I'm Simon Peter, you might have read about me in the gospels – I'm one of those people who followed Rabbi Jesus; one of his disciples.
If you haven't read about me you might have heard about me; all the jokes about getting to heaven: "A mini bus taxi driver and a minister went to heaven and St Peter (moi) showed the taxi driver to a big comfortable room and the minister to a miserable cell in the basement. When the minister asked "Why?" – I replied: "People prayed during the taxi drivers services; they just slept through yours."
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The jokes are a bit backwards though. Typical of us Christ followers to expect so little of Jesus, as if all he cared about was people getting into heaven… Jesus was about much more than that – he spoke of changing the world. He looked forward to the establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven – a world run according to God's values.
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When Jesus spoke about giving me keys I was a bit confused myself… In hindsight think he was actually talking about how we disciples would be able to change the world; unlocking God's power on earth as we worked in partnership with him. I think you also have the keys.
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I'm getting distracted – like your minister, I could talk all day.
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I'm here because you're about to celebrate Holy Week… I was there, I messed up, I thought I'd give you an eye witness account.
I'll take you back to the beginning and bring you up to Palm Sunday.
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When I first met Jesus I was a fisherman, head of a small team – I even had my own boat.
We were overtaxed; taxed to put the boat on the water – taxed for catching fish, taxed for selling fish, taxed for transporting fish to market… If you didn't pay the tax they would claim your boat as your own and then rent it out to you.
It was as if we were trudging around in the dark. Our rulers didn't see us as people – they just saw us as a source of income for building huge palaces and temples to strange gods.
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When Jesus called us, we eagerly followed… but we did check him out a bit first, as Luke suggests.
What convinced me was his suggestion that we throw the net out… I didn't want to – the fish weren't co-operating that day. He wasn't a fisherman, what did he know?
But, when we listened to him we caught enough fish to feed the whole village… I fell on my knees, confessed my sins… I guess you could say I was converted by this Holy Man who knew somehow where God hid his fish.
(The gospel writers don't tell you this, but by the time the fish were caught it was afternoon the greedy tax collectors were delivering their tributes. That day we all ate for free, none of those fish had Caesar's name on them – if you know what I mean.
That was a Kingdom of God moment.
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Jesus was the kind of person you could follow. He dreamed of the Kingdom of Heaven, he lived for it. We saw what it was all about as we followed him: Healing the sick, feeding huge crowds, making oppressed and depressed people feel human for a change.
It was as if he was pulling people out of the darkness into the light. You know, like fish – they swim around in the chaos under water, little black shadows – afraid. We pull them up to the light… for a moment you see all the colours and beauty of what they are...
Jesus had a way with words… he said that if we discipled ourselves to him, if we followed him and learnt from him we would fish for people, not fish. I liked the idea.
Jesus made people feel like they weren't in the dark anymore… we called him: "The way, the truth and the light." His teachings, life and action gave us hope.
They made us believe that God's Kingdom dream was actually a possibility… God was actually there in him, with us, eating with us, crying with us… celebrating with us.
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The beginning of following Jesus was exciting. I liked the big idea – the Kingdom of Heaven; unlocking God's power on earth. It sounded quite easy. But we soon began to taste the difficulty.
You have no idea how many people are sick until you go to a clinic and stand in the cue. I can't stand it; sick people, sweating, smelly, infectious, waiting to be healed. We didn't have Detol or anti-bacterial spray… Excuse the analogy but Jesus attracted sick people like horses attract flies…
They would come in crowds, pressing up against us – hot and smelly… Jesus had time for all of them, even when we began to lose patience. I don't know how he managed.
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As a Rabbi the law he taught was far more difficult than what other rabbis taught. It wasn't just keeping rules. He taught us to love, he taught us to pray, he taught us to serve – even to the point of death.
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Although it was difficult following him, it was extremely exciting, like a great big wedding banquet. There was always the sense that something really big was happening and we were part of it.
