Questions from the Upper Room, Part I
"Peter's Question: Where Are You Going?"
The crucial importance of patience.
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Dr. Andrew Stirling
Sunday, March 9, 2003
Text: John 13:31-38
I think one of the greatest books ever written was Daniel Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe." I often re-read classics from my childhood and find within them a greater, deeper and richer meaning than I had hithereto seen or acknowledged.
Not long ago I went back and read certain sections of that magnificent book. It is the story of a man who grew up in a fairly wealthy and good home but, by virtue of his own eagerness to live the good life, to find his own path and to walk in his own way, who left behind the traditions of his family and, just like the prodigal son in the Gospel of Luke, sought a life of profligacy, ease and pleasure.
That life of ease and pleasure came to a rather dramatic end, as the story goes, when one day Robinson Crusoe was on a ship that capsized. He was left stranded on an island in the Caribbean - a solitary figure. While he was there something happened to him: One of the few things that had washed ashore was a Bible, so he began to read it. As he did so his life changed. He started to develop a life of prayer. Alone on the island, he had communion with God and he dedicated himself to a life of meditation and prayer, living with the only known companion that he had on the island - God Himself.
One traumatic day, he's walking along the beach and sees another set of footprints in the sand - footprints that are clearly not his own. He realizes, in great agony and travail, that there is somebody else on the island with him. He would have heard horror stories about cannibals living in such places, and other myths and legends, so he really thought his life was in danger. He didn't know how he was going to sustain himself and his peace, tranquillity and new-found religion turned into fear and anxiety. We all know how the story goes: he meets the man, names him Friday and their relationship develops. But for that one moment in the story, he was terrified and uncertain.
Now, I want you to keep that image in mind while you think about what it must have been like for the disciples to be in the upper room with Jesus. In many ways they had their religion nicely and neatly sorted out. They sensed that Jesus would be the triumphal Messiah, that the fulfilment of their nation and their dreams was going to be consummated by the work of this man to whom they had dedicated their lives. In the upper room Jesus challenges that religion. He challenges that complacency and tell them things that sound to them as if they are footprints in the sand leading to an unknown path.
According to John, the one who seems to be most troubled of all the disciples there is Peter. Jesus tells the disciples three things that are going to happen that shake their foundation. He says: "Now is the Son of man glorified." The Son of man, in other words, is going to leave them and be with His Father and the Father is going to glorify Him. He will be taken from their midst and He will experience the glory. Then Jesus tells them something that troubles them: "Where I am going you cannot come." He then leaves them with some instructions about how they ought to live now, between that moment of His departure and the moment of His glorification, at which time all things will become clear. In other words, He invites the disciples to wait, trust in faith and allow Him to depart.
Peter is so upset by this that he doesn't know how to deal with it, so he just blurts out (as is typical in the Petrine references): "Lord, where are you going?"
Jesus rebukes him; He tells Peter off. In fact John Marsh, a former professor of the New Testament at Oxford says that these words, where Jesus corrects Peter, are actually our hope for generations to come. For what Jesus is doing is putting Peter back on the right track, a correct understanding of His ministry and what Jesus really wants the disciples to know and do.
I want to look at these questions in a little more detail this morning, for in them is a kernel of inspiration for each and every one of us during this Lenten time. The first of the questions is: What did Peter really want to know? Put this in context - Peter had witnessed the miracles of Jesus, he had seen many of the signs of Jesus' messiahship. John goes to great lengths to show us the beginning of the ministry of Jesus: We have the wedding at Cana and the turning of water into wine. Following that we have words of instruction but they are interspersed with healings, signs and wonders. Peter and the disciples would have seen these signs and wonders, they would have understood what Jesus was doing - and it was glorious. They were swept along in this whole movement of this majestic Messiah who was transforming human life and revealing the power, the wisdom and the spirit of God.
Peter listens to the words of Jesus, after he has seen all these things, and can't understand or fathom why He would want to leave them. Why would He want to leave? Where is this glory coming from? After all, we have seen so much glory in the life of Jesus, why this departure? I believe that at the heart of Peter's question is a profound selfishness. What Peter was really asking Jesus was not really where He was going but what's in it for me? If you're going to depart to glory, why are you leaving us behind? We have followed you this far, why are you now going without us? Surely if you're going, you'll want to take us with you. We have been faithful.
Peter says with bravado "I will lay down my life for you." But Jesus knew what was in his heart. He knew that Peter was asking a selfish question and answered: "Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly I say to you, the cock will not crow, till you have denied me three times." In other words, don't kid yourself, you are not yet ready and you are asking a profoundly selfish question.
