Luke 22: Stuck at a Cliffhanger

Have you ever been watching a TV show that left you on a big cliffhanger ending? It’s the big two part season finale of your favourite show and the first part ends with some big dramatic moment. Maybe one character has just revealed a huge secret. Or maybe one character has decided to leave the group and go on their own adventure.

Let’s give an example. There was this show called Cyberchase when I was a kid (Side note for all you 90’s kids who watched PBS: Apparently that show ran for 15 years!) It was a show about a kid who got sucked into a computer and then had to work with some cyberpeople to save Motherboard from the evil Hacker through the power of math! Long story short, there was one episode where Hacker succeeded in taking over Motherboard, and the big cliffhanger ending was Motherboard being transformed into a big, angry looking version of Hacker! Now as a kid, I remember this ending terrifying me, and I couldn’t wait until the next morning to find out how it would all end (Spoiler alert – They saved Motherboard and kicked Hacker out. For that adventure anyways…)

But imagine for a second that you were one of those characters in the show. When that cliffhanger happens, the characters wouldn’t be thinking Ooh, this is really exciting! I wonder what’s going to happen next! No! They’d be heartbroken, angry, or just plain terrified over what they were possibly going to do! 

We love cliffhangers because they help build up our excitement, but you can bet that the characters in TV shows don’t. Well, today we’re going to hear from Peter himself about how he was feeling when he was stuck at a cliffhanger – when everything seemed to be going wrong and he had no idea how it was all going to end:

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Peter paces around a fire in a courtyard just outside the high priest’s house. Jesus was arrested a few hours ago, and Peter is waiting to hear some news about what’s going to happen to Him.

He’s been in there for over an hour already! When are they going to let Jesus go?

I just don’t understand how this happened! Everything was going so well! Jesus wasn’t causing trouble. He was just teaching people! Since when is teaching people a crime? I mean, He turned over a couple tables in the temple a few days ago, but nobody tried arresting Him then! So why now? What’s going on!?!

And where did the rest of the disciples go? Weren’t we just eating dinner together a few hours ago, promising Jesus to follow Him no matter what? And now everybody’s taken off!

I’ll tell you what, though, that was a strange dinner. Judas takes off halfway through the meal, right after Jesus talks about someone betraying Him. That should’ve been my first clue that something fishy was going on. But then Jesus starts going on about eating bread like it was his flesh and drinking wine like it was his blood. And remembering Him (Luke 22:19-23, NIrV).

I think that’s the worst part about it. Why was He talking about remembering? And why did He keep going on about how He was going to be arrested and die? I hate it when He says that kind of stuff! The Messiah isn’t supposed to die, no matter what Jesus says! I just can’t believe that! But now He’s been arrested… What if…

“…Yeah, that man over there. I could’ve sworn I’ve seen him with Jesus before!”

Is that woman talking about me? “Sorry lady, you must have me mistaken with someone else. I don’t know Jesus.”

ONE – Peter suddenly stops pacing and his eyes grow wide.

Why did I just say that?!?! No, no, nonononono… This can’t be happening! Calm down Peter. It’s just once… Jesus said I was going to deny Him three times. That before the rooster crows this morning, I was going to tell three different people that I don’t know who Jesus is. But this is only once.  It doesn’t mean I’m going to deny Him again!

Arrgh! It doesn’t make sense. I’ve never been embarrassed about being connected with Jesus before. Sure, there have been times where He did some strange stuff, but it always turned out amazing in the end. And He always seems to find His way out of any tough situation He gets into.

But this time is different. Jesus has been arrested! And if people find out that I’m connected to Him, they might want to have me arrested too.

Oh, listen to me! I said I was willing to go anywhere with Jesus a few hours ago – to jail with Him, to die with Him (Luke 22:33). But now I’m scared of what people will think of me? If only one of the guards would say something! I just want to know what’s going to happen to Him!

“…Hey! Haven’t I seen you before? Aren’t you one of those disciples that followed Jesus around everywhere?”

Oh no, not again! “Nope, not me!”

TWO – Peter swallows, sits down on a nearby log, and starts cupping his face in his hands. Tears start coming to his eyes.

What am I doing?!?! No… Settle down… I didn’t deny Jesus this time. Not really… I just said that I wasn’t one of His disciples… That’s different, right? Oh, who am I kidding? I should just leave now before I talk to someone else and say something dumb.

But I can’t leave… I need to know what’s going to happen. Besides, nobody else is here. They all took off! Why did they all have to take off!

I mean, really. Anyone could tell Jesus wasn’t Himself tonight. After dinner, we went to the Garden of Gethsemane. We’ve gone there before, but Jesus seemed really quiet tonight. He told us to pray, and then He went off on His own to do the same.

But let’s be real. It was late, we were tired. I’m pretty sure we all fell asleep. But it’s not like I fell asleep on purpose! I tried to pray, but it didn’t take long after closing my eyes and saying that first “Dear God” that I had fallen asleep.

But then Jesus wakes us up and tells us to pray that we won’t fall into sin when we’re tempted (Luke 22:46). And then, all of a sudden, there comes Judas – that traitor – leading this small army of soldiers. He goes up to Jesus, kisses Him, and then the soldiers arrest Jesus!

I couldn’t help myself! I grabbed my sword and attacked the guy closest to me. I’m not the greatest with swords, though, so I only ended cutting off his ear. I thought I was helping, but then Jesus spoke to me in that firm voice of His. “Stop it!” And then Jesus goes and heals the guy who’s trying to arrest Him!

I haven’t heard that tone of voice too often. But it was exactly like when He called me Satan and told me that I was getting in the way (check out last week’s story for more on that). But I don’t get that! I’m trying to help! Can’t He see that?!?! I didn’t want Jesus to get arrested. I don’t want Him to die!

