My family watches Jeopardy! every night. My husband, a well-read man with an excellent memory, gets most of the answers (er, questions) correct. But I struggle with trivia. Even if I’ve read the Shakespeare play, I cannot remember the characters’ names. I can picture the map but can’t recall the mountain range.

So far be it from me to overreact to a Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life survey that showed that Americans are not religion experts. Still, it was embarrassing. Fewer than half of those surveyed could name the Gospels or identify who launched the Reformation. Only 16 percent knew that Protestants traditionally teach that salvation comes through faith alone. While white evangelicals knew this in greater numbers than other groups, nearly twice as many of those surveyed knew that the Qur’an is Islam’s holy book as knew what Protestants teach about salvation.

A good and insightful article. Read it all.

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. Jesus is

“‘the stone you builders rejected,
which has become the cornerstone.’

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.

–Acts 4:8-13 (NIV)

On this feast day honoring the confession of St. Peter, what a remarkable scene Luke reports here! We see the poor, unschooled (read ignorant), unimportant fisherman, Peter, stand up in front of the top religious and political movers and shakers of his day (the Sanhedrin) to tell them they have made a terrible mistake in how they dealt with Jesus. In no uncertain terms Peter tells the most powerful men in ancient Jewish society that they are wrong in their thinking about Jesus. He tells them that Jesus is Lord and they are not. He tells them that only in Jesus will we have any real hope (not deluded wishful thinking) to have our exile from God permanently ended.

That message went over about as well in Peter’s day as it does in ours.

The scene above is even more remarkable if we know a bit about Peter’s history. Here we have good old brash and petulant Peter, a man after my own heart. He has a history of going from hero to goat with Jesus in under five seconds. He wears his feelings on his sleeve. He has a track record of inserting foot in mouth at the drop of a hat. For example, at the Last Supper, after Jesus tells his disciples that they will all desert him in the next few hours, Peter proclaims boldly that he will never desert or deny his Lord. In the safety of being removed from the actual event of Jesus’ arrest, bravado reigns freely in Peter’s mind and corresponding words. But just hours later, Peter not only deserts his Lord, he also denies him three times–to a lowly servant girl no less, the lowest of the low in ancient Jewish society–and runs away “weeping bitterly” over his complete breakdown of integrity and courage.

We can understand all this and can appreciate how Peter must have felt because we have all had our courage and faith fail at a critical moment. We can appreciate Peter’s predicament because in many ways we are Peter. That is one dimension of the plight of the human condition. But in today’s story we see this same man step up to address the most powerful men of Israel (with the exception of their Roman occupiers) with boldness and courage.

What is going on here? Where is the sniveling coward that ran away from Jesus as fast as he could, all the while “weeping bitterly”?

The answer, of course, is the amazing love and grace of Jesus. You can read about how Jesus forgave and restored Peter here. It is enough to melt even the hardest heart and we see in today’s passage the wondrous and transformative effect this had on Peter. No longer is he a coward. No longer does he worry about offending people by speaking the truth in love to them. No, Peter gets it–finally. He is now willing to deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Jesus, just as Jesus had demanded he do.

But Peter wasn’t willing to do this (or perhaps couldn’t) until after he had experienced the life-changing love and forgiveness of Jesus.

In forgiving and commissioning Peter to be one of his shepherds, Jesus healed and transformed his bumbling and broken disciple. Jesus’ grace, love, and forgiveness of Peter turned Peter into the kind of man God created him to be and never again would Peter fail or disappoint his Lord, at least as far as the extant records tell us. Indeed, the NT tells us that Peter suffered much for his Lord and tradition has it that he was eventually crucified upside down for the sake of Jesus, insisting that he was not worthy to die in the exact position that his Master had.

What a wondrous and hopeful story of how Jesus can heal and equip us to do his work!

The same love, grace, and forgiveness that Jesus offered to Peter (and which Peter accepted, a critically important piece to the story) is available to you today. Is there a dark skeleton in your closet that you dare not tell anyone about, even your nearest and dearest, because you consider it to be so awful? Do you think that you are simply not forgivable because of who you are or what you have done? If you labor under these terrible burdens, take heart and hope. Read and consider carefully the story of Jesus and Peter. Understand there is nothing in this world that you can do or be that puts you irrevocably outside of God’s love for you in Jesus. There is nothing other than your own stubborn refusal to accept the love, grace, and forgiveness God offers you in Christ. Nothing.

Is that way too cool or what?

Simply do as Peter did. Talk and listen to Jesus. Hear what he has to say to you. Ask him if it really is possible for you to forgive him and expect to hear “yes” for an answer. Ask him to take from you the terrible guilt and burdens you bear so that you might be equipped to love and serve him as he calls you to do. If you come to him with faith and a sincere and humble heart, you will not be disappointed. Billions of folks have done this and like them you will find that you have a newfound courage and power that is not yours to live your life in joyful and obedient service to this God who loves you madly and wants you to experience life as he intended for you when he created you.

And if you mess things up along the way, don’t worry in excess (and maybe not at all). You won’t get it right all the time. In fact, if you are like many of us, you may get it wrong more often than not. But the story of Jesus and Peter encapsulates the Good News of the wondrous love and power of the Gospel to heal and transform lives, yours included.

All you have to do is to respond to Jesus like Peter did. Like Peter, you must accept the complete and total forgiveness Jesus offers you, and believe he really does have the power to heal and transform you. Afterwards, you must finally take seriously his command to deny yourself (the part of you that wants to be God instead of giving that role and function to the real God), take up your cross every day (trust Jesus enough to do the things he calls you to do, even if they seem impossible), and follow this insanely wonderful God who loves you and wants you to be with him now and for all eternity.