“Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not.” (Joh 21:18 AV)
Jesus is speaking to Peter regarding the manner of death he would experience. Like Jesus, Peter would be crucified. Tradition tells us that Peter requested to be crucified upside down lest he treat the crucifixion of Christ with less reverence than it deserved. It is always assumed those who suffer a martyr’s death do so with enthusiasm and joy. We hear of stories where the martyrs sing or pray loudly as a testimony to God’s grace. We think that martyrs are looking to suffer the honor of being put to death for their faith. However, our LORD’s words suggest Peter was not looking forward to his death. He would rather not go to the cross. Jesus showed the same attitude in the garden. If there was another way to redeem mankind than to suffer as He did, He asked the Father to consider it. Jesus was fully committed to the will of the Father, but His human side was not looking forward to it. As I consider this truth, the application is not a comfortable one. There are things we go through that we would rather not. We do so because God requires it of us. We submit to it even though we wish we did not have to. This also means the future holds similar experiences. There will come times when we would rather not go through the circumstances of life. But as Jesus and Peter did, go through them we must.
Our lives are filled with these moments. From childhood to eternal graduation, we are faced with circumstances of life that are not fun by any stretch of the imagination. I have a dental appointment next week. I hate going to the dentist. It goes way back to when I was a child. My parents were too poor to be able to afford Novocain. All our childhood dental work was done without it. To this day I get really nervous around a dental drill. There was the time the doctor had to rebreak my arm, a hospital stay for tonsil surgery, and another for a severe concussion. In ministry, there were several events I would never want to re-live. In life, I have seen several deaths, have been a victim of armed robbery, and as a child, constantly bullied at school. Life is full of these things which we would rather not go through.
When I think of this, I think of Job. Here was a man who expected the perfect life. His logic was somewhat sound. He feared God and eschewed evil. He was, by all measurements, as righteous and humble a man as there ever was. He believed because of his character, God would never bring harm to him or his family. This all changed in one day. From having everything, he was diminished to nothing. All he had was four friends and a wife who condemned him for things he did not or would not do, and wished him to curse God and die. I am sure when Job got up that morning he did not wish for the events he would face that day.
Even in the service of the LORD, there are things we would rather not do. There are people we would rather not deal with. There are duties we wish we did not have to tend to. But this is life. The suggestion above is that the things we would rather not do are asked of us so that God might be glorified. These are not normal events of life like illness or financial challenges. These things are directly involved in glorifying God in our lives. Even though we are surrendered, it doesn’t mean we will like every moment of that surrender. The goal is to surrender regardless of how we feel about it. Go through the cross anyway. You may not like it, but it has to be done.
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