The Rehabilitation of Peter
© 2010 Bert Gary
If you go to a therapist for traditional psychoanalysis, one
of the things you will be asked to explore is the way in which the unhealed wounds
from your past are still hurting you today. The goal of the analyst is to help
you find and reenter the pain of unresolved traumas. Like a physical wound that
will not heal without treatment, emotional wounds that are ignored or denied will
fail to heal.
A key purpose then of psychoanalysis is to help you find the
courage to scan your past for memories that are unhealed and unresolved, then
to help you reexamine and re-experience those wounding moments so as to acknowledge
and release the pain. Sigmund Freud is credited with developing psychoanalysis
in the 19th century, and modern counselors of all varieties today still
operate under the basic assumption that those who are cut off from their pasts
cannot heal.
Should Freud be credited with the insight that one has to
revisit one’s trauma in order to heal? I seriously doubt it. There is a story in
the Bible that suggests that this notion was alive and well in the 1st
century. And it is John 21:1-17 that tells us that Jesus had this kind of
healing in mind for his disciple, Peter. The “therapy” took place on a beach
before a charcoal fire.
The First Charcoal Fire
Peter and an unnamed disciple (usually presumed to have been
John) followed Jesus and the temple police who arrested him at Gethsemane. Jesus was taken by night for questioning to
Annas’ house; Annas was the high priest Caiaphas’ father-in-law. Because John
was known to Caiaphas, he was allowed into the courtyard of the house for the proceedings,
leaving Peter outside the gate. But because John was already “in,” he was able
to influence the woman guarding the courtyard gate to admit Peter. It was a
cold night. Peter joined some of the priests’ slaves and policemen warming
themselves around a charcoal fire.
John 18:18 Now the
slaves and the police had made a charcoal fire because it was cold, and they
were standing around it and warming themselves. Peter also was standing with
them and warming himself.
Imagine, he's warming his hands with slaves and policemen. This is the context—Peter at a charcoal fire—for an
event that Jesus predicted in all four gospels.
John 13:37-38 Peter said to him, "Lord, . . . I will
lay down my life for you." 38
Jesus answered, "Will you lay down your life for me? Very truly, I tell
you, before the cock crows, you will have denied me three times.” (See also
Matt 26:34, Mk 14:30, and Lk 22:34.)
By the glow of charcoal embers, Peter, according to all four
gospel accounts, denied three times that he knew Jesus.
John 18:26-27 One of the slaves of the high priest, a
relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, "Did I not see you
in the garden with him?" 27
[A third time] Peter denied it, and at that moment the cock crowed.
Luke 22:61-62 The Lord turned and looked at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him, "Before the cock crows today, you will deny me three times." 62 And he went out and wept bitterly.
Peter left that place weeping
bitterly (Matt 26:75; Lk 22:62). This event had immediate and lingering effects
on Peter, as the Bible tells it.
Peter Resigns
Mark records that, in the tomb of Jesus, Peter was mentioned
by name by “a young man dressed in white,” whom we presume was an angel. The
young man was seated in the tomb when the women entered it. He told them not to
be alarmed, that Jesus had risen, and then he gave them an assignment:
Mark 16:7 “. . . go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you
to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he
told you.” (emphasis mine)
Apparently Peter had “quit.” The young man told the women to
give a message to the disciples, and to also give the message to Peter. If
Peter still considered himself to be a disciple of Jesus, there would have been
no need to mention him separately.
There is no way to read Peter’s mind concerning this.
However, because he is not named as a disciple by the young man, the strong
implication is that, in Peter’s mind, no one who denies a man three times can
consider himself to be a disciple of that man; to deny Jesus is to deny discipleship.
So Peter left the charcoal fire a broken man, weeping
bitterly, and all alone. Having denied his Lord, thereby canceling his
discipleship, Peter was no longer an associate of John or Andrew or Matthew or
the others. He was isolated with only his failure and grief for company. That
is a lot of pain to be carrying alone.
The news of Jesus’ resurrection, however, caused
Peter—against all odds—to reunite with the disciples. Peter lost a footrace
with John to the empty tomb. The Lord later appeared to them all behind locked
doors, with Peter present. What brought him back? What made it possible for him
to show his face?
There is an appearance of the Lord, often overlooked, that
may have brought Peter out of hiding and back into the circle of old friends. Luke
tells us that Jesus, on the day of his resurrection, appeared alone to Peter, though
Luke does not record the details of the event. Cleopas and another disciple
were going home to Emmaus when they were visited by the risen Lord (Lk
24:13-33). They ran back to Jerusalem
to find the apostles to tell them. The disciples from Emmaus seemed surprised
to find the eleven all gathered together in the same place, and before they
could share their good news, the eleven told them that the Lord had appeared to
Simon Peter.
