Rancho Bernardo Community Presbyterian Church

John 20:1-8, 1 Cor. 6:19-20

You've seen those cute little smiley faces? I read about an interesting experiment using those smiley faces. The experimenter used pictures consisting of a combination of one hundred faces‹some smiley and some sad. Actually one picture had 99 smiley faces with only one sad face. Another picture had 99 sad faces and only one smiley face. When the picture of 99 smiley faces was held up, people spotted the one sad face within two to three seconds. However, when the same people saw the picture of 99 sad faces and only one smiley face, they consistently took much longer, often more than a minute, to spot the one happy face.

The scientists performing these experiments interpreted the data as showing how we are naturally wired to quickly spot signs of danger. It is part of our natural self-defense to notice a stranger whose demeanor makes us uncomfortable. While I appreciate this interpretation, I am struck by another possible interpretation of this data. We tend to notice the negative more than the positive. Because we focus so easily on the negative, we tend to get down on ourselves. If we received 99 compliments and only one criticism, when we go to bed that night what do we recall? Most of us tend to worry about the one criticism.

We have been using this Lenten season to explore how to renew our minds so that we can learn to focus more on the positive. We have seen that the Bible doesn't address how we feel so much as how we think about ourselves. We are instructed by scripture to think of ourselves with sober judgment‹not more highly than we ought, nor being too hard on ourselves. The goal is to let God's word renew our minds.

As we move this month toward Holy Week and Easter, let's see if we can put all the pieces together in order to see ourselves as God sees us. A quick review of the main ideas we've studied during Lent. We've seen how we tend to carry hurtful messages in our minds. We've explored how a more honest assessment of our limitations and abilities can help us be more reasonable in our expectations of ourselves. It isn't so much that we are failing as that we are often attempting to do well in areas where God has not called or gifted us. I suspect that for many of us the most difficult aspect of developing an honest self awareness is our natural tendency to build self-esteem by comparing ourselves with others. We can relate to Peter during Holy Week.

We note how much Peter tried to build a positive sense of self by comparing himself with John. At the Last Supper when Jesus announced that someone at the table would soon betray him, Peter asked John, who was seated close to Jesus, to request clarification. As Jesus explained that the betrayer would be someone who was eating the same bread with him, Peter responded by boldly announcing that even though others might betray him, surely Peter would remain faithful. Can't we hear what Peter must be saying to himself? I'm better than those others.

After Jesus' arrest, we see Peter and John arriving at the outer courtyard. As they wait together for the verdict, Peter is singled out as a follower of Jesus. When people in the crowd ask Peter whether he follows Jesus, he vehemently denies even knowing Jesus while his friend John stands there quietly, a witness to this betrayal. What was Peter thinking then? Okay, so maybe I'm not as good as I thought I was.

While Jesus was dying on the cross our Lord asked John, who was standing faithfully under the cross, to take care of his mother, Mary. John stayed close all the way through the crucifixion and helped Mary hastily perform minimal preparations of the body. Where was Peter?

Easter morning events recount that Peter and John raced each other to the tomb to check out what the women had told them. John outran Peter and got there first. He had participated in the burial himself. He knew it was the right tomb. John stood outside peering into the tomb. As soon as Peter arrived at the tomb he stepped inside and approached the empty cocoon of linen cloth. Peter was still trying to figure out what it meant when John believed that Jesus was indeed alive from the dead. John is counted as the first disciple to believe. We can certainly understand how Peter must have been down on himself as he compared himself with John. Why do I always come in second? Why is John always better than me?

Even in the last resurrection account, when Jesus appeared to the disciples in Galilee, we see Peter still trying to find his place by comparing himself with John. Pointing at John, Peter asks the Lord, "What about him?" Let's explore how Jesus helps people like Peter discover self worth.

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, 'Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?' He said to him, 'Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.' Jesus said to him, 'Feed my lambs.' A second time he said to him, 'Simon son of John, do you love me?' He said to him, 'Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.' Jesus said to him, 'Tend my sheep.' He said to him the third time, 'Simon son of John, do you love me?' Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, 'Do you love me?' And he said to him, 'Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.' Jesus said to him, 'Feed my sheep. Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.' (He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, 'Follow me.'

