One of my favorite videos of late is The Skit Guys’ retelling of the
conversation Jesus had with Peter, after His resurrection, on the shores of Galilee :
Feeling true sorrow for his denial, Peter beats himself with
regret for betraying his Lord. The Gospel of John says that if Peter loved Him, Jesus
only had one thing to tell Peter that day: Feed His sheep. Jesus’ composure both
in scripture and the video is something I admire. Jesus isn’t mulling over the
fact that Peter betrayed Him. Nor does He continually draw attention to Peter’s
downfall, repeating it over and over again like some angry mob boss trying to “teach
him a lesson he will never forget.” Jesus’ response is simply “Feed my sheep.”
In the video, Peter says his actions on the night Jesus was
arrested is unforgiveable. As such he doesn’t deserve to be with Jesus any
longer. He deserves to be punished, and suffer in some way for abandoning his
Lord, when Jesus, perhaps, needed him most.
In the video Jesus says “Enough with this line of thinking!”
and reminds Peter that His death changes things. Through Jesus’ one act of
Grace Peter can get back on the horse by simply “feeding Christ’s sheep.”
This is something I need to remind myself. When I betray the
Lord, give in to temptation and sin, beating myself up over it is one of the
worst things I can do. I’m better off to fess up to any wrongs I may have done
and, like Peter, get back on the horse and “feed Jesus’ sheep.”
Am I alone in feeling this way, or am I on to something that
others, like you, can latch on to?