Luke 24:33-34 That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found
the eleven and their companions gathered together. 34 They were saying, "The
Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!"
Paul confirms this—that the Lord appeared individually to
Peter.
1 Corinthians 15:3-5 For I handed on to you as of first importance
what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with
the scriptures, 4 and that he
was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the
scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
(emphasis mine)
Jesus nicknamed Simon “Cephas” in Aramaic, which means rock.
Cephus in Greek is Petros. Petros in English is Peter. Simon Peter might not have been with
the other ten when Jesus appeared to them. But apparently Jesus wanted him
there. Perhaps that is why Jesus appeared to Peter alone first. Peter was torn
from his isolation and self-loathing by something. And that something would
have had to have been something dramatic. According to Luke 24:33-34 and 1
Corinthians 15:3-5 above, it was: Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to Peter
and talked to him. The result? Peter went to see his friends and gave them the
news.
Peter Goes Back To His Old Job
Although Peter saw the risen Lord alone and then two more
times with the other ten behind locked doors in Jerusalem, Peter nonetheless
decided to return to the Sea of Galilee, return to his home, and return to his
old job.
John 21:3 Simon Peter said to them, "I am going
fishing." They said to him, "We will go with you." They went out
and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
I do not want to read too much into this, but his return to
former things suggests that while Peter had reunited with his friends, he clearly
had not decided to continue in Jesus’ ministry. Quite the opposite! He returned
to his trade, fishing. He still may not have considered himself to be worthy of
discipleship. He went on no missionary journey. On the contrary, he went back
to his former life, almost as if nothing had happened.
Not wanting to project 21st century psychological
awareness onto biblical characters, I am nonetheless aware of the yearning of
wounded, grieving people to return to normalcy, to routine, as a source of
comfort. Perhaps this is in part Peter’s motivation. Or perhaps he just needed
the money.
My heart is cheered—though I say this with hesitation—that
Peter’s colleagues went with him on the boat. They too could have simply needed
the money. Or perhaps they were just bored. But I see more than that. I see
Peter’s friends accompanying their troubled friend out of love and concern.
Thomas, Nathaniel, James, John, and two others heard Peter say, “I’m going
fishing.” Peter did not invite them along. He was going whether they joined him.
But they did not let Peter go alone. This to me hints at both their concern for
Peter’s spiritual well-being and their desire to support him.
Fishermen fished by night on the Sea, and they stripped down
to do it. After a full night’s work—work that I hope was therapeutic for Peter
and his friends—John specifically records that they caught nothing. This, for
me, harkens back to the Lord’s original call on Peter’s life. He is not
supposed to be fishing for fish anymore, but to be fishing for people.
Matthew 4:18-19 As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw
two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net
into the sea -- for they were fishermen.
19 And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish
for people."
That they caught no fish
seems a subtle reminder that Peter’s call to discipleship, his call to fish for
people instead of fish, was still in tact, at least from the Lord’s end. Peter
may no longer have believed himself to be a disciple, to be worthy of
discipleship, but the empty nets may have been a divine message: Going back to fishing for fish is just not
going to work, Peter.
John’s Gospel alone (Chapter 21) tells this story of an
additional resurrection appearance to seven fishermen on the shore of the
Sea of Galilee. The sun rose, and the men in the boat saw
“a man” on the beach. He asked the question that torments all fishermen:
Did you catch anything? No, they said.
Put your nets out on the right side of the boat and you will, said
the man.
John 21 reminds us of a previous event recorded in Luke 5,
when Jesus was finished teaching a crowd on the shore while sitting in Peter’s
boat. On that occasion Jesus told Peter to launch out into deep water and put
down his nets. It was the middle of the day, the wrong time to fish. And deep
water is not the best place on the Sea of Galilee
for a catch. So Peter complained about these absurd fishing instructions given
to him, a master fisherman, by a land-loving construction worker from land-locked
Nazareth. But
Peter did it anyway, and they caught so many fish that the nets began to break
and the boat began to sink. Peter’s response is most interesting.
Luke 5:8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at
Jesus' knees, saying, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!"
Even then, Peter saw himself as unworthy. Given his three
denials, how much more unworthy Peter must have felt, regardless of Jesus’
resurrection appearances.
Back to John 21, Peter and the boys did as “the man” on the
beach instructed, and they took in a haul of 153 fish (verse 11), yet this time
the net surprisingly did not break. The specific number of fish and the
specification that the net did not break are interesting details that beg for
interpretation, so I will give it a shot.
The interpretations of the 153 fish are numerous and
inconclusive. It is interesting, however, that 153 is the sum of the numbers 1
through 17, and 153 dots can be arranged into an equilateral triangle with 17
dots on each side.
