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I said that if someone would have told me back in the third grade that I would have done the things that I have done and gone to the places that I have gone I wonder what I would have said? I don’t know but it is a great question. I wonder what the Mary Okeyo scholarship fund travelers would have said even a few years ago if someone would have told them they would go to Kenya and do what they did?
This Sunday is the Gospel lesson from Mark 6 where Jesus walks on the water. What is interesting to me is that Matthew tells us that Peter walked on the water too and then almost drowned when he took his eyes off of Jesus. Mark who we believe is Peter’s secretary or amanuensis doesn’t tell that part of the story. Now Mark tells a lot of embarrassing details about himself and Peter. Why not this incident?
One blogger Mark Bradford explains it like this –
Mark and John leave out this part of the story. Many Biblical scholars believe that the Gospel of Mark is actually the Gospel according to Peter. Mark was Peter’s frequent companion, and it’s believed that the stories of Jesus that Mark relates are stories he heard Peter tell. If that’s true, it’s interesting to me that Peter left out the part where he walked on the water and sank. Maybe he didn’t want to glorify himself by saying he also walked on water, or maybe he was embarrassed about sinking, or both. It’s possible Peter didn’t like to tell that part of the story. John wrote his gospel after all the others, and may have felt that this part had been covered, so he didn’t need to repeat it. Since Luke didn’t tell this story at all, it seems to me that Matthew probably felt that this part of the story needed to be told, whether Peter wanted to tell it or not.
Maybe Peter just didn’t want it told but Mark tells of Peter’s denial of Jesus. Embarrassment shouldn’t be an issue. Another embarrassing situation happens later after Jesus ascends and the church is starting to grow. In Acts 12 Peter is miraculously freed from prison and he wanders the streets until he gets to a house church and knocks at the door. They have been praying for his release and when a girl named Rhoda sees who is knocking at the door she is so excited she runs and tells everyone else that Peter is outside and they argue about it while he continues to pound on the door. Funny stuff. Pretty informative about the human nature – people earnestly pray for something to happen and when it does they don’t believe it. Peter released from chains and walks through 4 squads of guards and through an iron gate of the prison, but he can’t get into the house where people are praying for him to be released. There is a sermon there somewhere.
Benjamin West – Peter released from prison
