Cozying Up With the Enemy

Since the Easter season has arrived, my church and others have been studying the events leading up to the Crucifixion of Christ. On a recent trip to Wichita, I attended a United Methodist Church service with my sister-in-law, niece, and grand-niece. The title of the pastor's sermon was "Condemned by the Righteous," and the biblical text was from Mark 14. The pastor spoke primarily about the high priest's condemnation of Jesus the week of His death. As for me, I focused in on a couple of verses I had not paid previous attention to. Verse 53 indicates, "Peter followed him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest. There he sat with the guards and warmed himself at the fire." Obviously, Peter had come into the courtyard to be a silent observer of the events taking place: Jesus' questioning and subsequent beating after He admitted He was indeed the Son of God. In the meantime, Peter is still "warming himself" when the servant girl of the high priest calls attention to Peter, asks if he is with Jesus, and is told, "I don't know or understand what you're talking about" (v. 68).

Symbolically, I think this scene represents so many of us as Christians. We profess to be followers of Christ, yet we cozy up with the enemy way too often. We essentially want to have life both ways: we see our devotion to Christ as being too limiting upon us, perhaps even opening us to ridicule should others know how serious we are about our beliefs. We, therefore, deny Him just as seriously as Peter denied Christ. We profess instead not to know or understand, as Peter did, when others think we are too rigid or dogmatic in the practice of our faith.

Where is the middle line, or should there be one? Is the solution found in Revelation 3, "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!" Like Peter, we are often called upon to speak up, take up His cross, and follow Him--not deny Him.