Some years back a young girl was caught out in a thunder storm
as she rode her bicycle. She made it to the top of the hill and then
headed down as fast as she could go. When she got home she told a
strange tale. Every time there was a flash of lightning blue flames
ran across her handle bars. Had it not been for the rubber tires on
her bike she felt she would have been electrocuted. This experience
is rare for landlubbers. But for men of the sea strange happenings
with lightening are common. The fiery glow of electricity is often
seen on the masts of ships, and other pointed objects. Pilots see it
on the wings of their planes also. This electrical discharge has come
to be called St. Elmo's fire, and it has a fascinating history. It all
ties in with our subject this morning because many Italian sailors
call it the fires of St. Peter.
In the account of the second voyage of Columbus, written by his
son, is this passage: "During the night of Saturday Oct. 1493 the
thunder and rain being very violent, St. Elmo appeared on the
topgallant mast with 7 lighted tapers, that is to say, we saw those
fires which the sailors believe to proceed from the body of the
saint." Seaman even developed poetry concerning this strange
electric phenomenon.
Last night I saw Saint Elmo's stars,
With their glittering lanterns all at play,
On the tops of the masts and the tips of the spars,
And I knew we should have foul weather today.
It is of interest that Peter is connected with these phenomena of
natural lightning; not only because of his being a fisherman and a
man of the sea, but because it fits his very nature. If James and
John, two out of the three in the inner circle of Christ's Apostles,
were called sons of thunder, then nothing could be more appropriate
than calling Peter, the third member of this trio, the son of lightning.
The Jews have a proverb that says, thunder and lightning are
inseparable, and this certainly holds true with the men Christ chose
as the foundation for his church. Lightning comes before the
thunder, and Peter was given first place as leader of the 12, even
over the beloved John-the son of thunder.
Peter is like lightning in so many ways. He is as unpredictable.
You never know when he is going to strike, and when he does he
follows the path of least resistance just like lightning. Alexander
Whyte says of Peter, "He was hasty, headlong, speaking
impertinently, and unadvisedly...Ever wading into waters too deep
for him...Caring little for conventional propriety, or for difficulties
locking his way, Peter acted on the rule, when in doubt, speak."
Peter's reckless tongue was like forked lightning, and nowhere
do we see it more clearly than in our text. Peter is the only one of the 12
who was so quick on the trigger that he fired back at the Lord
Himself with heated resistance.
Even in this setting where Jesus was filling the air with the most
beautiful message he ever spoke, Peter is living up to this name as a
son of lightning by creating all kinds of static. Jesus persisted with
Peter, however, for he knew long before Benjamin Franklin, the
lightning can be tamed. Lightning can be made into a powerful
force for good if it is harnessed and brought under control. We
want to look at the three stages Peter went through before the divine
lightning tamer brought him under control. First look at-
I. PETER'S REFUSAL. v. 8
Who but this flaming, impetuous son of lightning would dare to
give this heated response to his master-"you shall never wash my
feet!" If ever a man was deserving of being struck down by the
lightning of God's judgment, you would think Peter was well
qualified. All ancient people's looked upon lightning as the tool of
God's wrath. Zeus among the Greeks, or Jupiter among the
Romans, or Allah among the Moslems are frequently portrayed as
destroying their enemies with flaming thunder bolts from the sky.
In the Old Testament there are references to the Lord's use of
lightning. Psa. 144:6 says, "Flash forth the lightning and scatter
them." Psa. 97:4 says, "His lightnings lighten the world; the earth
sees and trembles."
Our text says all things were given into the hands of Christ. This
means that the lightning of God's wrath was also available to him,
and he could have met Peter's hotheaded refusal with a bolt of
judgment. Jesus does not handle things that way, however, for he
understands Peter's problem. Jesus does not deal with us according
to what we are, but according to what we can be when we are
committed to him. Peter is blind and ignorant, and so he takes this
stubborn stand with a good motive. His thinking is that no Lord of
mine is going to wash my feet, for I respect his dignity too much to
see it degraded. His refusal was based on a high respect for Christ,
and we could admire Peter for this if it were not for verse 7 where
Jesus said, "What I am doing you do not understand now but later
you will."
