Peter: What Can We Learn From Peter's Life?નમૂનો

“A Healing and a Resurrection.”

In this passage, Jesus performed both a very public and a very private miracle, and Peter’s name is mentioned in conjunction with both. The first miracle was the healing of the woman who had been bleeding for 12 years. According to Jewish law, as found in the Old Testament, this type of bleeding made her unclean (Leviticus 15:19-27). People would have avoided her for fear of becoming unclean themselves. She likely lived not only with her illness, but with despair, loneliness, and rejection. The act of touching Jesus for healing would have been severely frowned upon, because she would pass her uncleanliness to Him. But she was desperate, and able to hide her illness long enough to inch through the crowd to touch Jesus’s robe. When Jesus asked who had touched him, Peter was the one to point out that a large crowd of people was pressing against Him – why was Jesus searching for one in particular? In front of the whole crowd, Jesus drew the woman out, publicly restored her dignity, and praised her faith.

A few minutes later, Jesus performed an even greater miracle. This time, He only invited Peter, James, and John to witness it. These three together would experience a closeness with Jesus that the other disciples did not. Imagine the look on their faces when they saw Jesus raise Jairus’s daughter back to life! They had become accustomed to Jesus’s healings, but this was their first resurrection. And then Jesus did the unthinkable and asked them to keep it quiet! He was not yet ready for the world to know the full extent of His power, but it was important to Him that Peter, James, and John know.

Peter was chosen for a front-row seat to Jesus’ care for the social outcast and the grieving parent. He saw Jesus act with intentionality and purpose, even though Peter may not have fully understood those purposes at the time. Along the way, he was learning more and more about who Jesus was and how Jesus meant for him to live and minister to others.

Reflection:

Imagine yourself as Peter in these stories. What would it have been like to witness these miracles?

How do these miracles encourage your own faith?