69 Now Peter was sitting out in the courtyard, and a servant girl came to him. “You also were with Jesus of Galilee,” she said.
70 But he denied it before them all. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.
71 Then he went out to the gateway, where another servant girl saw him and said to the people there, “This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth.”
72 He denied it again, with an oath: “I don’t know the man!”
73 After a little while, those standing there went up to Peter and said, “Surely you are one of them; your accent gives you away.”
74 Then he began to call down curses, and he swore to them, “I don’t know the man!”
Immediately a rooster crowed. 75 Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: “Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.
Well, we knew this was coming…
I’ve always been curious about things like this. Could Peter have chosen not to deny Jesus…after Christ said he would? It’s a theological sticking point. And we always say “no”.
If that’s the case, this is not Peter’s fault…and it’s not Judas’ fault. More importantly, it’s not our fault.
This is how the world prefers to look at sin and guilt. If “the devil made me do it” or God determined it I have to be exonerated or there is not justice. Perfect. The world loves to debate the story of Judas and Peter.
But, what about “free will”?
Or, we could look at it another way.
What if Christ’s insight was merely predictive and not determinative? In other words, he knows stuff but doesn’t determine it. In microcosms of time we understand this “cause and effect” phenomenon. As we watch a baseball hurdle towards home plate we can predict it will be a strike. We might be wrong if we predict too early. If we predict at the last second our chances of being right increase.
So maybe this ability of Jesus to predict stuff is all a matter of timing.
Or…it could be a function of knowledge. My dog Bailey likes to visit the neighbor. It’s so predictive that I know…as soon as I let her out…she will saunter down the hill. And, I know that both now and forever. Timing has nothing to do with it.
Two things:
God is omnipresent. This means timing is meaningless. For God, everything is in the present tense. He doesn’t “predict the future” because there is no such thing for him. God just narrates the eternal “present”. Error is eliminated
God (Jesus) also created us. It’s difficult to imagine greater intimacy than creator with creation. When this is the case all uncertainty disappears and is replaced by perfect understanding. The probability of God being unable to recognize our predilections is about zero.
Rather than seeing this as a threat, I suggest we see view this as a great blessing. This means the more we commune with God the better we understand the unfolding of our lives. Most likely, the more we commune with God, the more we will be pleased with his predictions for our future.
Live boldly out there…
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