What is the meaning of Christ’s Passion? What does it mean when God sacrifices his Son to show that He loves the world? And what are we trying to say when we observe the curious events that took place on the eastern edge of the Roman Empire 2,000 years ago?
In the London Times Gerard Baker reminds us of the human at the center of the Passion: St. Peter.
It is Peter who most truly compels our attention as the flawed human in the narrative: not the good or evil figure sleepwalking his way towards fate, but the man with choices who can’t get them right; who oscillates between the inner angel and the demands of the flesh.
First he tells Jesus that he’s going to be right there with Him, rashly attacking one of the soldiers sent to arrest Him. Then a day later, he is busily denying all knowledge of Him. It is right after Peter’s denial in Bach’s Matthew Passion that the alto sings the haunting (Win) (Real), Erbarme dich, Mein Gott: Have mercy, O God.
Yet it is the flawed St. Peter who becomes the official founder of the Church, the guy who talks the talk but can’t quite walk the walk the walk.
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