the 12th sunday after pentecost
the PRAYER. . .
O God, with all your faithful followers of every age, we praise you, the rock of our life. Be our strong foundation and form us into the body of your Son, that we may gladly minister to all the world, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.
the READING. . .
And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.
the DEVOTION. . .
We can be so rigid when it comes to the bible. Literal. Inerrant. Infallible. More like it’s carved in stone, than written on hearts. And we miss so much, because of it. Beneath. Along the edges. Like verse 17 … Peter tells Jesus, “You are the Messiah!” Jesus replies, “You’re Simon son of Jonah!” And until this week, I’d taken it all at face value. Jonah was Peter’s dad! A name on Peter’s birth certificate. A leaf on Peter’s family tree!
But there was another Jonah, in the bible. Jonah the unlikely prophet. Who wouldn’t go where god told him to go. Who wouldn’t say what god told him to say. Wouldn’t do what god told him to do. Instead, he ran – and sailed – as far and as fast as he could! Ran – and sailed – in the opposite direction! (FYI, that’s where the whale comes in!)
Anyway, what if Jesus is saying – figuratively speaking – that Peter is just like THAT Jonah! Fickle! Unpredictable! Unreliable! Peter who will say, “God forbid,” to the suffering! Peter who will deny he knows Jesus! Peter who will abandon him! And that first Easter morning, Peter who will believe the body was stolen! “Blessed are you,” Jesus says. But is it “Simon Peter SON of Jonah?” Or “Simon Peter son of JONAH?”
Bob Barndt, pastor