Post-Easter Reflection (from Mark's Gospel)

People can let us down. This can hurt us a lot. They said they would help us, but then when it came to the crunch, they didn’t. We can get really stuck here, and such feelings can really dominate our thoughts. Jesus also experienced this many times. Jesus was praying passionately in the ‘Garden of Gethsemane’ just prior to his crucifixion, feeling the heavy weight of what was going to happen to him, and he just wanted his friends, three of his disciples, to stay awake and support him at this difficult time … but they just didn’t fulfil these expectations.

We could perhaps excuse these friends of Jesus, because they didn’t really know what to do, how to help, what they could possibly do to support Jesus in his distress. On the other hand, they could have found some way of staying awake, just to be there for Jesus.

Things got more scary for these disciples when people came with swords and other weapons to arrest Jesus. This was not the outcome the disciples expected when they signed on to follow Jesus. And so they fled far and wide.

A lit later we have the scene of Peter being questioned. Peter, who was no doubt trying to keep a low profile, just warming himself by a fire, was recognised by a servant girl, as one who had been keeping company with Jesus. First this girl, and then others, confronted Peter about being a follower of Jesus, and three times Peter denied this to be the case. The pressure had built up so much on Peter that he had begun to curse and swear; and then the result of his actions caused him to break down and weep.

We might understand this pressure Peter was under, he may have been arrested as well; yet he had disowned the person he had spent close to every day with for the previous three years. Peter had refuted even knowing his best friend. Would this be the end of a wonderful friendship? Would Jesus forever hold this against Peter? Under normal circumstances, where one person, was sentenced to death, like Jesus was, there would be no opportunity to re-establish such a friendship – it would all be over! However, this case was different, because Jesus would rise from the dead, and as we see, seek to draw his friends back to him.

The young man dressed in white speaking to the women at the tomb (representing the voice of God), said that these women should let the disciples know to meet Jesus in Galilee. As we know these disciples had fled a few days previous, leaving Jesus to his fate on his own. Yet Jesus was not going to hold this against them; Jesus would not give up on these friends; after all, Jesus was going to build the whole new Christian movement on the lives of these people! Peter was singled out for a special mention, and we know why. He would have felt the most guilty, the most ashamed, and the most unworthy of forgiveness.

Yet Jesus would certainly forgive Peter, and recommission Peter for the most significant roles in the future Kingdom of God. Initially the women themselves, from the tomb scene, were amazed, and were also afraid, and initially fled too. Yet we know that Jesus did meet up with his disciples again, and that he gave them his trust, and that the Holy Spirit came upon them, and the Church was born.

These texts are tinged with failure! The failure of Peter, James & John to stay awake while Jesus prayed in the Garden; the failure of Peter to own up to being a follower of Jesus; the failure of the women to immediately pass on the message they were given. Such failure derived from fear, and fear is the great enemy of faith!! Yet, failure is not the end! This Gospel message is also tinged with hope – hope that forgiveness will overwhelm any sense or impact of such failure.

Personal failure is not the end, far from it, just part of life and a bump in the road. There is ample opportunity to learn lessons, and be drawn back onto the track of spiritual fulfilment. We may at times, like his disciples, desert Jesus, but Jesus will not desert us! The fear of failure itself can mean that we aren’t prepared to take risks and follow Jesus at challenging times. However faith accepts that the one who fails in their endeavours can still be restored by Jesus. Peter’s tears of failure were transformed into unprecedented ministry. Even a fallible person can come to live the gospel with integrity. Jesus is alive and waiting for we fallible people to join him!

It could be that we have been recently let down by someone, they might have failed us (not living up to our expectations of them); and we might feel really aggrieved by this. It may be that we have to follow Jesus’ example, and reach out to forgive them, and be prepared to trust again. It could be that we have to find it within us to come back to Jesus, so that we might be in his company again; so that Jesus might wrap his arms around us, and tell us that he loves us.

Jesus regathered his disciples at Galilee, forgave them, blessed them, and assured them that his love and presence would go with them as they headed off into their life and mission in the world.