[AI translation] I would like to highlight three moments from the story of the last night: First, that the betrayed and captured Jesus was abandoned by all his disciples: "Then they all fled, leaving him." (Mk14,50) Secondly, that Peter, even if from a distance, followed this Jesus. This way of following Christ deserves attention. Thirdly, that this journey of following Christ is one that Peter could not follow without a break. Finally, I would like to say what is the gospel of this human failure; why did the first generation of Christians preserve the story of failure and of Christ-denial? Why was it included in the gospels written 30-40 years after the event?1) The disciples deserted and abandoned the arrested Jesus not only because they feared the same would happen to them, but because they stumbled over Him. Going to the Mount of Olives, Jesus himself spoke of what was to come, "you will all be offended in me." (Mk 14,27) This is the key to understanding tonight's story. The word "stumbling" means that I cannot agree with something; I cannot process a fact with my intellect and my feelings, place it in the coordinate system of my thinking, and therefore reject it. The disciples could not agree with Jesus' helplessness, his powerlessness, they could not process the fact of his defeat, his inferiority, his helplessness. What had happened should not have happened! The helplessness and weakness of God is absolutely unacceptable, absurd! This feeling of unacceptability is stumbling. The disciples' disappointment was greater than their fear. God, at least at decisive moments, must prove Himself omnipotent, Who cannot allow to happen what we think cannot happen. If He is not omnipotent, we leave Him alone. What are we to do with a God who is not strong but weak, who does not rule but suffers, who is not enthroned in heavenly glory but hangs on the cross?
2) The second point I would like to highlight from the story of Maundy Thursday evening is Peter's following of Christ. The arrested and abandoned Jesus, who was escorted by the temple police to the high priest's house at night under close guard (Mk 14.44), was followed by Peter from a distance (Mk 14.54). He could not have followed him at a distance, because there were armed men near Jesus, who accompanied and guarded him. Peter was not a coward, as is often said of his denial of his allegiance to Christ, but brave: desperately brave. Now he has no hopes and no illusions, now he follows Jesus, not so that when he sits on the throne he will be at his right hand as the first man of his heavenly court, but, as Matthew notes, "to see what will be the end" (Mt 26,58). He alone follows Jesus when he is at the mercy of men. There are no disciples and friends around him, no church and church around him: Peter goes alone after Jesus, who seems to have lost His cause for good. In the midst of enemies, in the midst of perils, in a situation where there is no prospect but the end, Peter goes after Jesus. This is a new way of "following Christ", new from the past, when following him did not involve such risk, such exposure - even futility.
It is my conviction that Peter's Good Thursday night journey is our model of Christ-following. Preachers and theologians around the world today talk a lot, but not in the right perspective, about the Lordship of Christ, the victory of Christ, while there are fewer and fewer Christians and less and less faith around the world. They do not want to know this fact. We forget that Jesus Christ is not present in the world as the One who reigns and whose servants are co-rulers, but as the One who is at the mercy of men, as the One who suffers, as the One who is crucified. And disciples are disciples of this Jesus; Christians are followers of this Christ. Nowhere does the victory of Christ appear, nor will it appear until the last day. What is visible is rather the vulnerability, the weakness of Jesus Christ - and the power of those who, as builders, have cast aside this cornerstone.
Who will follow this Jesus, even from a distance, as Peter did that night? This One, Who has no adornment and no glory. Who will follow him even if, according to human reason, he can see nothing but what the end will be? Who is willing to undertake this Good Thursday following of Christ? Who is willing to follow Jesus, alone, when his companions have run away, seeking cover, and when Jesus has no power? Perhaps that is the question of Christianity today. Here I would just like to point out that Peter saw not only what the end is, but also what is after the end: the beginning of Easter. According to 1 Corinthians, which predates the Gospels, the Risen Christ first appeared to him.
3) The third point I would like to draw attention to is that this faithful Christ-follower Peter does not walk the path of faithfulness unbroken. (The apostle Paul would add: lest he be deceived, lest he attribute to himself the greatness of the power.) In the court of the high priest - he followed Jesus all the way! Nor is Peter faithful to the end - at least not on this night. But later, according to tradition, he died faithfully. It is not his faithfulness that wins the reward of salvation, but his faithfulness to the death of Jesus Christ that preserves him in the grace of God. Jesus did not deny Peter; He remained faithful. And Peter learned that night that no one enters the kingdom of God, the peace of Jesus, without losing his illusions about himself. He learns that he who thinks he stands will fall; he learns that salvation is impossible for us, but not for God. What Peter learns that night about man, about himself - and about Jesus Christ, the faithful one!
4) Peter was the representative of Christ's disciples, the leader of the early church. How is it possible that the Gospel writers did not silence the story of his denial? Every nation and every movement retouches and cosmeticizes its own history, its leaders. Why did not Matthew, Mark, Luke and John do this? Why did it have to be passed down from generation to generation that Peter, the "rock" on whom Jesus built the church, denied the Lord, that he did not walk the path of following Christ without failing? Is there something positive, something evangelical about this fact?
Yes, there is! To show that in the place of redemption, of reconciliation with God, Jesus alone is there. He alone hangs on the cross. God alone has salvation, God alone has glory. Not even the most faithful follower participates in the work of redemption. The most faithful Christ-follower weeps this night for his own unfaithfulness and weakness. But this weeper will be comforted! The Gospel writers, the Christians of the apostolic age, met with signs of unfaithfulness, of stumbling, of weakness, both in themselves and in their fellow men. The question was this: what should a Christian think of himself who has failed and fallen? Do you think it is all over? That they have no place in the community of Christ, in the peace of God? No! Think instead of Peter. Think of the rock who learnt how weak man is and how merciful God is! Think of what Peter learned: we are not in control of ourselves - but we are in control of God. And nothing can tear us away.
We tend to think of following Christ as some unattainable perfection, and so we don't even seriously try. If the standard is so high, it is a pity to try! But in following Christ there is no standard, there is only a type: and that type is not the perfect man, but Peter. The type, the Peter who wants to follow Christ in every circumstance, who exposes himself, takes risks - and in the process comes to know his own imperfection. The type of Christ-follower is the man who loses confidence in himself and gains an all-abiding knowledge of God's mercy.
If this is how we think about following Christ, why not dare to embark on a new journey of following Christ, which may be as risky as Peter's Good Thursday journey, but which will bring us to know the power of Christ's passion and resurrection?!
Let us pray:
Lord, to whom else can we go? With you is the true life, and if we fail to live it, what are years, money, health and success worth, what is it worth, even if we win everything?
Make us your followers on the path of Good Thursday: even if from afar, even if alone, let us always remain in your footsteps! If we fail in this enterprise, keep us from despair; rather, make known to us our weaknesses, that we may see ourselves without illusions, and make known to us your mercy and your power. Let us understand that following you is not an unfulfillable command, but a gospel that proclaims that a man like Peter (and only a man like Peter!) has a place in your community!
We pray that one person here and there in the world may find a new way of following Christ: learning humility and perseverance, imagination and courage, and thus coming to know the power of your Passion and Resurrection, coming to the fullness of a new humanity by faith.
Amen
Date: 11 April 1968, Holy Thursday evening.