This morning, I ate my breakfast on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. I’ve been in Israel and Jordan for 2 weeks and the most impressive site I’ve visited thus far is a rocky stretch of beach a few hundred yards from the ruins of the ancient city of Capernaum. To understand why the stretch of beach was more impressive than every cathedral, ruin, monument, and mountain, it’s important to have a little context. The apostle Peter was the apostle who stood out. The man was at the center of every big event in the ministry of Jesus and was the most vocally supportive. Jesus predicted Peter would deny him when the time came to stand tall, but Peter insisted that it’d never happen. When Jesus was arrested in Gethsemene, Peter drew a sword and attacked the soldiers who had arrested his Lord. He followed Jesus to his trial, but when he got there his courage and resolve faulted and disintegrated. He was repeatedly asked, by folks in the courtyard of the house where the trial took place, if he knew Jesus. Peter, fearing for his own life, denied knowing Jesus. The third time he was asked, it was by a servant girl. The Bible indicates that he responded with strong language, which for a sailor means he probably cussed her out while he denied Jesus. At that point, a rooster crowed for the morning and Peter realized that he had done exactly what Jesus said he’d do. He fled into the night, weeping bitterly from shame. Jesus was crucified, then rose again from the dead. The Bible doesn’t record another conversation between the two until Peter is fishing with the other disciples, right off the shore of that rocky beach I spoke of in the beginning of this article. Jesus showed up, and Peter was so overwhelmed at the chance of seeing him again that he dived in and swam to shore. There, he and Jesus had a heart to heart in which Jesus forgave and reinstated Peter to his role as leader of the disciples. I found that standing in the spot where Jesus forgave Peter to be moving and it has sparked a great deal of thought for me. I have known all sorts of folks who have screwed up in their lives and then spend the rest of their lives condemning themselves and living in shame for their past. I suspect Peter would have done the same thing, but Jesus had other plans for the man’s life. Jesus forgave and restored him. This is the most powerful idea in the gospels: that God loves us so much that he can come to us and forgive us of our past. We don’t have to carry the burden of our sins forever. When we are reminded of them, we can go back and remember the grace God gave us all through his Son. Regardless of our failures, God forgives. In fact, the Bible says that: as far as the east is from the west is as far as God has removed our sins from us. When we revisit them and torture ourselves, we leave that great gift behind. The actions of Jesus on that beach thousands of years ago are a powerful medicine for a weary and wounded heart. To me, that makes it more impressive and moving than any towering edifice or monument I’ve encountered in the Middle East
