. 9). If a little was good, then surely more would be better. But the Lord explained that the bath was once-for-all; justification was a complete work when one repented and received Him as Saviour. It was now the basin Peter needed.
If we desire fellowship with the Lover of our souls, we must be clean. That cleansing comes through the personal and practical application of the Word to the defilement of our walk as we make our way through this filthy world. It is a ministry we ought to practice on one another (v. 14). But make sure the water isn’t too hot or too cold! After all, you may need your feet washed soon.
Later that evening, the gathering storm of hostility could almost be felt as the little company left the room for Gethsemane. Judas by this time had gone out into the darkness to make his tryst with the devil and his cohorts. As Jesus and the eleven crossed the Kidron, the Lord Jesus said, “All ye shall be offended because of Me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad.”
This was too much for Peter. Had he not just had his feet washed by the Master? Did this not mean that he had “part with” the Lord, fellowship in all that lay ahead? “Though all men shall be offended because of Thee,” he stated emphatically, “yet will I never be offended” (Mt. 26:31, 33).
Oh, but you will, Peter! He had to learn, as we all do, that this battle cannot be won by rusty swords and stubborn hearts. Yet even in his fall, Peter’s faith was strengthened for he discovered through it that Jesus was not right 99% of the time; He was right all the time.
Some weeks after Pentecost, Peter was on a rooftop overlooking the Mediterranean when the Lord gave him a graphic illustration of the Church and its implications to the Gentiles. A tarpaulin filled with all kinds of animals (including ceremonially unclean ones) appeared, and a voice gave the command: “Rise, Peter; kill, and eat. But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean” (Acts 10:13-14). To which the voice responded, “What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common” (v. 15). Later in the house of the Gentile, Cornelius, Peter would say, “Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with Him” (vv. 34-35). May the Lord give us a heart as big as His love for the human race.
Evidently Peter learned his lessons. As he wrote his second epistle, he added one more never: “Add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity…for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall” (2 Pet. 1:5-10).
This time it was true.