1 Corinthians 15:1-8 – What About Peter?
Tonight we are going to start off by reading our scripture, a very early creed of the church. It was like an Apostle’s Creed, a few brief but clear lines of doctrine about what the early believers actually believed. Let’s read 1 Corinthians 15:1-8.
This is, at least to me, an interesting bit of scripture. It starts off with the words “received” and “passed on”, which were technical terms used by Jewish rabbis to say that what was about to be said is considered part of holy tradition. This was something the early church passed on from one believer to another with the idea that it was doctrine. And if you think about it, there are things in there that Paul didn’t usually write: Cephas, the Twelve, and the third day. All those were terms Paul didn’t usually use, which implies that what he was writing was not originally his words.
The creed itself can be traced back very far. OK, we know that Paul wrote 1 Corinthians between 55 and 57 AD. He says in the 1st 4 verses that he has already passed on this creed to the church at Corinth, which would mean that it had to be before his visit there in 51 AD. Therefore the creed was being used within 20 years of the resurrection, which is really quite early.
In fact, some scholars trace it back even further, to within 2 to 8 years of the resurrection, between 32-38 AD, when Paul himself first learned it in Damascus. This is very early material of what the early church believed. His resurrection was not a wonderful idea that someone 300 years later came up with, to keep the peasants controlled through mysticism and superstition. The concrete evidence of Jesus’ resurrection has been believed right from the start, from day 1.
There is something in this creed, though, that sounds a little out of place. When did the Risen Jesus appear to Peter? I’m certainly not saying He didn’t. I’m saying that we just can’t figure out when it was.
The truth of Jesus’ appearing to Peter is confirmed additionally in Luke’s record of events. After the 2 disciples who saw Jesus while they were walking with Him on the road to Emmaus, they returned to the other disciples and said, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.”
So we have 2 different books – 1 Corinthians and Luke – both mentioning Jesus appearing to Peter, but we have no idea of what happened, or when it happened. Scholars over the years have more or less pieced together what happened that morning.
A number of women – Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, Salome the mother of James and John, Joanna, and still more – went to the tomb, found it empty and the body gone, and angels telling them that Jesus was alive. They ran back to where the disciples were staying, and told them they didn’t really know what had happened, but that Jesus’ body was gone. Peter and John ran to the tomb, and left after they found the tomb empty as well.
Mary Magdalene came back and was the 1st, as far as scholars can guess, to see the risen Savior. John wrote about that appearance. The other women came back to the tomb as well, and they met Jesus too – Matthew records this appearance.
Some scholars think that Jesus ascended to the Father at some point in the run of the day, but as far as I can tell, that’s not a popular opinion. That would explain where Jesus was between the women seeing Him and the Emmaus Road disciples seeing Him, though. Luke takes great pain to describe the Emmaus Road happenings, and it seems to take awhile for it to happen.
After all, at the end of it, when those disciples return to where all the others were staying, they barely have enough time to say what had just happened when Jesus showed up there too. And John tells us that this incident was by now in the evening. This group was the disciples, but as John tells us, minus Thomas. He wouldn’t be seeing Jesus for another 7 days.
Well, that explains the last part of v5 of 1 Cor.15 – “then to the Twelve.” That’s also the end of the 1st day, resurrection day itself. V6 goes on to say, “After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time.” This likely happened in the region of Galilee, as Matthew describes – most believed, but some doubted. V7 says, “Then he appeared to James…” That would be Jesus’ half-brother, likely. He got a special appearance not described in the Gospels at all. V7 also says, “…then to all the apostles.” That was probably the Mount of Olives, back in Jerusalem, as Matthew and Luke describe.
But we are still left with v5: “[Christ] appeared to Peter.” When? As I said, likely after the women saw Him but before the Emmaus Road disciples saw Him. Now, what’s funny is that we have no record of what happened in this interaction. We have no idea what was said or done. We just believe that it happened.
Mark records that the angels told the women to tell Peter especially that Jesus was alive and not dead. But Mark doesn’t tell us about Jesus’ visit to Peter. John records so much of what Jesus said to Peter later on, after Peter had returned to Galilee and was out fishing with his buddies. But John does not tell us what Jesus and Peter said when no-one else was around.
