The Truth About Peter, Paul and Mary
The Da Vinci Code Part 3
Text: Luke 1:1-4
As soon as I gave the message title, a large percentage of you immediately started murmuring “the answer my friend is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind” or “Puff the magic dragon lived by the sea…”, “Michael Row Your Boat Ashore”, “rock my soul in the bosom of Abraham” or “no easy walk to freedom” Well, we’re not going to be talking about the four generation folk singing trio.
I want to take a look with you at another trio, not from the 1960’s but rather from the first century.
I think I can be safe in saying that this trio never sang together but they did have several other things in common.
So who were Peter, Paul and Mary?
If they didn’t sing together, what on earth are their significance to us today?
What’s this have to do with Dan Brown’s book or a centuries old ecclesiastical cover up?
One thing all three of these individuals had in common was that each of them had a close encounter with Jesus of Nazareth and that encounter altered their lives forever.
Now that you understand that I’m talking about three who lived over 2,000 years ago, I’m sure your mind is filling with some things you’ve read or heard about each of them.
Some perceptions we have of:
Peter
• Fisherman
• Hot head
• Denied Jesus
• Had “foot n mouth disease”
• Cut off a man’s ear
• First “Pope”
Paul
• Set out to kill Christians
• Got knocked off his high horse
• (unfairly) woman hater and
• Suppressed woman’s rights
Mary
• Delivered from seven demons
• Poor and destitute
• A prostitute
• (according to Brown) Jesus’ wife and mother
of his child.
Much like some of the “facts” resented in the Da Vinci Code, some of these details would use a little more detailed study. So this morning, let’s take a look at these three fascinating individuals and how they have influenced the church and the world.
Peter, The Fisher of Men
Peter and his brother Andrew were followers of John the Baptist. From scripture we learn that Peter was - well, rather bullheaded and set in his ways, but one meeting with Jesus was to change all of that. Not overnight, earlier I mentioned that Peter is remembered as hotheaded and quick to stick his foot in his mouth. He was so enraged the night of Jesus’ arrest that he cut a man’s ear off (That’s not what he was aiming for!). My greatest encouragement from Peter’s life is that we know about those characteristics of him AFTER he met Jesus.
There goes the thought that “I have to get myself straightened up before I go to church or can have a relationship with Christ”.
• Peter was the first to publicly identify Jesus as “the Christ, the Son of the Living God”
• He was one of the “inner three” disciples closest to Jesus (along with James and John)
• He was the first (of the Disciples) to see the empty tomb. (to John’s defense, he was a few years older)
Next week we are going to take a closer look at some of Brown’s claims regarding plots and conspericies about the Bible and Jesus, …. But for this morning, let me just say that:
• No where in scripture, any religious or first century documentation does a jealousy between Peter and Mary come up.
• No where in Scripture or other religious documentation is it documented that Peter was the Church’s first leader.
o Even at Pentecost all 120 where witnessing it was only Peter who addressed the crowd as a whole.
o The Book of Act tells us that Peter was among the other Apostles at the Council in Jerusalem.
o If the first Pope, we have an issue regarding Priests and marriage, because Peter was in fact a married man.
What Peter was, and is today, was a simple fisherman whose life was dramatically and eternally changed by a Carpenter from Nazareth named Jesus. He was a man who struggled with his own humanity and shortcomings to be one of the most influential and powerful proclaimers of the Gospel the world has ever known.
The Apostle Paul –
Known as Saul of Tarsis, as a young man, Paul’s acclaim as a persecutor of Christians spread throughout the Middle East. In fact, it was on his way to arrest a large band of Christians near Damascus that Paul was knocked off his “high” horse (literally). There he came face to face with Jesus (Crucified some 25 or 30 years earlier). I think any of us here would have to admit that such an encounter would grab our attention.
Paul was no stranger to religion. In fact, he was a scholar among religious leaders of the day known as Pharisees. As a Pharisee Paul was well versed in the Hebrew law and the Old Testament Scripture. We have no record that Paul ever met or heard Jesus personally (before his Damascus Road experience) But there was something about that encounter, Something about coming face to face with Jesus that turned Paul’s life around forever.
Case in point. As a Pharisee Paul prayed every day “Lord, I thank you that I am not a Gentile, a woman or a slave” yet listen to his words found in
Galatians 3:28
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Some say Paul was a suppressor of women. Hardly!
Paul was quick to give recognition and honor to several women who aided him during his missionary journeys. He even commanded men to love their wives with a profound level of love:
Ephesians 5:25, 28-29
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, 28 So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church.
Peter echo’s Paul exhortation in his own letter to the church from the book of 1 Peter we read
7 Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered.
And then there is Mary Magdalene
Mary is probably one of the most misrepresented women in the Bible – and in the Da Vinci Code.
Many bible teachers and preachers call her a redeemed prostitute. Lost, in need of deliverance, yes but she was far from a harlot.
But neither was she a royal descendent of the Southern Kingdom as Tebing declared. Here’s what history does tell us
• Mary’s last name (or better identifier “Mary the Magdalene) tells us that she was from Magdala, a thriving port town on the coast of Galilee about three miles from Capernaum.
• We are not told of Mary’s parentage (or her lineage) her marital status or age.
• She is mistakenly associated with another “Mary” in scripture found in Luke 7:37 who was a prostitute. In fact the bible depicts Mary as a pure, though deeply afflicted woman; that is before she met Jesus.
• When she first met Jesus, scripture tells us that she was possessed by seven demons. (Luke 8:1-2)
• She was a significant supporter of Jesus’ ministry as evidenced in her being mentioned some 14 times in scripture as one of a group of women disciples.
o She was a woman of financial means who financially supported Jesus’ ministry.
o She is seen on several occasions as one in the crowd during his teaching
o She was at his crucifixion (but not at the foot of the cross as artists depict) Matthew 27:56 tells us that she (along with others) were “looking on from afar”.
o She was one of three women at the tomb on Sunday morning.
But Mary, in my book, has the coolest privilege as the first preacher of the gospel! Jesus commissioned her to “tell my brothers”. And that message has never stopped.
Were Jesus and Mary married? Is there a conspiracy to cover up some hidden truth? Well, you’ll have to come back in the next few weeks to find out.
Peter, Paul and Mary all had one thing in common. When they encountered Jesus their lives were changed forever. Each met Him in a pretty desperate state and each were touched right at the heart of their most significant need.
That’s another thing that has never changed. Jesus is still in the business of meeting people where they are, in the midst of their mess, ready to bring revolutionary change and new purpose to their lives.
Each of these people had a message
Mary’s is of deliverance from all sorts of bondage
Peter’s is “He loves me even when I mess up”
Paul’s is “He sought me even when I hated Him”
That’s Jesus! Giving us what we do not deserve - Loving us even when we are so hateful - picking us up no matter how often we fall down.
I suppose this trio is singing together today, joined with untold millions of others, they might be leading a concert in singing:
“Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see.”
