Resurrection - Week Two
LIBERATION LECTIONARY
Resurrection as Return
“Winning is great, sure, but if you are really going to do something in life, the secret is learning how to lose. Nobody goes undefeated all the time. If you can pick up after a crushing defeat, and go on to win again, you are going to be a champion someday.”
Wilma Rudolph Day
Alfred Conteh - Two Fronts
Reflection: Resurrection Means Return
Resurrection means a return to life. For Peter, talking to Jesus after the resurrection was also an experience of return. Before Jesus was executed by the order of Pilate and the pressure of corrupt religious leaders, Peter denied that he even knew who Jesus was. He was ashamed that he did this, perhaps in part because Jesus told him it would happen. It might seem easy for us to look at Peter’s actions as unforgivable. He did not stand up for the truth when he had the opportunity. He did not proudly proclaim that he was one of the people closest to Jesus, even when people around him recognized him and said there was no use arguing. When Peter was denying any connection to Jesus, one person said “I can tell it’s you from the way you talk. Your accent is distinctive.” and Peter was so upset, he began slinging curses on people telling the truth.
When we are afraid, when we feel threatened, when we feel out of control or uncertain of what is yet to come, we often make mistakes. Even when divine wisdom stands in front of us and tells us “this road you are walking is dangerous”, failure often still happens. When Jesus told Peter that he would speak words of denial and fear, Peter swore that it would never happen.
But it happened all the same. Peter’s fear of… who can say for sure, really?...it hindered him. Or perhaps it was his anger from being unable to hide behind weak lies when he was confronted that caused him to fall away. And maybe it wasn’t a negative element at all. Maybe his mind was fixed on a fierce desire to protect Jesus from all the mounting threats he’d heard. However he arrived at his failure to speak truth and show integrity, his hurts spoke louder than his hope for healing. Peter was a man in need of return.
Have you ever been reinstated? To be welcomed back after a long separation. Finding new respect on a job you’d previously let lapse, or renewed belonging in a place where you’d felt awkward - like nothing you did could make it work. How does this kind of return happen? For Peter, who Jesus had said was destined to be a church leader, resurrection welcome happened through a communication of love that canceled the acts of denial. As we read John 21 together this week, be sure to note the questions that come up from interacting with this story.
What does it feel like to be asked, over and over, do you love me?
Did Jesus need that reassurance? Did Peter need the repetition?
Was Jesus saddened by Peter’s denial?
Just as Peter was increasingly enraged by the confrontation and demand for his identity, Peter was saddened by Jesus’s repetition on the question of devotion and affection. But through his concern, he answered truly. That is the difference, the turning, that marks resurrection life. See, Peter was not wrong for being angry or afraid, or protective. He was wrong for speaking words of denial and despising, instead of love and connection. In this story, resurrection is more than a return, it is a reversal. Everything we have done to hurt ourselves or other people, everything that has happened to hurt us, can be made powerless by speaking hope for our healing.
Jesus is reminding Peter - and all of us - that hope for healing, justice, ultimate liberation and more, is rooted in speaking love and living in fellowship.
Daily Scripture Readings
Sunday: Psalm 118.14-17 The Lord is my strength and my protection; And God has become my salvation. There are glad songs of victory in the tents of the righteous: “The right hand of the Lord does valiantly; the right hand of the Lord is exalted; the right hand of the Lord does abundantly.” I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the Lord.
Monday: John 21.1-3 Afterward, Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way: Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. “I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
Tuesday: John 21.4-6 Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?” “No,” they answered. He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.
Wednesday: John 21.7-12 Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards. When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread.
Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.” So Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord.
Thursday: John 21.13-14 Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.
Friday: John 21.15-19 When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.” Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.” The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was sad because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!”
Saturday: John 21.20-25 Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. (This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and had said, “Lord, who is going to betray you?”) When Peter saw him, he asked, “Lord, what about him?” Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.” Because of this, the rumor spread among the believers that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die; he only said, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?” This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true.
Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.
Meditation: Poetry
The Source of the Singing, by Marilyn Nelson Waniek
Under everything, everything - a movement, slow as hair growth, - as the subtle click of cells turning into other cells, the life in us - that grows as mountains grow.
Under everything this movement, stars and wind circle around the smaller circles of the grass, and the birds caged in the kitchen sing it over and over, - inexplicably in their sweet chirps.
I feel it like sometimes like today - somewhere in my torso, perhaps sweet in the belly; this must be what carrying a child is like.
I sit at a table and feel something move with the pain of just before tears. What is it the body says to me,
these tender aches that make me glad? Not even one syllable is clear, but if you were near I would tell you,
and you might lay your hand where the talking starts and the pain, where my life is still moving like a live thing
here, into the source of the singing.
Learn more about poet, children’s author, feminist and education theorist Marilyn Nelson