Jesus recognized that what he was doing was unique. It was
contrary to all custom. The master never washes the feet of the
servants. This is unheard of in any land, and so he prepares them by
telling them that they will come to understand by progressive
enlightenment. They would have to submit and obey him first, and
later come to an understanding of what it was all about. The
Christian life is like this because the Lord wants obedience above all
else. If we can learn to obey his commands even when we do not
fully understand, we reveal that we have truly made him Lord. The
key to good discipleship is not understanding, but obedience.
So many people worry about whether a young person fully
understands what they are doing when they get baptized at 9 or 10
years old. Of course, they don't fully understand. I didn't either
when I was baptized at 9, but I understand now. We are baptized
primarily because Jesus commanded it. It is an act of obedience
above all else. To many we might appropriately say, what we do
now you do not know, but you will understand later. When a person
is old enough to obey what they understand is their Lord's
command, they are old enough to be baptized. If you don't buy that,
you are in good company, for Peter didn't either. Peter made a
lightning like response and thought, I don't understand it now, and,
therefore, I will not obey-you will never wash my feet. This is just the
problem with lightning. It is all speed and no
thought. It is quick on the trigger, but doesn't take aim.
Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet says,
It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden,
Too like lightning, which does cease to be
Ere one can say it lightens.
That is Peter all over. He doesn't bother to weigh any evidence, or
hear any arguments. His mind is made up before any facts are
presented, and he flashes forth with his dogmatic refusal. It is not a
polite, "Can't we discuss this issue," or a courteous evasion," let's
do it another time," but a rude, rebellious refusal, "never-you shall
never wash my feet."
Peter is a real rebel, but he is all the more lovable because of it.
We like non-conformists because they usually have the nerve to
stand up and be different when everyone else is afraid to do so.
Even when they are on the wrong path, like Peter is here, we enjoy
them for their blunders make us feel more secure because we would
never be so foolish. Peter's blunders are favorite sermon texts.
Preach about the other man, preacher,
The man we all can see,
The man who drinks and beats his wife,
The man who lends his hands to strife,
Preach about the other man,
Not about me.
The fact is, Peter is the representative man. When we preach on
Peter, we preach on all men, for we are all more like Peter than we
care to admit. We are all defiled with the same pride that lead to
Peter's refusal. It is not easy for an man to submit to being served
by a superior, especially when you respect that superior. Suppose
you were invited to the home of some dignitary that you greatly
admired, and the hostess noticed that your shoes were scuffed and
offered to polish them. Not a man in a million would yield to such
service. We would resist such an offer with all the dogmatism of the
son of lightning. "Never, never, never! We would not hear of such a
thing." Wild horses could not pull us into a position where we would
let a person we greatly respect perform a lowly, undignified service
for us.
Put yourself in Peter's sandals and you will better understand his
refusal. You will understand that it is not only more blessed to give
than to receive, but it is a whole lot easier. It is very hard to accept
charity, but if we pay attention to our own theology, that is what we
do constantly. All we have and are is by the grace of God. We
receive the gift of life, salvation, guidance, and all gifts as charity.
But when Jesus dramatizes this truth as he does with the feet
washing we are shocked, and our pride resists. We have often heard
that we can accept Jesus as Savior and not as Lord, but Jesus goes
one step more and says, we can accept him as Savior and Lord, and
still not accept him as servant, and thus, miss the best of all.
Jesus said to Peter, "If I do not wash you, you have no part in
me." If we do not submit to his sovereign service, and learn to
overcome all the pride and false dignity that keeps us from bending
to serve others, we can have no part in his plan. He came into the
world to minister, and his church is formed to minister. No one is
truly a part of the body of Christ who has not learned this. When
Peter heard the shocking rebuke he quickly changed his mind, and
so we look secondly at-
II. PETER'S REVERSAL. v. 9
Peter reveals his kinship to lightning again by the way he
changes his mind. His never lasted about 5 seconds. His dogmatic
refusal to ever submit to being washed was reversed instantly to a
plea for washing all over. Peter went from one extreme to the other
in a few seconds. From never to now with the speed of lightning.
You have to give Peter a lot of credit for this sudden reversal of his
dogmatic stand. Very few men have the courage to abandon a bad
decision as fast as Peter. He gets into trouble fast, but he also knows
how to quickly retreat from a bad position. He is mighty in his
mistakes, but equally courageous in his corrections.
