“… And Peter”

In the grey light of early dawn three women on an errand of love approached timidly a rock-hewn vault. They had come, as early as the Sabbath laws and the darkness of night allowed, to complete a task performed in haste before the Sabbath day began. When the One they loved and followed had been lowered from the Cross and carried to His quiet resting-place, they had enfolded in the winding-sheets some small supply of aromatic spice. The near approach of the compulsory day of rest had cut short the work of embalming, so the body of the Lord had been laid aside and left until the law permitted this service to the dead to be resumed (Luke 23. 56).

With astonishment they found the sealing stone had been removed; by whom, or how, they did not know. Peering into the dark recess, they expected to see the swathed recumbent form of their beloved Lord, upon which, with busy hands, they hoped at length to complete the needed work. Going in, they did not find the body of the Lord, although the grave-clothes lay in their place. To their surprise a living angel from on high replaced the holy dead, whose radiant form struck wonderment and awe into their hearts.

Sensing their fear, the angel spoke, and told them that their Master was alive again, just as He had told them in earlier days. "Go tell these things to his disciples, and Peter, and tell them He will see them in Galilee." ".... and Peter!", "To his disciples, and Peter" as though, because of his grievous sin, Peter would think he had now no right to consider himself the Lord's disciple.

These were the angel's words, but they revealed the Master's love. The One who told the angel to say that He proposed to meet them in Galilee was the One from whom those two comforting words came. Jesus did not forget Peter's broken anguished heart which wept so sorely at his fall. Jesus had known his man prior to those searching days. "When you come back to yourself, support your brothers and sisters" said Jesus to his then braggart friend (Luke 22. 32). Jesus knew his man, even though he failed and fell. He knew how to soothe and heal his broken heart.

But the Lord did more than that. Somewhere before that first day of the resurrection was done, the Lord found Peter alone, and disclosed himself to Peter's tear-stained eyes. "He was seen by Cephas" (1 Cot. 15. 5). "The Lord is risen indeed and has appeared to Simon", replied "the eleven" (Luke 24. 34) to the ones returned from Emmaus.

What passed between the Lord and the stricken penitent is veiled in sacred obscurity, but who can doubt that no words of chiding or reproof passed from the Master's lips, but words of soothing tenderness that fell like healing balm on Peter's wounded heart.

"and Peter!" Let us write it now "and John! . and Mary! . and Frank! . and Harriet! . and ." everyone who in times of strain has failed and fallen to the dust. It does not need to have been Peter's grievous sin, but each one's own particular slip—that rapier word! that chilling glance! that wounding act! that seeming wrong! The sad consequence of a moment's lack of thought.

When your chastened heart, in retrospect, looks back upon a hasty fall, remember that a watchful eye has seen it all, and in assuring answer to your tears will say again, "... and Peter..." "... and John..." "... and Harriet..." "and …. and ...." And so He keeps those who belong to Him, by his own word, in His own way.