The tears start falling down Peter’s face.

Why do they hate Him?!?! What has He ever done? All Jesus does is teach, and He teaches us a better way. He says He’s the only way to God, and now the people in charge of our religion want Him dead? Jesus healed the ear of a man trying to arrest Him for pity’s sake! How did this all go so wrong?!?!?

And what’s going to happen next? Are they going to kill Jesus? Track us all down one by one and kill everyone that followed Him? This wasn’t what I signed up for? I’m a fisherman, not some world changer! I’ve got a family! I can’t die here!

“…This man must have been with Jesus. He’s from Galilee” (Luke 22:59).

Why does everyone keep saying that?!? “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

THREE – A rooster crows. For the first time that night, Peter finally gets a glimpse of Jesus through the gates. And Jesus is just looking at Peter, sadly.

Oh, God, forgive me! What have I done? I’m sorry Master…  Oh…

Peter breaks down, cries, and runs from the courtyard.

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Now I’ll admit, these might not be the exact thoughts that went through Peter’s head. But I’m sure he was thinking something like this. It couldn’t have been easy for Peter to watch Jesus – the man Peter had given up everything to follow – get arrested like that.

And I’m sure Peter was afraid that if people realized that he’d been following Jesus, then Peter would have to face the same fate Jesus did: get arrested, get beaten, and eventually get killed. No wonder Peter was so terrified!

But here’s the thing guys. Peter hadn’t really been listening to Jesus. Peter was getting so caught up on the fact that Jesus kept saying that He was going to die that he missed all the times Jesus talked about the fact that He was coming back! That even though Jesus was going to die the next day, He would be coming back to life three days later!

Peter didn’t know the end of the story. He was stuck at a cliffhanger, and he was terrified. But thankfully, we do know the end of the story. We know that Jesus had to die and rise again so that we could be forgiven for our sins – to have all those bad things we’ve done wiped away so that our broken relationships with God could be fixed. And because we know how the story ends, we don’t have to be afraid.

That’s right. We can share the truth about Jesus unafraid because we know how the story ends. We know that Jesus came back from the dead and that He’s still alive today! And because of this, we never have to be afraid of whatever tough stuff life might throw our way. Jesus is with us wherever we go and in whatever we do. He’ll stay with us and help us in those tough times, even if other people make fun of us for believing in Him.

That’s the end of the cliffhanger story. Jesus comes back, and He’s still fighting for us today! He might not be standing beside us where we can see Him, but He’s alive and with us every step of the way. So don’t be afraid to share the truth or of being connected to Jesus. He's got your back, and that's never going to change!

~Brentagious

Matthew 16:13-23 - Whatsa Messiah?

So let’s recap. Two weeks ago, we learned about when Jesus first called Peter to be a disciple. This means that it was Peter’s job to fish for people. No, not take a fishhook and try to catch people, but to tell others about Jesus so that they could come to know him too.

After doing this for a while, Peter and the other disciples found themselves out on the Sea of Galilee without Jesus. But that’s okay, because just as it started to storm, Jesus walked out to them in the middle of the sea! That’s when Peter got out of the boat and started to walk on water too. Well, at least for a few seconds. After getting distracted by the waves and taking his focus off of Jesus, Peter fell into the water.

I want us to think for a minute about how Peter must have felt when that happened. How do you think Peter told that story to his friends back home? Did he focus on when he fell into the water or when he was standing on top?

My guess is he focused on when he was walking on water. Anybody can fall into water, but there aren’t too many people who can stay they got to walk on top of waves. And while some of his friends back home might have thought Peter was making the whole thing up, anyone who had heard about Jesus probably believed Peter’s story. And they were probably amazed by Peter’s faith.

But here’s the problem guys. If that’s really what happened – if Peter went home and talked about when he walked on water but downplayed the whole falling into the water part – then he was being proud.

And we’re not talking proud in the good sense of the word. We’re not talking about when you hit the winning home run in your baseball game and your parents say they’re proud of you. We’re not talking about when you can recite your memory verse at Sunday school and your teacher is really impressed. We’re not talking about the pride that comes when we acknowledge someone close to us for doing something really impressive.

No, today we’re talking about a kind of pride that’s not good for you. When our parents, our teachers, or our friends say they’re proud of us, that’s okay, because they’re trying to call us out for doing a good job. But when we start thinking, Yeah, I did do a good job, didn’t I? and then start acting like we’re the best baseball player or Bible verse memorizer there is, that’s when we have a problem.

But given what we know about Peter, that’s probably what he did after walking on water. He would have wanted everybody to know about this amazing thing he did. And we see more of Peter’s pride come out in today’s story.

Fast forward a few months after this whole walking on water incident. The disciples had spent a good amount of time with Jesus by this point. They’d heard His stories and sermons so often that they could probably recite them back from memory. But there were still lots of people who hadn’t heard Jesus’ message at all, so Jesus and the disciples kept travelling and preaching wherever they went.

Anyways, our story begins in an area called Caesarea Philippi. Jesus and the disciples had spent a few days here, and like any other day, they were wandering around the city looking for people to talk to. They were all together at the moment, and Bartholomew was telling them this really funny story about a rooster when Jesus stopped all of a sudden. Bartholomew nearly tripped over Jesus because he had to stop so fast.

“What’s up Jesus?” Bartholomew asked, trying to recover his balance and play it off like he didn’t nearly fall flat on his face.

But Jesus didn’t answer right away. Instead, he simply looked at the crowd around Him. He narrowed His eyes a little bit, but not in an angry way. He just looked puzzled.

“Jesus?” Bartholomew said again.

“Tell me,” Jesus said without looking at the disciples, “Who do people say that I am?”