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Is this a veiled reference to the Trinity, or perhaps a
symbolic reference to Jesus’ parabolic “fish of every kind,” (Matt 13:47—see below) comparing the
kingdom to a complete haul of humanity? If the latter, then we are back to
Peter’s call to discipleship being one as a “fisher of men.” Perhaps the
promise of the 153 fish is that the kingdom catch will be full, and the kingdom
nets will not break.
Matthew 13:47 “Again,
the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught
fish of every kind . . .”
“The beloved disciple,” whom we presume to be John, had to
tell Peter the obvious. “The man” on the beach was the risen Lord. Was Peter just
dim, or does grief dull one’s perceptions? In either case, Peter could not wait
for the boat to bring him ashore. Showing that he still had passion for Jesus,
he threw on his clothes, dove in, and swam for it.
The Second Charcoal Fire
What did Peter see as he emerged from the cold water? There
on the beach was Jesus and a charcoal
fire. Was he yet again too dim or grief-stricken to see it? Not likely,
because he no doubt also smelled the unforgettable odor of burning charcoal.
Smells trigger memories like nothing else. How is it that we have missed this,
though many of us have read it repeatedly over the years?
There are only two charcoal fires (anthrakia) in the Gospel of John. Moreover, there are only two charcoal fires
in the entire Bible, and Peter is at both of them. Jesus had not gathered
driftwood when he got to the beach that morning. He brought charcoal. What was he up to?
Jesus invited them all to breakfast. It is hard to deny the
Eucharistic overtones, and this harkens back to “the last supper” when Jesus
predicted that Peter would deny him three times before the cock crowed. This
seems beyond coincidence.
Around the first charcoal fire at Annas’ home, Peter denied
Jesus three times. Around the second
charcoal fire on the beach, Jesus asked Peter if he loved him three times, and told Peter to feed his
flock three times. Certainly the second
charcoal fire was no accident. And the fact that Jesus likewise asked Peter exactly
three times if he loved him, and commissioned him exactly three times to return
to a missionary ministry were not accidents either. This event has been called “threefold
grace for a threefold denial.”
The first two times Jesus asked Peter if he loved him, the
word for love in the original Greek is
agape—meaning
the kind of unconditional love with which God loves. In Peter’s two replies to
this question, however, he affirmed that he loved Jesus, but the word for love
that Peter used in the original Greek is
phileo—meaning
the kind of loving affection one has for a friend, as in a “brotherly love,”
thus the city of
Philadelphia
means “city of brotherly love.” Yet when Jesus asked Peter the third time—
Do you love me?—Jesus gently
accommodated Peter. Instead of using the word
agape that time, Jesus changed to
phileo, communicating that while he wants Peter’s
agape, Peter’s
phileo will do. And just as Jesus abandoned
agape for
phileo, note
that Jesus also abandoned his fishing metaphor for a new one—shepherding—sensing
perhaps that a new image for Peter’s ministry was needed, one that would carry
him far beyond the Sea of Galilee.
John specifically says that Peter was grieved when Jesus asked him a third time whether he loved him (Jn 21:17), even though Jesus
accommodated him by changing the word from agape
to phileo. One might assume that
Peter was grieved merely because of the repetitions of the question, as if
Jesus did not believe him. But I am convinced there is oh-so-much more to that
word grieved. The Greek word is lupeo. It means hurt, pained, injured, distressed,
troubled in heart, sorrowful, deeply sorry, and sad. It can even mean “in
tears.” What if Jesus’ third question connected Peter to his third denial, to the
smell of charcoal in cold darkness of Annas’ courtyard, to the sound of a cock
crowing? What if it is indeed tears of grief, the grief of a man returning to
an earlier fire to re-experience the bitterness of those Jerusalem tears? And moreover, what if that
is exactly what Jesus intended on the beach by the Sea? What if he intended
Peter’s return to a charcoal fire to heal him from his crippling lupeo?
Jesus Christ: Psychoanalyst?
Again, I resist projecting 19
th – 21
st
century psychological awareness onto unsuspecting 1
st century
biblical characters. Yet doing so is unnecessary to make this observation: Modern
psychoanalysis and other therapies help people heal from past wounds by
returning them to those wounds to face them; Jesus did the same for Peter by
literally returning him to a charcoal fire. Call it psychoanalysis or not,
Jesus helped Peter to heal.
This story has been called by many “The Rehabilitation of
Peter.” I like that. For this story is not just a story of Jesus redirecting
Peter back to discipleship and ministry. It is also a story of the Lord’s tender
healing of a wounded friend.
[All biblical quotes are from the NRSV.]
