The Message Remix (366 page)

INTRODUCTION
01//02PETER

 

Peter’s concise confession—“You are the Messiah, the Christ”—focused the faith of the disciples on Jesus as God among us, in person, carrying out the eternal work of salvation.
Peter seems to have been a natural leader, commanding the respect of his peers by sheer force of personality.
In every listing of Jesus’ disciples, Peter’s name is invariably first.

In the early church, his influence was enormous and acknowledged by all. By virtue of his position, he was easily the most powerful figure in the Christian community. And his energetic preaching, ardent prayer, bold healing, and wise direction confirmed the trust placed in him.

The way Peter handled himself in that position of power is even more impressive than the power itself. He stayed out of the center, didn’t “wield” power, maintained a scrupulous subordination to Jesus. Given his charismatic personality and well-deserved position at the head, he could easily have taken over, using the prominence of his association with Jesus to promote himself. That he didn’t do it, given the frequency with which spiritual leaders do exactly that, is impressive. Peter is a breath of fresh air.

The two letters Peter wrote exhibit the qualities of Jesus that the Holy Spirit shaped in him: a readiness to embrace suffering rather than prestige, a wisdom developed from experience and not imposed from a book, a humility that lacked nothing in vigor or imagination. From what we know of the early stories of Peter, he had in him all the makings of a bully. That he didn’t become a bully (and religious bullies are the worst kind) but rather the boldly confident and humbly self-effacing servant of Jesus Christ that we discern in these letters, is a compelling witness to what he himself describes as “a brand-new life, with everything to live for.”

 

 

From:
When Jesus met him, Simon was a Jewish fisherman in a backwater village. Jesus nicknamed him Peter, “stone,” a chip off the rock of faith. Peter could read a little Hebrew and enough Greek to do business, but his religious education came from the three years he spent as Jesus’ apprentice and friend. In later life, when Christians across the Roman Empire looked up to him, he didn’t mind reminiscing about what an arrogant young pup he’d been back in the day. But when he was eventually arrested and sentenced to crucifixion, he asked to be crucified head down, because it seemed presumptuous to die exactly as his Master had.

 

To:
By now most of the new Christians in Turkey were former pagans, not Jews. Paul had planted the first churches in Turkey, but he was in jail, or recently released, and few of the new converts in those churches had ever seen him. They knew from Paul’s experience what faith could cost them, and they daily faced the anger of families, friends, and coworkers who couldn’t believe they were turning their backs on their traditions to serve this new God. They needed to hear from Peter what the true faith was and how to live among those who saw them as traitors.

 

Re:
Between A.D. 60 and 68. The world population was about 200 to 300 million people. The Roman Empire contained about 45 to 54 million, or at least 15 percent of the world’s people. China contained around 55 to 60 million. All of these figures are largely guesses, but it does seem that China was slightly more populous than Rome’s empire. Yet the Romans knew nothing of China except that silk, a favorite luxury fabric, came from there. The Chinese invented paper and porcelain in this period, but news of these marvels didn’t reach the West.

He never did one thing wrong,

Not once said anything amiss.