St Peter - a new life begun

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Bishop David Walker

Good Morning

This week my inspirations for prayer will come from the biblical characters who were profoundly changed by the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Peter had seen his friend’s tomb broken open, the stone rolled away, the body gone. One further indignity, did it even matter? But now it was evening. The few of them who hadn’t scattered, had huddled together in that same room where they had eaten the Passover meal with Jesus. Safety in numbers. The doors locked tight lest they should be the next for arrest and execution.

Then suddenly here was Jesus among them. He showed them the evidence of his crucifixion; holes pierced in his flesh, marks made by nails and a spear. The impossible had happened. Slowly, Peter began to think over words Jesus had uttered over many weeks and months. Slowly the impossible became the inevitable. This was how it had to be. If only they could have understood back then, perhaps all this grief could have been spared.

And yet perhaps they had had to empty themselves of every human ambition and expectation, to be ready to receive not the old Jesus, back again, but this Risen Jesus. For Peter and his companions too, there needed to be a crucifixion of the old, a sloughing off their former selves to embrace the new. This was something like a rebirth. Finally, Peter felt ready to take on the mantle Jesus was offering him.

Lord Jesus, help me today, to place my confidence solely and completely in you, that by your grace, and in the strength of knowing you risen from the dead I, like Peter may accomplish all that you have set before me. Amen.