"Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard, and a slave woman came to him and said, 'You too were with Jesus the Galilean.' But he denied it before them all, saying, 'I do not know what you are talking about.'” Matthew 26:69-70
My dictionary defines a hypocrite as follows:
"a person who pretends to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that he or she does not actually possess, especially a person whose actions belie stated beliefs."
As a child my view of people who attended church was pretty simple. I knew many people who went to church, they were hypocrites, so therefore I could discount what they professed to believe. So many times I was able to dismiss an attempt to witness to me by rolling out this criticism.
After I became a follower of Christ, this clear truth still bothered me. How is it that I now profess Christ, and yet I so often deny Him?
I was fortunate enough to have a wise gentleman in my life who explained to me how he saw it. These verses are not meant to diminish Peter, they are there to offer us hope. These verses are there to lay the foundation in order for following verses to then teach us about repentance, and divine forgiveness.
In so many ways Peter is described in scripture as a man full of devotion to Christ. Yet, even after being warned he was about to turn his back on his Savior, he denies Christ three times in a matter of hours. He so quickly demonstrates that his fear is greater than his faith. So how does this offer us hope?
It is part of the human condition to insist on judging others based upon what they do; Peter cut the ear off a man who was taking Christ into custody. It is also part of the human condition to want others to judge us based upon our best of intentions; Peter desperately wanted to follow Christ through anything, but his actions betrayed his frailties. As it was in the time of Christ, so it is today for us. Our hope can be found not in Peter’s failing, but in the reality that he could still be “Peter”, The “Rock”, the beginning of the church, the one upon whom Christ chose to build.
How can that be? Well, that leads me to the repentance of Peter. He models for us what our path is when we have been a hypocrite. Peter didn’t resolve to do better. Peter didn’t read self-help books on how to be a person of integrity and valor. Peter mourned his failure, he grieved over his betrayal of Christ, and he turned from his denial and picked up what he had discarded, and he set out to do the opposite. I have no doubt he stumbled along the way toward his final breath, but Peter did not allow his failure to permanently deny him the presence of Christ in his life.
That brings us to the divine forgiveness. Christ told Peter it would happen, and it did. Think about it, Christ knew in advance, which leads me to understand that He also forgave Peter before it happened. Christ knows what I will do, and not do, before it ever happens, and yet He forgives it. He, Christ, knows exactly how awful Cameron can be, and that can be more than terrible, and yet he has already forgiven me. Christ knew the failure of Peter before Peter did, He forgave him, and it simply required Peter to fall on his face and find a way to accept that forgiveness that awaited him. A simple process, but oh so difficult to live out.
My wise teacher explained to me that this is the reality of being a follower of Christ. We must never accept being hypocritical in our faith, but we must never fail to accept the forgiveness that is only found in Christ. We must never turn from the hard work of sincere repentance, and we must never deny the prompting of the Holy Spirit as we face our failings.
So, here I stand, a hypocrite of the first order. I am all too often guilty of murder in my heart, of death in my speech, and a lack of character in my actions. However, I, like Peter, have chosen to accept the grace of Christ’s sacrifice, and I, like Peter, am a follower of Christ. Yes, this makes me a hypocrite, and yes it grieves me. This condition also gives me great hope, great joy, and a magnitude of gratitude that sometimes overwhelms me as I consider the sacrifice of Christ. The sacrifice of Christ, knowing I would fail Him over and over again, for me, for all of us, because of our failings, not in spite of them, for a Redeemer is not needed by perfect people. My Redeemer came for one such as Peter, for one such as me.
Thank God.