Alleluia, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, alleluia!

When you have sinned against someone you can pretend it never happened, but, until you've been reconciled with that person, until the wrong has been addressed, a tension, or, an uneasiness remains in the relationship.  We all know it, and have probably felt that way more than once in your lifetime.  Your friendship, or, your love, if it is that deep of a relationship, is strained as you try to ignore the obvious.  No doubt, many a marriage has suffered, to the point of destruction, from neither spouse being able to address the issues that are glaringly obvious to anyone looking on from the outside.

Simon Peter had sinned against Jesus.  For a Christian, he had done the unimaginable.  Jesus said, “If you confess Me before men I will confess you before My Father in heaven.  If you deny Me before men I will deny you before My Father in heaven.”  Peter did the latter.  He did more than tuck tale and run. Three times he denied his Lord, “I do not know Him.”

We’d all like to think that we would never do such a thing, but when we’re honest with ourselves, we aren’t as certain as we put on. The temptations is right there. It’s easy to think that we’d stand firm in the midst of persecution, that with a gun to our head we would never deny Christ.  Most of us who have been confirmed remember even making promises to that effect, that we would suffer all, even death, rather than deny Jesus. But what about those more day to day temptations?  Those times when we choose to stay at home when family is around, or don’t pray over meals like usual so you don’t offend them by being “too” Christian.  Or those times when school work takes precedence over confirmation because church can be brushed off easily.  Or backing down from standing up for Christ because the job or school or culture says faith isn’t welcome in public.

It was probably fear that made Peter do it.  That same fear is what drives our sin.  Fear of not being liked or accepted by the world and having a hard time in life because of it. Who wouldn’t be afraid after seeing the mob crying out to crucify Jesus?  Peter didn't think it would be a good thing to say that he knew Him, much less that he followed Him and had confessed at one time that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God.  Or, maybe doubts arose in his mind as to whether or not Jesus was really the Christ.  Dying on the cross isn’t what winners do.  It’s a loser’s death.  Peter probably wasn't ready to die for someone who may not be the Christ.

All of his reasons aside, whatever they might have been, Peter was carrying a terrible load of guilt around his neck.  He had promised Jesus earlier, "even if all of the other disciples should leave you, I will never leave you."  And yet, when push came to shove, he did exactly that.  Was he even any better than Judas, the one who betrayed Jesus into the hands of sinful men?  Both betrayed Jesus deeply.  Yet there is a major difference between these two.  Judas, after committing his sin, fell into despair and the belief that Jesus was not enough to cleanse him from his sin.  Peter, after committing his sin, believed that Christ’s death upon the cross forgave his sin and cleansed him from all unrighteousness. It is a characteristic of true faith that it clings to the promises of the Gospel with a sound mind and a contrite heart, and in Christ seeks the forgiveness of sins.

Jesus said, "Peter do you love Me?" It's one of those questions that God asks, but He already knows the answer. “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”  Peter must have wondered about his commitment to Jesus.  "Peter, do you love Me," Jesus gave Peter an opportunity to reflect on the question and then to confess his love for Him.  And a third time, “Peter, do you love Me?” Yes, Jesus knows, but more importantly Peter is to know that Jesus loves him.

Jesus met Peter's sin head on because it was weighing him down.  The setting is a bit different, but the circumstances are the same.  We have all sinned against God in thought, word and deed, by what we have done and by we have left undone.  We have not loved God with our whole heart and we have not loved our neighbor as ourselves.  So does God just abandon us to the guilt and shame?  Does He leave us to wallow in our misery until we “really, really” feel bad about our sin? 

No, the Son of God restores us to Himself by His blood.  Not just once.  Not just twice or three times. But whenever a sinner turns to Christ in faith, by the power of His resurrection, he is brought back into a right relationship with God, and with one another. Left to our own feelings, to our devices, to our denial of Christ, we would be no different than Judas.  But for your sake, for your salvation, Christ comes and meets you here in His Word and Sacraments to lead you to repent of your doubts and fears and sins and to faith in the One who died for those sins.

For Peter, his love for Jesus, and his appreciation for God's forgiveness would be expressed in his caring for Jesus' flock.  The question for you this morning is how is your love for Jesus and your appreciation for His having lifted that awful burden from your shoulders expressed?  More than that, how does God want you to express your love and appreciation for Him?  Well, since Peter was to tend Jesus' sheep and feed His lambs, and since it is the charge of God’s under-shepherds, His pastors, to do the same, it stands to reason that there are sheep and lambs who are expected to eat what the Good Shepherd provides!  Amazingly, your love for Jesus is most properly expressed, not in what you do or in what you give, but in what you receive from the hand of the Lord. 

And that’s our true purpose for being here today: to receive what God wants to give you, namely His forgiveness and grace.  Though you have sinned against Christ and would just as soon hide it from everyone else, from yourself, and even from God.  The setting is different from Peter's encounter with Jesus but the outcome is the same, a relationship restored by the grace and mercy of God!  In Jesus' name.  Amen.