Holy Week, Palm Sunday, April 2 – Bystanders on the Way to the Cross

All this time, Peter was sitting out in the courtyard. One servant girl came up to him and said, “You were with Jesus the Galilean.” (Matthew 26:69, The Message Bible)

                When I am among strangers, I, sometimes, find it awkward when someone asks what I do/did for a living. It’s not that I am ashamed of being a Baptist minister but this “confession” can often lead to some awkward conversations. 

I can almost see the person mentally reflecting on the last few minutes of our conversation and wondering whether they have said anything inappropriate or offensive. Or it puts them on the defensive, admitting that they are not very religious, but are spiritual. Or they feel they have to explain why they don’t go to church. Or they might ask me some arcane “religious” question. Or worse, their eyes glaze over, and they quickly end the conversation and go find someone else to talk to.

I know we Christians are to be visibly active when living our faith but sometimes, especially when the Church, pastors or Christians are acting badly, it would be simpler to remain anonymous.

Nothing to see here. Please move along.

The slave girl to the High Priest (which raises some moral issues all on its own) recognized Peter in the crowd and calls him out as a follower of Jesus. She is a nobody, a slave, someone Jesus himself might have recognized, conversed with, included in his ministry of compassion. But Peter was having nothing to do with her.

He went to the courtyard where Jesus’ trial was taking place, perhaps intending some act of heroism or valour. After all, he once swore that “Even if everyone else deserts you, I will never desert you” or “Even if I have to die with you, I will never deny you!”  (Matthew 26:33,35, NLT) Yet Matthew says Peter snuck into the courtyard and tried to melt into the crowd, and “waited to see how it would all end.” (Matthew 26:58, NLT) And denied Jesus, he certainly did.

The mere attention of a slave girl sets him quivering in his sandals. It gets worse as other bystanders pick up the girl’s accusation. “A little later some of the other bystanders came over to Peter and said, ‘You must be one of them; we can tell by your Galilean accent.’” (26: 73) Everyone, all the bystanders, are now looking at Peter, to see what he would do. He could have stood by Jesus but instead he lets out an angry, profane tirade of denial, distancing himself as far as he could from Jesus.

Strangers, neighbours, friends, even family, outsiders look at us and they associate us with Jesus. Our “accents” – love, compassion, grace, forgiveness, etc. – should give us away.  Others have high expectations of us, sometimes unrealistically even. Nevertheless, Jesus once said the world will know that we are his followers by our love.

It should not be a secret that we are followers of Jesus. We should not hide in the shadows. We should not deflect our discipleship with the profanity of the world. It doesn’t mean we are to be pompous, sanctimonious zealots. But we are to confess Jesus Christ, especially by our actions and behaviour. Bystanders are watching us, wondering, asking, pointing fingers and making claims or accusations about our Christian activities and our association with Jesus.

What are you and I going to do when the eyes of others are upon us?

            “If you love me, show it by doing what I’ve told you.” (John 14: 15, The Message)

             And they will know we are Christians by our love.

 Dale