Doubting Peter

Poor Thomas. He must have been a perfectly average disciple. He was hardly ever mentioned and never singled out for special notice. He faltered one time, and his name became such a byword for doubt that people who have no idea of the story still use his name, attached to the word, “doubting.”
But he was a far second to Doubting Peter. Peter and Thomas were side-by-side in following Jesus, seeing His claims and his miracles, hearing His teachings and not believing a word of it. In the contest of doubt, Peter “took the cake.”

He had to have everything explained at least twice. In the middle of a storm at sea, he asked Jesus to tell him to get out of the boat, and then he got out. And promptly sank, due to a sudden onset of doubt.  He argued with Jesus all the way through the last few days of Jesus’s life. He didn’t believe Jesus would die, though Jesus told him plainly what would happen. When those events began to unfold, Peter was still not convinced. He didn’t want Jesus to wash his feet. When the soldiers came, as Jesus had said they would, he got out his sword and fought back. Immediately after declaring his unending loyalty, even to death, he cowered at accusations and denied the one he had proclaimed to be The Christ. When the women friends told him of the resurrection --which Jesus had predicted-- he didn’t believe them. Not until Jesus stood before him and scared him out of his wits with the greeting, “Fear not,” did he believe.

The Apostle Peter and Charlie Brown are, perhaps, the two most famous people with whom we most often identify. (Never mind that Charlie Brown is not a real person. To us, he is.) Every time the two of them open their mouths, try to accomplish something, or fall in a heap, we cringe, because we feel. But Peter’s story doesn’t end with his World Championship Doubter trophy.  He met the risen Christ, he understood, and he became one of the boldest men the world has seen. He stood up in Jerusalem, in full view of those religious and government leaders whom he had so feared, and gave one of the most powerful sermons ever heard. Immediately, 3000 people came to the Lord. Peter became a ferocious champion of God, was persecuted for his faith and his words, and eventually was crucified.

If God gave up on people because they doubt, Abraham’s story would have ended with Abraham. God would have known David’s Psalms would be filled with doubt, and would hardly have called David “a man after God’s own heart.” He would not have shown His kind mercy to Thomas, who was adamant in his unbelief. He would have pitched Peter right out of the boat long before he asked to walk on water. And I? Or you? God, have mercy. God has mercy. Let’s take our doubts straight to Him. He alone has the answers.

--Lynda Shenefield