When Pain Gets Louder Than Truth
“Simon Peter said to him, ‘Lord, where are you going?’”
John 13:36
Jesus had just given one of the most important commands the disciples would ever receive. Love one another as I have loved you. You would expect a response, some kind of agreement, some kind of moment. But instead, Peter completely skips over it. He doesn’t acknowledge it, doesn’t ask about it, doesn’t respond to it at all. He gets stuck on one thing. Jesus is leaving.
“Where are you going?”
Peter is so caught up in the pain of what he just heard that he cannot hear anything else. The command is there, the truth is there, the instruction is there, but his emotions are louder. This is Jesus, his friend, his teacher, the one who chose him when no one else would. The one he built his life on. And now He is saying that He is leaving and Peter cannot come.
Everything Peter thought his future would be is suddenly unraveling.
And in moments like that, clarity is hard to find. When something shifts, when something breaks, when something you were building your life around feels like it is slipping through your hands, it is easy to become consumed by the loss. You can sit in a moment where God is speaking, where truth is being given, where direction is being laid out, and still miss it because your heart is overwhelmed.
Peter is not being rebellious here. He is being human.
And that should shape the way we read him, but it should also shape the way we read ourselves. Because there are moments where we are doing the exact same thing. God is speaking, but we are stuck. Truth is in front of us, but we are fixated on what feels like it is being taken from us. We keep asking the same question, going back to the same place, circling the same confusion.
“Where are you going?”
And yet, even in that moment, Jesus does not abandon Peter. He continues to speak. He continues to lead. He continues to anchor him in what is true, even when Peter cannot fully hear it.
That is the mercy of God.
John 13:36
Jesus had just given one of the most important commands the disciples would ever receive. Love one another as I have loved you. You would expect a response, some kind of agreement, some kind of moment. But instead, Peter completely skips over it. He doesn’t acknowledge it, doesn’t ask about it, doesn’t respond to it at all. He gets stuck on one thing. Jesus is leaving.
“Where are you going?”
Peter is so caught up in the pain of what he just heard that he cannot hear anything else. The command is there, the truth is there, the instruction is there, but his emotions are louder. This is Jesus, his friend, his teacher, the one who chose him when no one else would. The one he built his life on. And now He is saying that He is leaving and Peter cannot come.
Everything Peter thought his future would be is suddenly unraveling.
And in moments like that, clarity is hard to find. When something shifts, when something breaks, when something you were building your life around feels like it is slipping through your hands, it is easy to become consumed by the loss. You can sit in a moment where God is speaking, where truth is being given, where direction is being laid out, and still miss it because your heart is overwhelmed.
Peter is not being rebellious here. He is being human.
And that should shape the way we read him, but it should also shape the way we read ourselves. Because there are moments where we are doing the exact same thing. God is speaking, but we are stuck. Truth is in front of us, but we are fixated on what feels like it is being taken from us. We keep asking the same question, going back to the same place, circling the same confusion.
“Where are you going?”
And yet, even in that moment, Jesus does not abandon Peter. He continues to speak. He continues to lead. He continues to anchor him in what is true, even when Peter cannot fully hear it.
That is the mercy of God.
Posted in The Word Made Flesh
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