The disciples gave each other that confused look they would get whenever Jesus asked a random question like this. A bunch of the disciples looked to John, the disciple who could sometimes guess what Jesus was thinking, but John only shrugged.

“You’ve talked with the people here,” Jesus continued. “Here and in all the cities we’ve passed through. So who do they think I am?”

Still confused, the disciples started to give some answers. “Some think you’re John the Baptist,” one of them said, frowning. “Other say you’re Elijah, that prophet from centuries ago who just disappeared one day,” another said. “Yeah, from what I’ve heard, most people think you’re some kind of prophet,” a third disciple said.

“But what about you?” Jesus asked, now looking at the disciples with the same puzzled expression. “Who do you say I am?”

Suddenly, nobody was looking at Jesus. Some of the disciples looked at their feet, some looked over Jesus’ shoulder, some even looked away entirely. It’s not that they didn’t have ideas of who Jesus was, but they were too nervous to say them out loud. What if they were wrong? What if Jesus laughed at them? What if Jesus wasn’t who they thought He was?

But finally, Peter clenched his fists and looked up. He took a deep breath and said, “You are the Messiah. You are the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16, NIrV).

Jesus’ puzzled face immediately became a smile. It was that same smile He had given when Peter stepped out of the boat and started walking on water. Jesus was beaming ear to ear as He said, “Blessed are you, Peter. You didn’t learn this from any human. My Father in heaven, God, showed you this! Soon, very soon, I’m going to set up my kingdom, and you’re going to have the keys to that kingdom Peter” (Matthew 16:17-19, NIrV).

Probably not the reaction you were expecting, was it? But this is a big deal! Basically, what Jesus was saying was, “You didn’t figure this whole Messiah thing out on own Peter. That was God. God has made it clear to you who I am and what my purpose here on earth is. And you are blessed because God has chosen to give this information to you and to let you be one of the big players in bringing it about!”

I’m not really sure how Peter would have reacted in that moment. He might have smiled back. He might have looked down embarrassed. I’m sure the other disciples were surprised. But I think they were also pretty excited when they heard the word “Messiah.”

Why is that? Well, to answer that, we have to understand what the word “Messiah” means. You see, we often talk about Jesus as our Messiah as if it’s some special title for “Saviour.” And that’s kind of right. But back in Bible times, the word Messiah meant something else as well.

You might remember that last month, we learned about Daniel. Well, back in Daniel’s day, the Babylonians had taken over Israel. And since then, the Jews had been under the control of one nation after another. It started with the Babylonians, then the Persians, then the Greeks, and now they were under the control of the Romans.

Now the Jews were hoping that God was going to send someone – some leader or king – to get rid of the Romans and to let the Jews become their own nation again, like they had been back in the time of Moses or David. This leader is what they called the Messiah. They thought the Messiah was going to be this great military leader who was going to free Israel from the Romans!

So when the disciples heard Jesus basically confirm that He was the Messiah, that was huge news! This is what they had been waiting for! Jesus was going to set up a kingdom, and they thought that meant the Romans were going to be history!

There’s one problem though – the Jews got it wrong. And Peter was going to learn that very quickly.

See, even though Peter might have been shy about this attention at first, his pride got the better of him. Suddenly, Peter started acting like this big shot disciple who had figured who Jesus was before the rest. He probably started thinking he was right about a lot of things and that the other disciples should come to him for advice.

But the next day, Jesus said something that didn’t quite add up to Peter. Jesus started telling the disciples that He was going to have to go to Jerusalem, that people were going to hurt and make fun of Him, that He was going to be killed, and that three days later He would rise again.

Now we know that this is exactly what happened. Jesus went to Jerusalem, He was hurt and made fun of, He died on the cross, and He rose again three days later. And we know why Jesus did this too. He died and rose again so that he could wipe away our sins, all those bad things we’ve done, and fix our broken relationships with God.

But the disciples didn’t know this yet. And when Peter heard that Jesus thought He had to go to Jerusalem to die, Peter’s first thought was, That isn’t right! The Messiah isn’t supposed to die. The Messiah is going to kick out the Romans! What are you thinking Jesus?

So Peter thought it was his job to make sure Jesus was on the right track. He took Jesus aside after hearing this and said, “Never, Lord! This will never happen to you!”

Now here’s the thing, guys. Peter honestly thought he was doing the right thing. He really thought that he was trying to help Jesus. But Jesus’ response was the total opposite of what Peter was expecting.

“Get behind me, Satan!” Jesus said. “You are standing in my way. You do not have in mind the things God cares about. Instead, you only have in mind the things humans care about” (Matthew 16:23).

Woah! Jesus has said some confusing things and some stuff we don’t always like to hear, but this is next level. Yesterday Jesus was praising Peter for listening to God and getting things right, but now Jesus was calling Peter “Satan” and saying that Peter was in the way! What happened?

What happened was pride. After Jesus had praised Peter the day before, Peter thought he had all the answers. With God’s help, Peter had figured out that Jesus was the Messiah. But Peter only had half the answer there. Jesus is the Messiah, but Peter had a completely wrong idea about what the Messiah would be like and do. Peter thought the Messiah would be an earthly military hero, but he never imagined that the Messiah really came to save us from a much bigger enemy: sin! But part of saving us from sin meant going to Jerusalem and dying just like Jesus said.

I’m sure this was devastating to Peter. He had been over the moon yesterday, thinking he was this great disciple. But now Peter realized he still had a lot to learn. His pride took a beating, but that was probably a good thing. Even if Peter didn’t understand this whole thing about the Messiah having to die, Peter had learned that even when we get things right one day, we can still mess up the next.