- John 21:15-22

A stray cat adopted a couple. The husband, allergic to the cat, decided to drive him to another neighborhood and release the cat to adopt someone else. The man, heading out to do a couple of errands, dropped the cat off about two miles from the house. After completing his errands, the man pulled up to his driveway to find the cat waiting at the door. Frustrated at being outwitted by this cat, he dropped off the groceries and explained to his wife that he was going to take the cat at least four miles away and try again. He picked up the cat and headed to a neighborhood about four miles away. He dropped the cat off and drove home. Again the cat was waiting for him by the time he pulled up to his garage. He was mystified. How did the cat do that? He explained to his wife that he was bound and determined to get rid of the cat. He loaded the animal into the car and drove five miles away. He dropped the cat off and then drove a circuitous route home. He turned left and then right. He went around blocks and doubled checked his rear view mirror to make sure the cat wasn't anywhere in sight. He drove to the edge of town and then wandered through unfamiliar neighborhoods. After driving for nearly an hour he dialed his wife on the cell phone. "Is the cat there?" he asked. "Yes," she responded. "Well put him on the phone, I'm lost."

Most of us have been in a situation where the cat won and we lost. Such win-lose thinking is a natural part of competition. We are a society with a competition-based economy. We use sports to teach our children the values of healthy competition. As the college basketball season concludes "March Madness" with the championship game this week, we realize that of the 65 teams who entered the NCAA tournament, 64 of them finish their season with a defeat. Only one will become the team that wins its final game to become the national champion.

While we are used to competition in sports and business, it doesn't work when we seek to know the truth about ourselves from God's perspective. The problem is that we all fail to fulfill our best intentions. Like Peter, we want to be faithful, but we often discover we have abandoned our Lord. So how does Jesus rebuild Peter's self-esteem?

Peter has given up. Feeling like a failure as a follower of Jesus, he returns to his old stomping grounds, Galilee, and goes fishing. Imagine his frustration that he can't even fish any more. He went from being a good fisherman to a lead disciple to a failure in everything. He must have felt pretty down. Then he saw Jesus standing on the shore. He recognized the risen Lord and jumped from the boat to swim ahead of the rest of the group. Once Peter got to shore Jesus asked him the question, "Do you love me more than these?"

What did Jesus mean by "more than these"? One possibility is to take it as a reference to the fishing, nets, and his livelihood. Was Jesus asking Peter, "Do you love me more than you love the boats and fishing?" Perhaps that is the intention. But I prefer another option for what Jesus meant. I think Jesus is taking Peter back to the night at the Last Supper when Peter announced he was better than all the others. Jesus invites Peter to reconsider whether the best approach is to build his self-esteem on having to be better than the others. "Peter, do you love me more than these other men love me?" Was Peter trying one last time to save face? "Lord, you know that I love you." But he still wants to compare himself with John. "What about him?"

When did Peter finally quit trying to prove himself better than John? We aren't sure. But we know that a few weeks later the two of them are in the temple proclaiming Jesus to others and working side by side as brothers in Christ. The book of Acts has several stories that involve Peter and John in ministry together. They became teammates.

Peter finally reached the understanding that his value was not based on his performance or abilities, but on God's grace. The Apostle Paul put it well when he reminded the Corinthians that we have been ransomed. Do you want to test how valuable you are? Consider what ransom price someone would pay for you.

In 1932 the Lindberg baby was kidnapped and the family paid $50,000. Is your family prominent enough that someone would have paid your ransom when you were still a small baby? How about the banker who was held captive in 1934 with a ransom price of $200,000? Is your job important enough in our world that your company would pay that for you?

Remember Patty Hearst in 1974? The ransom demanded for her was $300,000,000! Does your family have the means of the Hearst family? Are you worth that kind of ransom? Maybe the key is that we are Americans. In 1979 Iran demanded $8,000,000,000 ransom for the Americans held captive. Is your relative value based on your nationality?

Such an approach determines one's value based on genetics, nationality, job performance. Is that how God sees us?

The Bible tells us that God determined our value by paying a ransom price valued beyond millions or even billions of dollars. Jesus paid the ransom price by offering up himself. The perfect Son of God gave his life for Peter as well as John. The perfect ransom was paid for you and for me. Martin Luther summarized it best when he wrote, "God does not love us because we are valuable. We are valuable because God loves us."

Can you find it? Keep looking. There are ninety-nine sad faces and only one happy face. Now you see it, don't you? Isn't it wonderful that the smiling face belongs to the Lord?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Are you more a "glass half empty" or a "glass half full" type of person?

When is competition good and when is it counterproductive?

What is most valuable to you? Why?

If Jesus were to say to you, "feed my sheep," what do you think he is asking of you?