MEET JESUS' CREW : PETER WAS A MILITANT

A rugged one... how else would you explain the sword at the Garden of Gethsemane? What kind of dude goes to pray with a sword? I am certain he had a personal motto like “Always expect trouble”... my opinion OH!

Check this thot -

His brother Andrew pulls the net out of the sea and their net is entangled with the net of the next fishing boat... the crew on the next boat accuses Andrew of trying to appropriate their catch and Peter, who was absorbed with keeping the sail afloat, quickly glides down, pulls his sword and...“Does anyone want to repeat that statement again?” everyone is quiet... till a brave fool allows his lips leak “Your brother is trying to steal our...” and that statement is replaced by “Aaaaaaaaah” as Peter’s sword licks the dude’s lips...

Snickers...I just made that up... but Pete was impulsive to the V, a grouchy angler driven more by his emotions than logical mind – did he have one? He never paused to think about the consequences of his actions or words before launching them... little wonder he slashed Malchus’ ear at the garden without even thinking about the fact that the soldiers that had accompanied the Pharisees outnumbered them. Same impulsiveness that had him as the winner of the race from the Garden...

Pete indeed was a militant... the precision with which he cut of Malchus’ ear attests to that... Swish...! And there you have it... ear flipping on the garden floor... gash bleeding like a fledgling fountain... A neat cut that could have only been attained by years of practice and engagements in street brawls, dock fights, bar melees & sea scuffles. Peter carried a sword everywhere he went! It wouldn’t be out of line to say that Pete always wore this Don’t-mess-with-me look... Don’t you agree?

Pete had no time for explanations... act now & think later... no time for petty issues; you wouldn’t be wrong to assume he was the one that tried chasing the children away at the coast of Judea by Jordan... Pete was a brash fisherman that had “stark illiterate” inscribed on his forehead... His Greek was like the watered down version of the Nigerian English “Pidgin”... Annas, Caiaphas & Alexander (the Chief priest & crew) perceived his illiteracy just by listening to him... If he had to study for Apostleship, Pete would have never made it through theology school... cos I seriously doubt if he could read!

Pete was also embarrassingly poignant... Luke says He wailed like a baby after the cock crowed in Annas’ house... Wailed like a baby! Dude was like forty... Imagine a forty-year-old Niger Delta militant with an AK45 in hand wailing... Grouse, huh?

Hmmm... Combine the qualities... impulsiveness; militancy; illiteracy; unstable emotions; brashness... & what do you have “A walking chaos”... How on earth is this dude supposed to preach the gospel of LOVE!
You are kidding me right?
I’m sure love must have felt like a feather-in-the-wind for him... Ask any choleric (Pete was the chief of them)... “Waste of time” they’d say! Until they meet Christ though!

Pete was a walking Chaos, yet Christ picked him! The Holy Spirit must have told Jesus... “This one will take time; but every potter knows, the toughest clays usually make the most beautiful potteries”... So when his brother brought him along, Jesus immediately called him “the rock” in line with the rocky nature of the clay that had just been dumped in his hands...

Jesus saw the passion & the strength that could lead the entire church... Rebranded him “Pete” from “Simon”... Jesus sees that in you too; he doesn’t care about your temper; your illiteracy doesn’t count neither does your impulsiveness; forget your emotions – they can be fixed; Jesus is saying once again “Follow me”...would you?

If you have heeded this call already, are you letting this same call flow from your lips to other militants? Tell them if Christ could wait patiently for Pete to overcome his militancy & break him to the point that this dude’s meekness won him an “up-side-down-crucifixion”, then he can also reboot their militancy, temper tantrums and weaknesses...

Jesus never asked for golden, silver or diamond vessels... He only needed yielded vessels... yielded vessels usually bear ills but always turn out to be the best vessels for transmission...

Yield today & show the world how they can yield too...