And honestly, Peter still struggled with pride. We’ll see one more story next week where Peter’s pride got in the way and led him to make a terrible mistake. And that’s why it’s so important that we remember our lesson for today: Pride gets in the way of us seeing truth. God wants to teach us about Him and to reveal how much we need Jesus, but we won’t see it until we stop letting our pride control how we think.

In short, I’m not saying that you can’t be happy when you score that winning homerun or do well on your memorization. But don’t let it get to your head like Peter did. There’s lots more games to play and things to learn. And when we keep our pride in check, not only will we learn more about who God is, but it will make our lives that much easier too!

~Brentagious

SSS: Christian Movies, or Why They Don't Make for Good Sermons

 I’m going to be honest – I’ve gone back and forth on whether to write this one or not. Mainly because I go back and forth on exactly how I feel about this topic.

Christian movies. IMDb any of the many Christian movies that have come out in the last few years, and you’ll quickly see that reactions to these movies can be quite varied. And by varied, I mean anything from praising them as “the greatest movie(s) ever” to outright hostility. But unlike the premise that God’s Not Dead implies, one of the films I’ll be mentioning a few times over the next few minutes, it’s not only “evil atheists” that look down on these movies.

Of course, not everyone hates them. I have many friends who look forward to whenever the newest Christian movie comes out. It gives them a boost, and they appreciate having their faith affirmed by a movie studio, albeit usually smaller ones.

But honestly, that’s part of my problem right there. These movies have a tendency of “preaching to the choir,” only being appreciated by a Christian audience. Which wouldn’t be such a bad thing if there wasn’t a massive disconnect between the supposed goals of Christian movie makers and what their media actually accomplishes.

Christian movies tend to revolve around a central moral premise, whether it be the power of prayer, the value of apologetics, or the quality of Christian manhood. But the real goal of these movies appears to be twofold. The filmmakers want the Christians in their audience to learn something about these topics. This is normal. Any Christian kid who grew up watching Veggietales or any of the other 90’s Christian kids TV will know that moral lessons are par for the course in Christian media. But these newer Christian movies also want to use the movie to introduce the Gospel to any non-Christians who are watching. 

Perhaps it would be better to say “who happen to be watching” or “who have been invited by their Christian friends to watch.” I may be wrong, but most of my non-Christian friends would not actively want to watch one of these movies. You’d be hard pressed to see them pull up God’s Not Dead on Netflix, let alone go to a theatre to see the sequel.

But because these movies are “Christian,” every single one of them (that I’ve seen at any rate) insert a Gospel presentation into their film like it’s the altar call at the end of a sermon. That way, if you do invite a non-Christian friend to watch with you, you have a convenient conversation opener. Take Courageous, for example. The film’s a few years old now, I know, but bear with me.

Courageous is the aforementioned movie about Christian manhood. In it, a group of 5 men commit to working on their fatherly abilities after the Mitchel family loses their daughter. There’s also stuff about life in gangs and corruption within the police force.  On the whole, it’s a decently interesting concept, even if it comes across as cheesy and overly Christianized at times.

Anyways, one of the friends – David Thompson – has a crisis of conscience halfway through the film. While all his friends talk about signing this fatherhood resolution, he reveals that he (a single man) is actually a father too. He got his girlfriend pregnant a few years back, didn’t want to deal with the consequences, and then bailed on her. But as he hears all his friends talk about wanting to be better fathers, he starts struggling with his own failure as a father.

This leads to an emotionally charged Gospel presentation in which the group’s black friend, Nathan Hayes, shares how not growing up with a father affected him and how Thompson will still have to stand before God, the ultimate judge, one day to explain his actions. Hayes corrects Thompson’s theology when Thompson says he hopes his good will outweigh his bad, and then after explaining how Jesus was punished in our place on the cross, Thompson becomes a Christian. And to the movie’s credit, it shows that Thompson really does change after this, trying to make amends and seek reconciliation with his ex-girlfriend for the sake of his daughter.

Why do I explain all of this? Because I find the Gospel presentation here is contrived. I’ll admit, rewatching the scene made me realize it flows more naturally out of the events of the plot than I originally thought, but the sequence of dialogue that leads up to the presentation feels like the filmmakers were forcing the conversation to turn to Jesus. Mix that with the emotional orchestral music that begins just as Hayes mentions Jesus’ death on the cross and you have a recipe for a perfect conversion moment.

The conversion moment in God’s Not Dead is even more contrived. Subplots aside, the entire movie builds up to the big dramatic moment where, after being presented with the evidence, atheist Professor Radisson must choose whether to continue in his unbelief or return to his childhood faith.

But all of this is thrown out the window when Radisson is hit by a car. Thankfully, the movie’s preacher character providentially happens to be driving by at the moment, meaning he can guide Radisson to faith in a highly emotionally charged scene (are you noticing a pattern?). But this scene and the consequences that would follow from it are quickly forgotten as the movie turns to the triumphant Newsboys concert that ends the film.

What? For a movie that wanted to emphasize the rational reasoning for God (I’ll leave it up to you to decide whether it succeeded or not), it seems like a cop out to depend on an emotional appeal to bring about the final conversion. It lets all the air out of the film’s premise. And the sad part is that there are so many other ways this could have gone! Radisson could have had a Jacob moment where he intellectually wrestles with God in his office and ultimately decides to come to Christ. Or Radisson could have made it to the concert and had his moment of conversion there.

But no. Radisson becomes a Christian just before dying after being hit by a car. And the worst part about this is that so many of the conversion moments in Pure Flix films, the company that produced God’s Not Dead, give the impression that the only way someone will become a Christian is if they, or someone close to them, are dying or about to die. Yes, I know that this is when people are their most vulnerable and most willing to listen to the prodding of the Holy Spirit, but there are other ways that people come to faith too! Why not show those off?

