Peter said to him in reply,
—Though all may have their faith in you shaken,
mine will never be.—
We make empty promises and we have empty arms. As humans our longing far outweighs the world’s ability to fulfill those longings.
Look at Peter. All his marvelous statements, all his strength and bravery, all the grand pronouncements. Certainly they came from a deep down longing. He wanted to love, but couldn’t quite get it right.
The result: Telling Jesus what he could and could not do:
From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.
And Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid, Lord! This shall never happen to you.”
But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me; for you are not on the side of God, but of men.”
Telling Jesus he would be loyal – and the result:
Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know the man.” And immediately the cock crowed.
And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, “Before the cock crows, you will deny me three times.”
Afterward Peter wept bitterly – and don’t we all weep bitterly after our unkept promises, after our empty arms.
We stand alone with our great sayings and gestures. We long, yearn, and are even willing to suffer and die for love, but still find it slightly out-of-reach.
Simone Weil said: —To say to Christ: ‘I will never deny you’ was to deny him already, for it was to suppose the source of faithfulness to be in himself and not in grace…. Peter did not deny Christ when he broke his promise, but when he made it.—
The problem with empty arms and empty promises is that they exist apart from the love of God. As Christians we are called to love the way God loves, to promise the way God promises, to put our faith in His grace and His path. We have to let God take hold of us and put our complete trust, our complete faith in Him. We have to trust in God’s ways regardless of what the world, what our friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers think.
The women who stood off at a distance, Joseph from Arimathea, they worked in accord with God’s will. They were loyal, they stayed close to Jesus to the last, without regard for their personal desires. They desired what the Father desired: serve My Son, follow My Son, bury My Son.
Brothers and sisters,
God made a promise – and He came among us to fulfill it:
Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.
He showed us His empty arms – and in their emptiness, fastened to the cross, He showed us love beyond measure, the love of God for His people.
Our arms and our promises will be full, and love with envelop us completely. Invite Jesus to take hold of you. Come Lord Jesus, take my arms, my promises, my will, and make them in accord with Yours.
Amen.