Sermon Tone Analysis

During the pastorate of Henry Ward Beecher in Indianapolis he preached a series of sermons upon drunkenness and gambling, incidentally scoring the men of the community who profited by these sins.

During the ensuing week he was accosted on the street by a would-be assailant, pistol in hand, who demanded a retraction of some utterance of the preceding Sunday.

“Take it back, right here!” he demanded with an oath, “or I will shoot you on the spot!”

“Shoot away!” was the preacher’s response as he walked calmly away, hurling over his shoulder this parting remark:

“I don’t believe you can hit the mark as well as I did!”

When you research and survey current American culture about Christians - how we’re perceived in the larger cultural context, the results are mixed.

It is clear that the overall perception of Christianity is much less positive than even 20-30 years ago.

The rate of “deconversions” has increased dramatically.

Words like, “intolerant, bigoted, racist, homophobic, extremists” are applied generically to Christians.

We know or at least understand intuitively that it’s not as acceptable out there “in the world” to be a follower of Jesus as in the past.

Our reactions tend toward keeping our heads down.

Doing a credible imitation of a turtle.

But that reaction isn’t going to work.

We cannot call ourselves disciples of Jesus if we’re not going to obey His greatest commission to go out and make disciples.

So, Jesus is on trial then and now.

At the same time, Peter is being tried in the court of public opinion.

Even as we prepare to celebrate the Resurrection, we are on trial for being disciples of Jesus just as surely as Peter was.

Like Peter, we waver between courage and cowardice.

Not long before the trial, Peter confidently affirms he is willing to die for Jesus.

The gospels intertwine the two trials going on that night.

Jesus is experiencing a mockery of a trial that had a preordained conclusion.

Jewish leaders were simply trying to dot the i’s and cross the t’s to be able to say that it was all done correctly.

It was not.

In the meantime, Peter tries to ride the fence by staying near Jesus but out of trouble for himself.

Loyal - Sometimes

Jesus is being examined (tried) by Annas who was the traditional high priest (his son-in-law, Caiaphas had been installed by the Romans as High Priest but the role was a lifetime appointment so the Jews still thought of Annas as the true authority,)

Peter wants to know what is going on (along with John) and manages to gain entrance to the High Priest’s compound to stay nearby.

This by itself is risky.

At that very moment, Annas is questioning Jesus about his followers.

It’s not like we’re never loyal or faithful to Christ.

Denials

It seems like Peter was hoping to blend into the crowd and avoid detection.

The problem with this is, people noticed who you hang around with.

Jesus is obviously the object of attraction but who are these guys, his disciples?

It’s fun to be with the popular crowd as long as they remain popular.

Three times he’s confronted with his association with Jesus.

He tries to plead ignorance of Jesus.

Then comes another identification:

Peter moves from pretending not to understand the question to outright distancing himself from Jesus.

Peter shows his nervousness by denying Jesus again, this time with an oath.

This was a serious action on Peter’s part.

He has sworn by God that their statement is untrue.

Ancient people took such oaths very seriously.

But yet again, his connection to Jesus is betrayed.

This time by his accent.

Now his actions as a follower of Jesus could get him into trouble.

Now, in desperation to distance himself from Jesus, he rashly calls down curses upon himself.

In his effort to avoid judgment and consequence for knowing and following Jesus, Peter has denied Him three times.

Just as Jesus as predicted.

None of the gospels describe what Jesus’ look was intended to convey.

We can infer that Peter felt convicted by it.

Perhaps in this moment, Peter realized that his trial by his peers wasn’t nearly as torturous as what Jesus was experiencing.

While Peter feared for his reputation, perhaps his freedom, Jesus was being beaten and mocked, insulted and abused.

Peter must have considered that, in a effort to save his own skin, he had repudiated the one who once said,

His response in that moment is shame and grief.

The gospel writers all take pains to draw a straight line from Peter’s experience to Jesus’ trial.

We are intended to identify with Peter’s moment of doubt and denial.

We have our moments of loyalty to be sure.

There equally as many times when we basically, like Peter, try the “What, who, me?” defense.

We confess ignorance of the truth, fail to identify as followers of Jesus.

Other times, when we’re “on trial” for our beliefs, minimize the seriousness of sin and the lostness of our friends and neighbors.

We fail to love enough to share the opportunity for others to identify with Christ and be healed, restored.

If our experience feels scary enough, we may even pretend that we’re not believers at all.

That can take the form of engaging in activities that we KNOW are wrong.

Hope

The passage today doesn’t end on a positive note.

It’s not intended to do so.

It’s like that TV show you like where, every now and then, not everything is resolved.

We’re left hanging, waiting to see what will happen.

So here’s the “spoiler alert” for this week: Peter was crushed by his faithlessness, his rejection of the Lord.

Clearly, in this moment, he had no hope of reconciliation with Jesus or with God.

When we find ourselves on trial for Jesus’ sake and we don’t maintain that loyalty like we should, we too can think that, “well, I’ve blown it now.

I’ll never be right with the Lord again.”

We must remember what Peter couldn’t know yet.

Jesus’ trial as unjust as it was, as humiliating an experience as God-in-flesh could have, was for our sakes.

He endured what should have been ours.

And even though the outcome was a fearsome death on a cross, three days later, victory!

Jesus’ resurrection means that no matter how badly we (or Peter) fail, we have hope in restoration to God and to one another.

Conclusion

Do we too often find ourselves in the “what, who, me?” category or can we confidently say, “shoot away!”