I guess my question is: Do Christian movies have to include a Gospel presentation? And if so, do they have to make it a purely emotional experience? Because from the Christian movies I’ve seen, it appears that the answer is yes, but I’m not sure that’s always a good thing. While I understand and sympathize with the desire to include a moment in these films that encourage non-Christian watchers to follow Jesus, I’m just not sure that a cheesy movie is the most effective platform from which to do this.

A movie shouldn’t be a sermon. What a sermon is trying to accomplish is vastly different from what a movie is trying to accomplish. And that’s true of both classical understandings of storytelling and modern ones.

Nowadays, you’re average Joe on the street expects primarily one thing from movies, TV, or books – entertainment. It’s the whole idea of art for art’s sake. That doesn’t mean morals are necessarily excluded from the project, but it’s not their top priority.

But art for art’s sake is a relative new concept in the scope of history. For example, Sir Philip Sidney, writing in the 16^th century, adopted the perspective of the ancient Romans and some medieval theologians (including Augustine) to argue that the purpose of literature is to move, teach, and delight. The latter two goals contribute to the former. Literature is not just about delighting readers with good quality writing but it’s also about teaching and upholding a moral lesson. And when good writing and moral teaching are combined, a piece of literature will move readers to live a certain way.

Which is where we come to my next problem with Christian media. If we consider movies to be the modern equivalent of literature, then Christian movies have entirely missed the boat. Granted they might not have the budgets that Disney or 20^th Century Fox have, but their lack of budget does not excuse their poor storytelling abilities and their overdependence on stereotypes.

Let’s look at the two God’s Not Dead films for examples. The writing in these movies is just plain awful at various points, and only about half of the actors have the acting chops to somewhat salvage the lazy writing. But what I’m more concerned with is these films’ characterization choices.

One of the biggest complains I’ve seen leveled against these movies is their negative, stereotypical portrayals of atheists. Radisson (who, to his credit, I think Kevin Sorbo does a decent job of playing) is not just an atheist, but he grew up as a Christian and only became an atheist after his mother died at the age of 12. As a result, Radisson came to hate God.

He’s not the only stereotyped non-Christian though. The first film portrays a Muslim as an abusive father, sticking to his convictions and disowning his daughter after he discovers that she has become a follower of Jesus. The second film portrays atheist parents, lawyers, and school board members as uncaring idiots who are determined to wipe out the disease that is Christianity. The latter film in particular makes a point of reminding us of the growing persecution that Christians are facing in the West and that our true battle is against powers and principalities, not flesh and blood (Ephesians 6:12).

Here’s the thing, and please don’t take this the wrong way… There’s a reason that these movies portray characters and events as they do. There are people out there who match these stereotypes. And yes, I do think that it’s becoming harder to be a Christian in our society today, because we are being asked (some would say forced) to keep quiet about something we believe to be true and vital to living life.

But what these movies so wrongly do is present these characterizations as the norm. They suggest that anyone who isn’t a Christian is a heartless, uncaring individual whose sole purpose in life is to wipe out any trace of Christianity from existence! Granted, these movies are obviously going to exaggerate and villainize atheism in order to develop tension and plot. But if these movies are to be learning tools, then these exaggerations are teaching us wrong attitudes!

I attended a Christian university for my undergraduate degree. I’m now attending a secular university for my Masters degree. And I’m ashamed to say that I held some of these exaggerated stereotypes going into my Masters. I expected all of the professors at my new school to be like the cold hearted Professor Radisson. And while I have met some people who do match the Christian movie stereotype of atheists, they are far from the majority. And it was wrong of me to make that assumption of everyone who doesn’t believe what I do.

There’s a sad irony to God’s Not Dead 2 in particular. In this film, Grace Wesley is put on trial because she compares the words of Jesus to the words and actions of Ghandi in answer to a student’s question. Specifically, she quotes Matthew 5:43-44: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

What bothers me is that we don’t see this played out in the film. Grace herself regularly seeks God’s strength and guidance through prayer, but never once does she pray for the prosecutor against her. Never once does she seek to reconcile with the parents who brought this case to court. Sure, she doesn’t seem to hate any of them, but I don’t see a lot of loving or forgiveness going on either. Instead, the movie ends with Grace being acquitted (shocker) and then everyone chanting that God’s not dead (another shocker) outside the courthouse. In so doing, the Christians are the ones who start to appear stuck up, which I can only hope was the complete opposite of what the filmmakers intended.

I know I’m being critical. There are things that these movies do well. They can have their quality apologetic moments, and there are even a few scenes that really hit home with the watcher.

But these are some of the bigger name Christian movies, and they seem to have missed the point. And I’d argue that this version of Christian media has the potential to do a lot more harm than good. Their moral lessons are lost within a sea of emotional Gospel presentations, exaggerated presentations of non-Christians, and holier-than-thou portrayals of Christians. There’s already enough of these stereotypes both within modern Christianity and modern society; we don’t need movies that claim to uphold truth and Christian values to be perpetuating these stereotypes further…

But I don’t just want to be a critic. Is there an alternative? Is there well-presented Christian media that’s challenging these stereotypes while still including moral teaching? Is there a way to get Gospel-friendly entertainment out there that is enjoyable and desirable for anyone, whether Christian or not, to watch?

Spoiler alert – I think the answer is yes. But you’ll have to wait until my next Second Sunday Switch Up to hear my thoughts on that side of things. Hope to see you then!

~Brentagious

Matthew 14:22-33 - Stranger on the Sea of Galilee

Time for a staring contest. On the count of 3, you’re going to have to try and out stare me. First one to blink loses. Ready? 3, 2, 1, GO!