History is full of men who cannot, like Peter, fail successfully
because they don't have the courage to admit they have made a
mistake. F. W. Boreham tells of the celebrated doctor Sangrado of
Spain who developed a simple remedy for all sicknesses. He and his
assistant Gil Blas went from bed to bed applying this panacea to all
the patients. The one thing that troubled the assistant was that
without exception all the patients died. When he modestly suggested
that they should modify their method of treatment Dr. Sangrado
replied, "I would willingly do so provided it would have no bad
consequences. But I have published a book in which I have exalted
this wonderful system, and would you have me decry my own
work?" "You are right," the assistant said, "It would ruin your
reputation. You must not give your enemies such a triumph over
you. Let us continue as we are."
Peter made mistakes, but he was not stupid. He never stuck with
a mistake when he saw it for what it was. He was a great man just
because he could retreat as fast as he advanced when he saw he was
going the wrong direction. Jesus wanted that kind of man at the
head of his disciples. No man is truly great who cannot change his
mind when he makes a foolish decision. When Peter saw that his
never would cut him off from Christ he switched to now immediately.
Like lightning he joined the company of great men who learned to say,
"I was wrong.."
In Boswell's famous biography of Dr. Johnson he tells of his visit
to America. And admirer of his who felt he was infallible could not
understand one of his definitions in his famous dictionary. He
defined postern as the knee of a horse. She approached him with
her problem and expected to get an explanation from some deeply
learned source with which she was not acquainted. To her
astonishment the great doctor made no elaborate defense, but said,
"Ignorance madam, pure ignorance!" He was a great man because
he could admit his mistake and retreat from it. It is no virtue to be
faithful to one's folly. It is a virtue to flee from it.
Peter did just that with the speed of lightning, and so we learn
that even lightning is not all bad. Natural lightning has its good side
also. It causes a chemical reaction between oxygen and nitrogen in
the air. It forms a substance known as nitric acid. This is brought
down by rain and provides the earth with millions of tons of the
finest fertilizer every year. Natural lightning can make a great
reversal from being a fearfully destructive force to become a
fruitfully constructive force. That is what Peter the lightning like
Apostle did. His fruit became universal because of his great
reversal. The third thing we want to consider is-
III. PETER'S RENEWAL. v. 10
Peter's reversal actually took him to an extreme beyond what
the Lord required. Jesus said to Peter, "You don't have to be
washed all over, only your feet and you will be renewed to your state
of cleanness. This feet washing is symbolic of the fact that all
Christians need renewal. This battle to get Peter's feet washed
should make that clear. The head Apostle's struggle is recorded so
all Christians can see clearly that if he needed it, then all need it.
Studdert Kennedy wrote,
There's nothing in man that's perfect,
There's nothing that's all complete,
He's no but a big beginning,
From his head to the soles of his feet.
Peter was not a finished product, as no Christian is. We are in
process of becoming what God wants us to be. All construction
sights tend to get messy and dirty, and that is true for the Christian
as he walks through this dusty world. He gets defiled and needs to
be renewed constantly, or he will stop growing. Construction will
cease, and he will begin to look like a unfinished project deserted
and left to decay. If a Christian submits to constant reviewing of his
life, and consistent renewing of it by confession and changing his
course, he will, like Peter, go on to abundant and fruitful living.
When Apollo 12 took off, everything was perfect for 36 seconds.
Then lightning struck the space craft and the master alarm sounded,
and lights blazed all over the control panel. Dick Gordon said, "In
all our training we had never seen so many alarm lights." Once in
orbit their lives and the success of the mission depended on getting
the guidance system realigned. Dick Gordon crawled down into the
equipment bay and tried to sight some stars in order to get the
space craft back on course. He looked through the telescope and
couldn't see a single star. He actually wondered if the stars had
gone out. But as his eyes adapted to the dark he saw the
constellation Orion. He sighted on Rigal and Sirius, and Apollo 12
was back in business.
This true life event concerning man's progress in space is like a
parable of the progress of the church of Christ. Lightning was
threatening to throw the church out of control. It was necessary for
Jesus to get Peter to focus his eyes on the bright and morning star in
order to get the church again under the proper guidance system so
it could achieve the purpose for which Jesus established it. Like
Peter, all of us need to be constantly renewed by getting our eyes on
Jesus so that we have the proper guidance to achieve his goal for us.