Once when the Pharisees and Sadducees asked Jesus why we, his disciples didn't fast, he said: "The wedding guests cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them can they?"
It was exciting, I thought it was going to last forever… I thought we were going to change the world. But Jesus began hinting that he wasn't going to be with us forever… he said that his disciples could mourn rather, when the bridegroom departed.
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Jesus began to speak more obviously about how he was going to die. I didn't like it – I didn't want to hear it. John the Baptist a similarly charismatic prophet was beheaded – Herod obviously didn't like the idea of God's Kingdom.
Once, Jesus asked us who we thought he was… he asked: "Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, others Jeremiah, but who do you say I am?"
I had been thinking it, some of us had wondered about it, but didn't want to say it; but at that moment I answered: "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." I was convinced that he was God's anointed one… the one who would set us free from our oppression who would restore Israel to its former glory!
It felt so good – faithless buffoon that I often was to get something right. Jesus blessed me: "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven!"
That's when he said he would give me the keys of the Kingdom of heaven, and he called me the rock on which he would build his church.
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Exciting! But from then on Jesus began to show us that he had to go to Jerusalem and suffer at the hands of our religious leaders, be killed and on the third day be raised up, alive!
I didn't understand what he was talking about. I'm a practical kind of person – yes I had seen the miraculous, the power with which Jesus worked… I imagined us using these powers to take Jerusalem, establish the Kingdom Jesus had been talking about.
I took him aside, protesting: "Impossible, Master! That can never be!"
Having just been praised his response to me crushed me. He called me "Satan."
That was difficult to hear.
He told me I was setting my mind on human things not divine things, and if I wanted to follow him – I'd have to deny myself, take up a cross and follow him.
He said that to save my life I would have to give it up, only then would I find it.
I wanted to save everyone, using power, wealth and strength. Jesus taught us rather that the love that changes the world was made real in sacrificing yourself.
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Later I realized, when Jesus told us about his trial in the desert with the devil, that the ways of power and strength which I chose – were not God's ways. They were the devil's. Jesus deliberately chose the way of gentleness – not power.
That must be why he chose a fool like me to be his disciple.
It turns out that my failures made me just the right kind of fool to make God's love known, just the kind of rock on which to build a community that lives on grace.
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Jesus did things quite differently, mocking the powers – proclaiming God's gentleness.
And this brings me to the spectacle of Palm Sunday. Jesus wasn't the impressive victory seeking kind of person, I was – I wanted power and strength… (When they came to arrest Jesus I pulled out my sword and cut off the high priest's servant's ear… Jesus surrendering, healed it.) I wanted to fight.
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I call it the spectacle of Palm Sunday because Jesus was not a showman – he performed miracles and healings and taught. But he seldom drew attention to himself…
But now, in the manner of an Old Testament prophet Jesus put on a ridiculous show… He called for a donkey on which to ride into the city. He was making a point fulfilling the strange prophecy of Zechariah 9:9… What kind of King would ride a donkey, not even a donkey, a colt – the foal of a donkey.
King's ride mules if they come in peach – horses if they're trying to intimidate someone, showing off their power… but no self respecting King would ride into Jerusalem on a donkey when the Romans had horses, soldiers, armour and crosses on which to hang rebels.
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Needless to say when Jesus rode in, the crowds went wild. It was a chance to mock the powers that be by honouring this foolish looking king. Few people even knew who he was (we didn't have TV or You magazine). No Roman king would have received the welcome Jesus received; large crowds joined in, giving Jesus a royal and spontaneous welcome – waving palm branches and shouting slogans about Jesus Jewishness: "Hosanna to the Son of David."
Jerusalem was a tinderbox at Passover… imagine an oppressed nation celebrating God's delivering them from oppression.
Jesus might as well have thumbed his nose at the Romans. The city was in turmoil. People wanted to know who this man was… you could hear the whispers in the market place: "This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee…"
Little did we know that this was the beginning of Jesus' coronation. We were witnessing the dawn of a new kind of Kingdom.
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