Did you win? Somehow I doubt it. I’m pretty good at these staring contest things.

It can be hard to keep our eyes focused on one thing, though, can’t it? Has your mom ever asked you to watch her purse while she goes to the bathroom? Or maybe you’ve seen this really amazing caterpillar that you don’t want to lose sight of.

But then you turn away for a second. You think you hear someone calling your name or you look down at the funny picture on your tablet. And all of a sudden, WHAM, that thing you were supposed to keep your eyes on has disappeared!

Now hopefully it’s the caterpillar that’s disappeared and not your mom’s purse, but the point still stands. Trying to keep our eyes on one thing is really hard. We get distracted. Other things to see or do come up. We realize what we’re doing is impossible.

Okay, that last one might not happen too often. But that’s exactly what happened in our story for today! You’ll hopefully remember that last week we heard about when Peter first started to follow Jesus. There was some teaching on a boat and later a huge amount of fish!

Well, there’s a lot of stories about Peter that involve boats, water, and fishing, and this is another one of them. You see, Peter and the rest of the disciples – those are the people that Jesus asked to follow Him – had been doing their usual thing, listening to Jesus preach to a whole bunch of people. Then there was a moment where everybody’s minds were blown when Jesus made food miraculously appear to feed 20 000 people (check out that story here if you want to know more). You know, the usual!

Anyways, the disciples were pretty wiped out at this point, and I’m sure the last thing they wanted to do was to take a boat ride across the sea. But that’s exactly what Jesus asked them to do. Jesus went off on His own to pray for a while, and He sent the disciples to the other side of the lake to meet Him there.

Now this wasn’t totally out of the ordinary for Jesus, and the disciples were probably still so stunned from that miraculous feast that they didn’t think too much of Jesus’ request. Or the dark clouds on the other side of the sea. They just hopped in and did what Jesus asked. He usually seemed to know what was best.

And so, they rowed out to sea. The disciples took shifts, going back and forth between sleeping and rowing. But when they got about halfway out into the Sea of Galilee, they realized that maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea after all. Those storm clouds were moving closer, the wind was picking up, and the waves were starting to get bigger! It was getting harder and harder for them to row.

The disciples who were currently on rowing duty quickly woke up the rest. They partly wanted help, but they also didn’t want the boat flipping over while their friends were still asleep! So here you’ve got twelve men frantically trying to keep the boat level, rowing with all their might, and praying that God would help them reach the other side safely.

Nobody was really thinking about Jesus at that moment. He was safe on shore. But one or two of them might have wondered why in the world Jesus had sent them out into the middle of this storm. He was usually pretty good at dealing with the weather…

But that’s when it happened. One of the disciples – we don’t know which one, but I’m going to go with Thomas – dropped his oar and cried out in fright. “What’s that thing!?!” he stammered, pointing at a strange looking figure in the distance.

The disciples who weren’t desperately trying to stop the boat from flipping over looked to see where Thomas was pointing. They couldn’t see much. The waves were too big, and the wind kept blowing water in their faces. But finally, one of them saw what Thomas was pointing at. It looked kind of like a person.

“It’s a ghost!” Thomas was crying now, and he desperately tried to force the rowers to turn the boat around and get them out of there. Not like they could do much about it now! With the waves as intense as they were, they could barely stay above water, let alone control which way the boat was going!

But Thomas freaking out about ghosts certainly didn’t help. Some of the disciples started to panic. The rowers stopped working together and started to just row in fright. Thomas backed into the corner of the boat, trying to get as far away from the ghost as possible.

All of this happened in a matter of seconds. But before the disciples could do anything to actually hurt themselves or go crashing into the water, the “ghost” called out, “Be brave! It is I. Don’t be afraid” (Matthew 14:27, NIrV).

Now I don’t know about you, but I’m not actually sure that this would make me feel less afraid. Here’s this stranger on the Sea of Galilee, just casually walking on water in the middle of a storm. And his way of calming people down is saying, “Don’t worry, it’s me!” The guy doesn’t even give a name! How is that supposed to be comforting?

But I guess the difference is that this wasn’t just some random stranger. It wasn’t even a ghost! This was Jesus, the guy who had personally chosen each of these disciples, who had provided miraculous feasts, and who had sent the disciples into this storm in the first place. They knew Jesus’ voice well, so when they heard, “It is I,” I’m sure that helped calm some fears. They were still probably terrified of the storm, and confused out of their minds over how Jesus could possibly be standing on water, but just knowing that Jesus was there helped them feel safer.

But just when you think this story couldn’t get any weirder or more intense, it does. Our good buddy Peter (who’s been awfully quiet so far this story) decides to speak up. And he says something pretty incredible.

“If that’s really you Lord,” Peter said,” then tell me to come out to you on the water.”

What? Not “Get in here Jesus” or “Thank goodness you’re here” or “How are you doing that?” No. Instead of asking questions, Peter asks Jesus if he can join Him in walking on water.

I’m sure that made Jesus smile. One thing you’ll learn about Peter is that he doesn’t always ask what we think would be the logical question. And yeah, sometimes he says stuff without thinking. But sometimes, like in this story, he shows just how much he trusts Jesus. Peter was so certain that Jesus could help and save him that Peter was ready to step out of a boat and try to walk on water. So Jesus told Peter to come. And immediately, Peter got out of the boat.

Now again, we don’t know exactly what this would have looked like, but we can take a guess. Peter put his oar down and then moved to the edge of the boat. The other disciples were probably yelling at him like he was crazy and trying to stop him from going, but Peter just kept looking at Jesus and shaking them off.