I think one of the great challenges of the Christian faith in our day and age is that often people come to the faith with that question first and foremost in their minds: "What's in it for me? What am I going to get out of it? What benefits are there for me in being a Christian? What will I derive as a credit by confessing your name and by following you?"
When I talk to people who are searching, they are asking that question: "What's in it for me?" Their motivation is self-centred. Now, herein lies the irony of it all: We find in the Gospel things that do benefit us. There is within the heart of the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ things that profoundly change our lives for the better. There is not only something in it for us, there is everything in it for us! The problem is that when we try to find a faith that conforms to our sense of what the faith will be, we miss the whole point of what Jesus was trying to do in the first place.
Many of us want a quick-fix religion, a religion that's going to be neatly packaged, that's going to tell us what's in it for us: a, b, c, and d and we want to know now. Just like Peter: Where are you going? What's in it for me? What am I going to get out of it? Tell us. Reveal it to us, we want to know. We live in a day and age that is moved by this impatient desire to know everything, to get everywhere, to have it all nice and neatly wrapped up, because we want a religion of our own making.
That reminds me of the man who was driving a rickety, broken-down car when he came to a stoplight and the car stalled and the engine died. He sat and waited then tried to crank the car up. Suddenly the light turned green. As soon as the light turned green, there was this cacophony of sound from the horns behind him. As more cars came, the louder it got, the more horn-blowing there was. Finally the man got out of the car, went to the first car behind him blowing its horn, knocked on the window and asked: "Excuse me, I was wondering if you could help me. Would you mind going to my car and trying to start it while I stay here and honk your horn for you?"
Don't you feel like doing that sometime? We have a world that is continually pushing, eager to get to its point of destination. Always wanting simple, quick and easy solutions. Just like Peter: Where are you going? What's in it for me? What am I going to get out of it?
Jesus, though, has a second question for Peter: What does Jesus want Peter to know? Simply this: Not now, but later. Peter wants the glory now. Jesus says no, later. Peter wants to go where Jesus is going. Jesus says no, later. You must wait, you must be patient. Jesus knew and understood that only He could ultimately fulfill this mission. Only Jesus could be glorified and only Jesus could glorify the Father. Only the sinless one could die for the sinful. Only the Son of God could restore broken humanity. Only Jesus of Nazareth could bear the cross first. Only Jesus of Nazareth was going to be raised from the dead. You see, Jesus knew that Peter could not carry out God's act of salvation. It had to come through the Son and the Son alone.
Peter did not grasp that reality. That was what was missing. He wanted to bypass "Jail" and go straight to "Go," to use the Monopoly analogy. To put up the glorious buildings and to build the empire and to have the kingdom, but to do it without what was necessary for building it, namely the cross and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And Jesus was saying that you can't go where I'm going because you're not me. You can't glorify the Father yet, that's my job. But if you will just wait, then that glory will be revealed, then you will know, then you will have the things that you desire - but it must be through me.
So often, my friends, we want a religion that bypasses Christ. We want to get to the resurrection without going through the cross. We want salvation but we don't want the gracious One to purchase it for us. Lent reminds us - this story of the upper room reminds us - that it is the central gift of grace in Jesus Christ that becomes our glory and our hope.
John Marsh was right. When Jesus rebuked Peter he was in fact expressing the greatest hope of us all. That is why this Lent, for people who are searching, who want something spiritual in their lives, who desire a faith with a strong foundation, it is up to us to point to the One who can actually bring the glory - and it is not us.
But there is something more. I am sure that in this whole discussion there is a lesson that Jesus wants the world to learn.
The first lesson that Jesus wants to convey - not only to Peter but also to all of his disciples throughout the ages - is patience. One thing we so often lack is patience. We lack it in world affairs, we lack it in the way in which we relate to one another. We cause ourselves anxiety and misery because we are driven by our impatience. I know it's hard to believe that I would ever quote this person as authoritative on anything, yet when I read his words some months ago I was overwhelmed by the depth of their insight. It was Richard Nixon, of all people, in a December 1986 interview. I think Nixon spoke a profound truth that the world needs to hear this day - not only Americans but all of us:
As Americans we have many great strengths, but one of our weaknesses is impatience. The Russians think in terms of decades, the Chinese in terms of centuries. Americans think in terms of years, months or even days, but if in the quest for a realistic, lasting peace we expect overnight success, instant gratitude. We are bound to be disappointed.
