Failing yet not falling away...

It's Good Friday, the day when we particularly remember Jesus' death, and so it seemed appropriate that my Bible reading this morning was in Luke chapter 22. It tells the story of the last supper, and of various conversations that arose shortly afterwards.

Because I was reading in a Spanish Bible, I was struck by a little detail that isn't immediately apparent in the English version. In that conversation between Jesus and Peter (verses 31 - 34) Jesus says to him, "Satan has asked to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you, that your faith will not fail." In English, it sounds as if Satan has specifically targeted Peter, but in the Spanish (and presumably also in the original Greek) we can see that the first half of the sentence is in the plural.

Sátanas os ha pedido sacudir - "os" is the plural form of "you." Satan was going to shake all of the disciples, and not only Peter. But, interestingly, the second half of the sentence is in the singular: yo he rogado por tí - "tí" is the singular form of "you." Jesus says that he has been specifically praying for Peter, that his faith wouldn't fail. Does this mean that Jesus wasn't praying for the other disciples? Extremely unlikely! Jesus was no doubt praying for all of them, but He knew that Peter was in particular danger of losing or failing in his faith.

Then Jesus says, Cuando hayas vuelto - When you've come back again…  When you've come back? Wait a minute! It almost sounds as if Jesus is saying, "My prayer won't be answered. I'm praying that you won't fail, but you will."

In fact, as Jesus understood well, it wasn't Peter's denial of Him that would be the evidence of failing faith. Fear would make him deny knowing Jesus, even though in his heart he did have faith that Jesus was who He said He was.

No, I think that where Peter's faith was in danger was in what his reaction would be to such as monumental failure. Would he allow shame to overwhelm him? Would he be able to believe that Jesus could ever forgive him for doing something so awful?

And so this was why Jesus has been praying specifically for Peter's faith. He knew about that glimmer of courage that would make Peter follow Him to the high priest's house, even when the others had already run away. He knew about that swell of panic that would make Peter deny Him three times. And He knew that failing so spectacularly would break Peter's heart, making him vulnerable to the enemy's taunts that what he'd done was unforgivable. This was the point at which Peter's faith could fail, and this was what Jesus was praying about.

Jesus' assurance of answered prayer is seen in the use of the subjunctive in Spanish - or what we call the future perfect tense in English: when you've come back, strengthen your brothers. Jesus was saying, "You're going to fail, Pater, but you're going to come back stronger for it." Perhaps it was the memory of these very words that later helped Peter not to give up completely.