He lifted his left leg over the boat, maybe paused for a split second, and then lowered his foot towards the sea. But rather than having his shoes fill with water, Peter stepped onto something that felt solid. Waves. He smiled widely and then shifted his weight onto that foot. Still gripping the side of the boat, he then lifted his other leg over the side. He didn’t fall in the water. Finally, Peter let go of the boat and stood up. The water beneath him stayed firm. And Jesus gave Peter a massive grin.

I can’t imagine what that must have felt like. To be standing on water! I tried to walk on water for a camp lesson once and it didn’t end well. I fell right into the pool and got soaked. But Peter – he got to do the impossible. And it’s all because he kept his focus on Jesus instead of the water around him.

At least, that’s how it started. I’m sure Peter got a few steps away from the boat, smiling the whole way, but then suddenly it started to rain a little bit. And a wave slightly bigger than normal came up between him and Jesus.

That’s when it hit Peter… Wait, this is impossible! What am I doing?!?! I’m going to die out here! And instead of focusing on Jesus, Peter started to focus on the wind and the waves. And immediately, he started sinking into the water.

Some people think that Peter slowly sunk into the water here, like he was in quicksand. But I don’t think that’s how it worked. I think the second Peter stopped focusing on Jesus and forgot his faith, the water under him immediately gave way and Peter went splashing down. And in the middle of falling, all he could do was cry out, “Lord, save me!”

But that’s what’s so amazing about Jesus! He doesn’t let us stay under the water for half a minute so that we’ll learn a lesson. No! The Bible tells us that Jesus was there immediately reaching down to catch Peter!

And as Jesus stood there on the water, holding His now soaking wet disciple, all Jesus said was, “Your faith is so small, Peter! Why did you doubt me?” (Matthew 14:31).

I often wonder what Jesus was thinking when He said this. Was He mad at Peter? Disappointed? Was He actually happy that Peter had had the faith to step out of the boat but was now wishing Peter had kept it? Like I said before, Peter had moments of amazing faith. And this was one of them! But even the people who seem like the best Christians in the world have moments where they get distracted. Moments where they doubt.

That’s normal guys. And honestly, those moments aren’t bad in themselves. But Peter’s story of walking on water teaches us something important about what we should do when times get tough. God doesn’t want us focusing on our problems, like Peter focused on the wind and waves. Instead, when things get really hard, he wants us to focus on Jesus! Keep your eyes on Jesus, even in the storms of life!

This won’t always be easy. Life is full of things that distract us, and the most difficult moments in life are often the moments we turn our focus away from God. But when we keep our eyes on Him, like Peter did, we’ll get to see and do amazing things. We might not get to walk on water, but we’ll see people’s lives get changed for the better as they come to believe in Jesus.

And if you do lose sight of Him for a moment, don’t worry. God won’t give up on you. Just like with Peter, Jesus will be right there to catch you when you start to fall! All you need to do is ask for His help. 

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That's all for today. We'll be continuing with Peter for the next few weeks, so make sure you come back for that. And just a reminder that last week's Second Sunday Switch-Up is actually going to be posted this Sunday. Hope you'll check that one out too!

~Brentagious

Luke 5:1-11 - Fishing for Fishermen

How many of you have been fishing before? Or is that not really your thing? Going out super early in the morning, putting worms on hooks, and spending hours sitting there constantly hoping for a bite that never comes?

If you’ve been checking out these stories regularly, you’ll know that I’m a city kid. So you might think that I’m not really into fishing. But honestly, even though I don’t get to do it that often, I actually kind of like it. Life’s always super busy, so it’s nice when you get a chance to slow down and just try to catch a fish for a bit.

I bring all this up because starting today, we’re going to be learning about the Bible’s favourite fisherman for a few weeks. That’s right, we’re talking about Peter!

Now Peter didn’t go fishing once every few years like I do. Fishing was his job! He went fishing for large chunks of the day, every day. And he probably didn’t use a fishing rod either. It would take way too long to catch all those fish if he did. Instead, Peter used nets, kind of like professional fishermen still use today. The hope was that the fish would swim into these nets so that they could catch lots of fish all at once.

Now I’m sure there were some days were Peter did really well as a fisherman. He and his fishermen buddies would throw their nets into the water and, for whatever reason, the fish would come swimming in really quickly.

That wasn’t happening this day though. Nope, Peter had been fishing all day and hadn’t caught anything. Nothing. Not one single fish. So you can imagine he and his buddies were feeling pretty discouraged. They rowed back to shore at the end of the day with not a fish to show for all their work and then they’d still have to clean the nets off!

Peter was just finishing that up when he noticed a man walking towards him. The man looked sort of familiar. Oh, that’s right! thought Peter. This is that Jesus guy. Peter mainly fished on the Sea of Galilee. He’d seen Jesus talking to people off and on over the last month, but because he was always out fishing, Peter had never really gotten the chance to hear what Jesus was saying. But now Jesus was coming to see him! I imagine their conversation went something like this:

“Hello,” Jesus said.

“Hi there,” Peter said back. It was then that Peter noticed a whole bunch of people following behind Jesus.

“Can you do me a favour?” Jesus asked. “These people want to hear me speak, but they won’t all be able to hear me if I stay on land. Can you take me out in your boat for a while so that I can preach to them?”

Peter looked down at his nets. He’d just finished cleaning them. And even though they hadn’t caught anything that day, Peter was still pretty tired. But Peter knew if he didn’t do anything, he was going to be letting Jesus down. And for some reason he couldn’t quite figure out, he didn’t want to let Jesus down.

So, after a short pause, Peter said, “Sure, I can take you out for a bit.”

Jesus simply smiled and leaped over the side of the boat. He took a seat while Peter rowed out a little ways into the water. Then Jesus stood up and started to teach.

