Our first Guest Card Talk on “John is faster than Peter. John is faster than Peter. Just to reiterate, John is faster than Peter.” (John 20:1-8) by *Brent Neely

Growing up I loved the Bible. It was God’s way of speaking directly to me and telling me all about who this great, big God of the universe was. However, growing up I also hated the Bible. I could never be like the characters in it. I would never be able to live up to the standard they had set. They followed God, they loved God, they did right by God. Abram left his family and country to follow after God. Moses led God’s people in the desert for 40 years and wrote down God’s law so all God’s people could know it. David was a man after God’s own heart. The disciples gave up their livelihoods and everything they had to follow Jesus. Paul started out kind of sucky, but then he was blinded by Jesus and became the greatest missionary ever.

As a child I would hear these stories about these great men of God and I knew I just didn’t stand a chance. I especially knew this to be true once I hit my late middle school / early high school years. I sucked at loving God and doing God’s will, so why even bother?

I still tried to follow Jesus and do my best, but my best never felt good enough. This feeling continued on throughout high school into college. As a Christian Ministry major in college it was important that I read the Bible and look closely at it. It was my major to be “that Christian kid,” you know, the one always reading his Bible. Well, it’s a good thing I was because otherwise I would have never read John 20:1-8 as closely as I did:

Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, while it was still dark, and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb. So she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.” So Peter and the other disciple went forth, and they were going to the tomb. The two were running together; and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first; and stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings lying there; but he did not go in. And so Simon Peter also came, following him, and entered the tomb; and he saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the face-cloth which had been on His head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself. So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb then also entered, and he saw and believed.

I read this and realized something: John, or whoever wrote John’s Gospel, was kind of a dick to Peter. The other disciple beat Peter to the tomb. The other disciple, not Peter, was first to the tomb. Did I mention that Peter got there after the other disciple? I just want to make sure we all got the picture, other disciple, not Peter, got to the tomb first. Cool, glad we’re clear on that.

“What a dick. Like damn dude, chill.” Those were my internal thoughts after I read this passage in college one day. Later that same day I thought back to another time when the writer of John’s Gospel was a d-bag to Peter.

Who cut off the guard’s ear at Gethsemane? Did you say Peter? Yeah, well how do you know that? Let’s look at the Synoptic Gospels.

And behold, one of those who were with Jesus reached and drew out his sword, and struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his ear. (Matthew 26:51)

But one of those who stood by drew his sword, and struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his ear. (Mark 14:47)

And one of them struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his right ear. (Luke 22:50)

Notice anything about those? None of them say it was Peter, it was just “one of those/them.” But let’s get back to see what John’s Gospel has to say.

Simon Peter then, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest's slave, and cut off his right ear; and the slave's name was Malchus. (John 18:10)

See that? This time Peter got called out. It was Peter. Peter did it. Peter did a bad, bad thing. Ha, Peter. Let’s not forget about the calling of Peter by Jesus. Wait, how’d that happen, again? Matthew and Luke say that Jesus went to Peter and Andrew and called them to be his disciples. John’s Gospel calls shenanigans! Instead, he says Andrew brought Peter to Jesus. Damn, this gospel has no problem calling Peter out.

And that’s when I realized it – these biblical characters were real people, with real live, and real personalities, and real issues. These people that I read about and had put on a pedestal were no better than me. They sucked just as much as I do. But God still used them and told us their stories. That gave me hope.

Sampson wasn’t a hero; he was a douche. David did some great things; he also did some real jacked up stuff to Uriah. Abram didn’t fully trust God all the time; he lied about Sarai being his sister instead of his wife, twice. Moses killed some fool, then led the Israelites for 40 years in the desert. The only reason they were in the desert for 40 friggin years was because they were a bunch of forgetful, unfaithful dum-dums (I’m pretty sure that’s the proper Hebrew translation for how to describe them ☺). The disciples all had their supers-sucky moments. Denying Jesus. Doubting Jesus. Arguing about who’d be the best in the Kingdom and completely missing the bigger picture that they were called to servitude and a life of humility.

The Bible became real to me the day I realized that these characters were real people who sucked just as much as I do. God used them, and is using me, nonetheless. This gives me hope that I can too can make a difference in this world for Christ. It gives me faith that my faith and my struggles are valid and can still be used for the Kingdom of God. That day is the day that I fell in love with Scripture. It’s the day I realized the story of God’s people was my story and my story was their story. It’s all inter-weaved. They have all struggled and so have I.

Also, I hope to see Peter and the Other Disciple have a race in Heaven, you know, just to see if the Other Disciple really was faster than Peter.

http://www.jesus-story.net/images/dan-burr-mindre.jpg

*[At the time of original posting] Brent Neely is a seminarian living in Kansas City, MO who will graduate with his M.Div and Spiritual Formation certificate in Spring '17. He holds a B.A in Christian Ministry along with a Minor in Biblical Languages from a small Christian college right outside of Boston. He works as a Family and Youth Specialist for the University of Kansas Hospital while also serving as the Children's Pastor at his local congregation. You can read more of his work at https://brent-neely.squarespace.com/ and follow him on Twitter @Tatted_Pastor