Like Peter, we very often lose our sense of time. We are so pressed, so desirous to control everything that we forget there is also an agenda, there is also a time that is God's, not ours.
Yesterday morning as I pulled into a convenience store, a young man pulled in very quickly, hopped out of his car and said: "Excuse me, sir, I'm looking for a bowling alley and wonder if you know where it is around here?"
Not being the world's greatest devotee of bowling alleys, I said: "I'm sorry, I don't. Why do you want to know?"
He said: "I'm here to meet a boy. I'm going to be his Big Brother for the day."
I said: "Well, that's wonderful. So it's quite urgent that you find out where the alley is. Look, I'm going to go in the store. I know the store owner and he'll know where it is." I went in and enquired and he told me that it was right around the corner. I went back and told the young man exactly where it was.
He said: "May Allah bless you."
I looked at him, smiled and said: "May God bless you, too."
He looked at me rather quizzically and said: "I've seen you somewhere before."
I said: "Maybe."
He said: "You've been on television recently, haven't you?"
I said: "Yes, I have."
And he said: "Ah, I know who you are, you're a minister, aren't you?"
I said: "Yes, I am. That's right."
He said: "I'm actually a student cleric in the Muslim faith. I'm on my way to becoming an imam. I'm undergoing my training right now and I have to do some good deeds. Doing this work as a Big Brother is part of that."
The two of us talked for awhile, then I said: "I know you're in a hurry to get to the bowling alley, but I'd really like to talk to you about what's going on within your community and what's going on in your heart and mind."
We talked about Babylonian and Assyrian culture and we talked about the clash of empires and the sadness that we both feel in the current world situation. He informed me about what's going on in the Muslim community. I told him what was going on in my heart and my mind, and the worries that I had. It was a cathartic thing. One of the things we both said at the end was that while we don't agree on many things, we do agree that God is at work in time, that God has a purpose for this world and for human beings.
Often, my friends, I feel that we are in too great a hurry to do God's bidding for him. There is a time in which we need to be patient. Patience does not mean passivity. It does not mean anxiety. I love Charles Hadden Spurgeon who said that when we face difficulty we should be patient. We shouldn't just grin and bear it, we should sing and bear it. In other words, when we face uncertainty, fear and difficulty we should pray, and we should praise, and we should glorify God.
Peter had no idea what Jesus was really going to do. He had no sense really of the cross that was to come - how could he? But Jesus was saying to him - in between the now and the then - pray and praise and something else: Love one another.
The words that Jesus spoke to Peter were so prophetic. He said: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." That's how they will know. Never mind trying to jump on my glory bandwagon, let me be me. Let me be the Lord. Let me do that which is going to bring peace and glory and life. In the meantime - love and give yourself totally to that. You see, patience does not mean indifference.
Elie Wiesel, who wrote so much about the Holocaust, had these profound words to say:
The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.
My friends, in our patience, we must not be indifferent. In our patience, we must love. In our patience, we must care. In our patience, we must pray.
Some yeats ago when I returned home to England to visit my uncle in a lovely little village in Lincolnshire, I visited the old parish church. When I went in I noticed that they had a capital campaign to rebuild a little stone archway with a wooden roof and a squeaky gate. They were trying to raise money for this because it was crumbling. Three men were putting up one of those meters to show how much money they were making, so I went over and said hello. I was so impressed with their dedication that I gave them a five-pound note and went on my way.
Three years later I returned to the village, and once again visited the parish church. The same three men were still working on the very same little arch! They were there with their plaster, hammering away and fitting stones in. I went up to them and said: "Gentlemen, gentlemen, with all due respect, haven't you finished this yet? I was here three yeats ago and you've hardly made any progress?"
One of the men looked at me and said: "Do you realize that this church is 800 years old? What's the hurry?" And then he added: "There something else you don't realize: We don't want to complete it. We actually enjoy building it."
I subsequently found out what they really enjoyed was building it and going to the pub afterwards for lunch, but that's another story. But it brought that whole sense of time into perspective. It took that moment of illumination for me to see in what a big hurry we are. People are in a rush in terms of getting their faith sorted out. They're in a hurry about solving all the world's problems. They're in a hurry about doing all kinds of things according to their sense of time.
Jesus is telling Peter there is another lesson: You're to be patient, because there is God's time. In God's time you need to be patient and allow God to act as well. This is not indifference. On the contrary, it's commitment. This is not passivity. On the contrary, this is worship and prayer. This is not doing nothing. This is doing the only thing that really matters, believing and loving because these are the signs of being a disciple. Amen.
This is a verbatim transcription of the original sermon.