Now the Bible doesn’t tell us exactly what Jesus said that day. But we do know that whenever Jesus taught, people were amazed. And I can imagine that as Peter sat there in the boat, thinking about the rotten day he’d had and the fish he hadn’t caught, he started listening to Jesus. And as he did, Peter thought less and less about fish and more and more about what Jesus was saying.

It was amazing! Peter considered himself a pretty good Jew. Sure, he didn’t obey the Law all the time, but he did his best. But Jesus was talking about things that Peter had never heard before. Jesus was saying that people had broken relationships with God and no amount of sacrifices or following rules was going to fix that. The only way to get right with God was to believe in Jesus.

Now Peter didn’t understand all of what Jesus said. In fact, he didn’t understand most of it. But we can be pretty sure of one thing: what Peter did understand was that there was something different about Jesus. And if what Jesus was saying was right, then all those wrong things that Peter had done had separated him from God. And maybe, just maybe, Jesus had the answer to fix that.

Of course, we know something now that Peter didn’t. Jesus didn’t just have the answer to fix our separation from God – Jesus is the answer! When Jesus died and rose again, he made it possible to fix our broken relationships with God. And just like Jesus probably said that day out on Peter’s boat, all we have to do to have our relationships with God fixed is believe in Jesus.

But Peter didn’t know this yet. In fact, Jesus hadn’t even died yet! All Peter knew right now was that Jesus was this amazing teacher who showed Peter that he still had some issues to work out with God.

Anyways, Jesus eventually finished speaking and sat back down in the boat. Peter grabbed the oars and was about ready to row back to shore when Jesus said, “Go out into deep water. Let down the nets so you can catch some fish” (Luke 5:4, NIrV).   

What? Peter thought to himself. This guy’s just been talking all day about relationships with God and the kingdom of heaven, and now he wants to tell me how to fish?

But then Peter remembered all the stuff he heard. So he said to Jesus, “Well, we’ve been fishing all day and night and haven’t caught anything… But because you say so, I’ll try the nets one more time.”

So Peter rowed away from shore towards the deeper water. There were a couple of other boats out there, including one with Peter’s friends James and John. They’d been fishing for a few hours now, but it didn’t look like they’d caught much either. James and John looked kind of confused when they saw that Peter had taken Jesus with him, but they just shrugged and kept fishing.

Peter picked up the freshly cleaned nets and threw them into the water. He didn’t know how long he was supposed to keep the nets in the water. Actually, all he could think about at first was that he was going to have to clean these nets again.

He didn’t think that for long, though. Out of nowhere, Peter saw the net sink deep into the water while the boat suddenly changed direction. Peter would’ve fallen into the water if Jesus hadn’t grabbed the back of his clothes! Shocked, Peter rushed over to the side of the boat. There were tons of fish in the net already, and more seemed to be swimming in!

Where did all these come from? Peter thought as he frantically waved at James and John to come help him. The two hurried over. They could see that the nets were starting to break because of how many fish there were. So they jumped into Peter’s boat and helped him pull the nets in.

It took some time, and a lot of pulling, but they finally got the nets inside the boat. And as all the fish started flopping around on the deck, Peter, James, and John could tell that the boat was too full. They were starting to sink!

James and John thought that Peter looked exhausted, so they started rowing Peter’s boat back to shore, signalling the other people from their boat to meet them there. But it wasn’t that Peter was exhausted. In fact, Peter didn’t really know what he was feeling. But probably the best word to describe it was terror.

Jesus had been right about the fish. Not just right, but He had just given Peter one of the best fishing days he’d ever had! But if Jesus was right about this, was He right about Peter’s broken relationship with God too?

Tears came to his eyes as Jesus looked at him. Peter couldn’t stand it anymore. He fell to his knees and turned his face away. He couldn’t bear to look at Jesus anymore. “Please,” he said quietly. “Go away from me, Lord! I am a sinful man” (Luke 5:9).

It’s like Peter was saying to Jesus: “I know there’s something different about you. I know that you’re right with God and I’m not. And because of all those bad things I’ve done, I don’t deserve to be in your presence.”

But Jesus – He only smiled. Then he took Peter’s face in His hands and turned it towards Him. “Do not be afraid, Peter,” Jesus said back. “From now on you will fish for people.” And with that, Peter burst into tears and hugged Jesus tightly. But after a minute or so, he wiped his face, took a deep breath, and started to smile.

In that moment, Peter knew that his life had changed forever. He wouldn’t spend all day out on a lake fishing anymore. Instead, he’d be following Jesus. Peter would go where Jesus went, stay where Jesus stayed, and listen to Jesus teach others about how to fix their relationships with God. Not only that, but Jesus would eventually send Peter out to talk to others about God too!

It’s funny, because we often focus in this story on how Jesus told Peter that he would fish for people. But in some ways, that’s exactly what Jesus did here too. Jesus was fishing for people like Peter – people that would believe in Him and follow Him, so that He could get those people ready to fish for other people!

And I think that’s what we should take away from today’s story too: Jesus fishes us in so we can fish in others. Jesus is constantly fishing for us – He wants us to learn about Him and to know Him. He wants us to believe in Him so He can fix our broken relationships with God. And when that happens, then we can go out and tell others about Jesus. We can go out fishing for others so that they can learn about and know Jesus too!

So if you don’t already believe in Jesus, know that He’s fishing for you and that believing in Him will change your life for the better. And if you do believe in Jesus, get your nets ready. You never know where Jesus might send you to fish for others!

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That's all for today! We'll be continuing with Peter next week, but just a head's up. I'm gone all weekend, so this week's Second Sunday Switch-Up will have to be pushed back to next weekend. No, Third Sunday Switch-Up might not have the same ring to it, but I'm sure we'll all survive! 

~Brentagious