This week & next we’re focusing on PETER, for the last two weeks we shift to PAUL. Today we hear about Peter raising a person back to life, this person is Tabitha aka Dorcas.
Where has this happened before? There are echoes here of Jesus raising Lazarus back to life, very similar words are used in both cases. Jesus says ‘Lazarus, come out!’ (John 11:43), and Peter says ‘Tabitha, get up.’ Simple, effective language, easy for us to understand what’s going on, not an option!
In our gospel reading today Jesus’ language is a bit harder to follow maybe, but there’s a simple & effective image here in what Jesus says about his sheep: they listen to him, he knows them, and they follow him (John 10:27)
So to Peter, we heard last week how he is beautifully restored by the resurrected Jesus as he says three times that he loves his Lord. What else do we know about Peter?
He goes on to become the ‘rock on which Jesus will build his church,’ as Jesus said back in Matthew 16:18. Not a small thing, not a cruisy gig, not an easy road. Foundational to the church of God itself, pretty amazing. If we’re going to know what it is to be church and do church together, we’d be doing well to think of Peter, the rock who was put in place by Jesus himself.
Some good timing for doing this series right now, a new pope has just been elected! Pope Leo XIV, and of course the Catholic church talks about Peter as being the very first pope – he’s known as the first Bishop of Rome, and the longest-serving Pope as well. So the Catholic church has taken this very seriously, Peter being the rock on which the church is built means he was the first pope, this important figurehead role that continues to have global significance today.
It’s interesting to think about these leaders we have in important positions > we’ve just had our federal election, there’s a new pope, there’s a still-relatively-new king in England, the US presidency – for me growing up there were probably 3 really important leadership positions I thought about – or at least knew about – as a young kid: the prime minister, the Pope, and of course the captain of the Australian cricket team!
When I was growing up there were actually some long-serving people in those roles, this was the 90s and 2000s so we had Prime Minister John Howard, Pope John Paul II, and the Aussie cricket captain was Steve Waugh – so I was used to stability in leadership, where people were in those sort of roles for a long period of time – a lot more chopping and changing has come into it these last 10-15 years! Something you learn more about as you grow up too.
I wonder what your reflections are on the leaders you’ve seen, different people across different eras, different styles of leadership and different issues they faced.
Getting back to this leader Peter, as post-resurrection Peter he’s had HUGE influence over a couple thousand years! Pretty significant, pretty long-term.
So interesting to consider Peter in terms of pre and post-resurrection, before and after Jesus rose from the dead >
The rock-like church leader, compared with a man who would deny even knowing Jesus.
The man who seems to act without thinking at times, jumping off a boat into the water, cutting off a man’s ear, not wanting his feet washed and then swinging around to ‘wash my whole body’ he says to Jesus, as we heard back on Maundy Thursday.
All that compared with a man who not only tells people about Jesus but actually raises someone back to life, by the power of God’s word this man is doing miracles! Talk about change, going from enthusiastic follower to powerful leader.
That’s what we hear about today, Tabitha aka Dorcas has died, but Peter goes to her and says, simply, ‘Get up.’
It’s time to get up, you are being called. This is the call Peter has on his own life > we talked about this last week, Jesus first words to Peter when they first meet – pre-resurrection – and Jesus’ words to Peter after he’s restored – post-resurrection, what are they?
‘Follow me.’
Here Jesus cuts through our perception of pre and post-resurrection, this terminology is more for what happens for us than what happens for Jesus > we might go from one thing to another, we might have dynamic changes in our lives, but Jesus has always been God. Our God is the same, yesterday, today and forever, and he calls us in the same way he called Peter, he says to all of us: ‘follow me.’
And we are also called in the same way Peter calls Tabitha today > let’s zoom out for a moment to see how Jesus works to understand this part:
How does Jesus deal with all the problems in this world, all the suffering we go through, all the challenges and difficulties we come across? He gives us new life. Because we have new life, we are no longer defined by the world’s problems, our suffering, or the challenges and difficulties we face. We are defined by what he has done for us, he has given us new life which means we are with him, he is with us > just like sheep with their good shepherd.
Listen to him, know him, follow him. This is life with Jesus, who gives us ultimate safety & security in that ‘no one can snatch us out of God’s hand’ (John 10:29).
When God calls us we are compelled to follow him, there’s no option! This is not something we can say ‘no thanks’ to. As Jesus calls Lazarus to come out, as Peter calls Tabitha to get up, they’re not responding with ‘no thanks.’ They come out, they get up; the power of God’s word has made it so!
So then how does this apply to us, us who are physically alive?
How are we like Tabitha as we hear this call to ‘get up,’ like Lazarus who hears ‘come out,’ like Peter who hears Jesus say to him ‘follow me?’
We might not be physically dead, but without Jesus’ intervention in our lives we are spiritually dead & gone. We have no hope.
The truth of the gospel is: we may as well be dead if we don’t know Jesus. One of these ‘harsh but true’ moments we come across in the bible! A simple and effective truth right there for us today.
Without restoration, without being given new life won for us by Jesus’ death and resurrection, we have no hope.
But we know that’s not our story is it, we know we DO have hope! Because Jesus died and rose again for us we have hope. Because he forgives our sins and washes us clean in the waters of baptism and by the gift of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, we have hope. Because he gives us his own body and blood in the bread and wine, we have hope. A few things to be hopeful about there!
And not only do we have hope, we have God-given purpose in our lives on earth: he calls out to us to get up, to come out, to follow him.
Now for you and me, we don’t start out as esteemed, respected, long-term followers of Jesus do we. It would be a mistake to compare ourselves to the post-resurrection Peter and think we aren’t good enough because we aren’t as good as him!
We need to keep in mind the pre-resurrection Peter, who shows his human side at almost every opportunity through Jesus’ ministry, and whose service and ministry as the ‘rock on which the church is built’ is not about his strength or ability or how wonderful he is, but it’s about his weakness, his human heart, this example we have of a regular, flawed, emotional, short-sighted human being JUST LIKE ALL OF US.
Peter’s life is drastically changed by Jesus, and it’s the same for us > Jesus does the changing work in our hearts and minds, he gets us in our soul, he gives us new life with good purposes to serve and comforting arms to be held in as well in times of need.
As continue in this series we see Peter carrying on the ministry of Jesus, not by any power of his own but the power of the risen Jesus in him, flowing through him by the work of the Holy Spirit.
We might be tempted to get caught up in the miracle part today, where someone is raised back to life > we might ask why, why did Tabitha get to come back to life, why her and not others? But there we can remember the miracle of the resurrection, that it’s not only Jesus coming back to life himself, but he does that so WE ALL CAN TOO.
This miracle has happened for us! It happens in us, as we are welcomed into God’s family, taken from being one thing to another, given this amazing hope that we can cling to and live in as God’s people. What a joy, what a great thing we continue to learn and grow and share in together.
Lord we thank you for the journey of Peter, we thank you for his example of humanity and of his devotion to the cause of spreading the gospel. We ask you would continue to teach us in this series what it is to have faith, to be dependent on you, and how we are called to serve others through these incredible acts of Peter and Paul we have to follow. All this we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Tom Kitson 