REFOCUS
Begin with two minutes of silence. Breathe deeply while you focus on Jesus. Speak to Him on your breath saying, “You are worthy” on the exhale and “Hal-Le-lu-Jah” on the inhale.
READ
John 18: 2–4, 10–11
Now Judas, who betrayed him, knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with his disciples. So, Judas came to the garden, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and the Pharisees. They were carrying torches, lanterns and weapons.
Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, “Who is it you want?”…
Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.) Jesus commanded Peter, “Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?”
REFLECT
Ears for Jesus
It’s not hard to understand Peter’s anger at the injustice of Jesus’ arrest. In his outrage, he lashes out in physical violence. Imagine the scene, the blood, the chaos. And he did it for Jesus. At the same time, however, he also failed to listen to and understand the heart of Jesus.
And so, Peter finds himself rebuked by the very one he sought to protect and serve.
Peter thought he was proving his love and defending Jesus with an act of bravery. And while that was his intention, he violated the very nature of the love that Jesus lived and would soon die to express.
While Peter believed he was loving Jesus, true love is spelled L-I-S-T-E-N. When we don’t pay attention to the words and hearts of others, to what they say they need and desire — when we jump to conclusions about what love requires — relational breakdowns and chaos inevitably follow. This is true both in serving God and in serving others.
There is a reason why we may be tempted to jump to such conclusions. Author Henri Nouwen articulated the struggle many of us have when it comes to loving others. He described two voices within.
One voice constantly pushed him to succeed and achieve. It called him to prove his worth through production. Loving others meant doing something for them.
It was this voice Nouwen says he spent most of his life heeding. Following this voice led him to teach at such prestigious universities as Notre Dame, Harvard, and Yale. It pressed him to write more than a book a year.
He produced in an effort to serve. But the constant demands that heeding this voice placed on his speaking schedule and ministry threatened to suffocate his spiritual life. He was praying poorly and living isolated from people.
The other voice within was God’s voice. This voice reassured him he was unconditionally loved. He had nothing to prove. This voice told him the goal of ministry was to recognize the Lord’s voice, His face, and His touch in every person he met.
Only in the last 10 years of his life, Nouwen said, did he truly listen to that second voice. The transition occurred when he resigned his professorship at Harvard to accept a position as pastor of a L’Arche, a community of intellectually disabled people near Toronto.
There he shared life with folks that would never see his production. He wiped noses and held hands. Nouwen writes that it was also from these men and women that he learned about true love and community.
With the multiple demands and constant pressure of our lives, it can be difficult to pay attention to God’s voice. When we don’t, we easily go the way of Peter and pull out our swords when people appear to threaten what we love or the way we think things should be.
Jesus, on the other hand, offers us another model — a love demonstrated through submission to the Father and humility in our relationships.
RESPOND
Questions to Consider
- In what situation, and with whom, are you tempted to “cut off someone’s ear” that is, to defend yourself or something you love, by acting in ways that are not truly loving? What motivates your reaction?
Prayer
Father, I relate to Peter more than I care to admit. I ask for Your forgiveness for my impatience and self-will that wants always to be in charge of myself and others. I so often fail to recognize Your voice in the people I encounter. Deliver me from the external and internal forces that keep me from listening to Your voice of love and from loving the people around me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Blessings,
Rev. James R. Needham, PhD, MDiv