Which actually leads me to think that it’s none of my business. Not to say I wouldn’t like to know, but it wasn’t relevant enough for me to know. It was likely very important, but apparently I don’t need to know.
I can assume some things. I can assume Jesus offered Peter forgiveness for how Peter had denied Him. “No, I don’t know the man at all, I swear to God.” Words that hit Peter like a ton of bricks when he realized what he had done. Words that caused him such grief that he ran off into the night crying. I’m assuming that Jesus’ conversation offered Peter forgiveness.
But these are all assumptions. I don’t know, and until I reach heaven, I won’t know. Maybe not even then, who knows. All I can do is guess what happened between them, because obviously God doesn’t care if I know.
Isn’t that so like us? The Bible doesn’t tell us, or God doesn’t tell us, but we still feel the need to guess. Why is that? I don’t know, but it’s true. We want to know what goes on between other people and God. But as CS Lewis said, through Aslan, the lion in the Chronicles of Narnia who is meant more or less to represent Jesus, He doesn’t tell us other people’s stories. He doesn’t tell one person exactly what goes on in another. It’s none of our business.
I remember of course, speaking of CS Lewis, when The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe came out in theatres. Edmund, the traitor, who betrayed his brother and sisters for candy and hurt feelings, met Aslan, and all was forgiven. But we don’t hear the conversation. The 2 are up on a hill, away from the listening ears of others, but things are made right. One Christian movie critic complained that we didn’t even hear an “I’m sorry”. We didn’t hear a “forgive me” or anything.
I’ll tell you, that irked me. I know it’s a movie, and it didn’t really happen, but it does really happen. A traitor comes to Jesus. A betrayer finds forgiveness. And quite frankly, you and I don’t need to know what’s said unless it’s you or I saying it. I don’t need to know what you prayed to make your forgiveness real, and vice versa. We didn’t need to know what Edmund said to Aslan in order to show that the lion forgave the boy, and we don’t need to know what was said between Jesus and Peter, and we don’t need to know what anyone else prays either.
In our attempts to love other people and care for their souls, we get snoopy. And soon caring for someone else’s soul becomes “well, unless they change their ways, they’ll go to hell.” Even if that’s true, how do you know what kind of prayers they’ve prayed when no one else was listening? How do you know they haven’t gone to Jesus for forgiveness already?
Just because it hasn’t shown up in their lives that you can see doesn’t mean that something hasn’t happened. Some people are changed overnight, radically. Some go through a long process of shedding the graveclothes, the remnants of their former way of living. I’m not saying a person shouldn’t change when they come to the Lord; I’m saying that it may not be in ways that you can see, only that the person and the Lord can see.
You’ve heard me say it before, and this may be the last time before I leave, but I’ll say it again: It’s none of your business where anybody ends up. Concern and compassion are wonderful. Wanting others to go to heaven is great – it’s our responsibility on earth to point others to Jesus. But when we define people’s destiny by how well they lined up to praying our prayers and believing our beliefs and understanding our doctrines and living our standards – we are overstepping our bounds. We are deciding a person’s future. Oh sure we say, “well, I’m just going by what the Bible says.” Maybe, but it’s the Bible as seen through our interpretation. After all, for example, people use the Bible to condemn women preachers and people use the Bible to support women preachers. Interpretation has a lot to do with things.
And so if somebody hasn’t exactly said the same prayer as you – and how would you know if he or she has, anyway? – or doesn’t believe the exact same things as you, or doesn’t live like you, or hasn’t had the same changes in his or her life as you, what business is it of yours? Here’s what you need to do: love people. Be nice to them. Treat them civil. Live like Jesus just as much as you can in front of everybody. Don’t make people targets. Don’t give them the impression you are trying to target them, hunt them, or chase them into heaven. People want to be loved, not stalked. Treat them as people, human beings, not goals to be reached.
There is nothing like leading a person to Jesus. But it’s not up for you to decide if a person has Him or doesn’t have Him. So I say to you, reflect Jesus in all your life, and let that light shine where it may. Some will respond, some will not. But the point is, don’t decide who’s who. Do your best, live the way you should, and leave the results to Him.
