Mirror Image: The Faith to Look Again (Part 2)

When I think about “mirrors,” I think of a story found in Luke 22. The Last Supper has just occurred, and Jesus is having a conversation with the disciples when He turns to talk to Simon. You may know him as Peter. Let me just say, that growing up, I was frequently confused by Simon Peter’s character. The Bible uses his name interchangeably. When Jesus met Simon, He “looked at him and said, ‘You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas’ (which, when translated, is Peter)” (John 1:42 NIV). Cephas in Aramaic, and Peter in Greek, both mean rock. Later in the Scriptures, Jesus reveals to him the purpose and meaning behind his name change when He says, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it” (Matthew 16:18 NIV). However, following this name change, the Bible continues to refer to him as either Simon, Peter, or Simon Peter.

I never thought of this as having any particular meaning to be honest. More than anything, I thought it was unnecessarily confusing. His name changed, so why don’t we just call him Peter from now on? That’s what we would do in real life. Even Chad Ochocinco is now Chad Ochocinco (We don’t refer to him as Chad Johnson anymore). Why can’t Simon just be Peter? That way we can all save ourselves the time, headache, and explanation. Well, like everything else that God says and does, there’s a reason for it, and it’s on purpose.

Back to the story. Jesus says, “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat (Luke 22:31 NIV). But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers” (Luke 22: 32 NIV). “But he replied, ‘Lord, I am ready to go with You to prison and to death’ (Luke 22:33 NIV). Jesus answers, ‘I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know Me’” (Luke 22:34 NIV).

Spoiler alert: Simon does in fact deny Jesus three times. The Bible says that after Peter’s third denial, “Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed (Luke 22:60 NIV). The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: ‘Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.’ And he went outside and wept bitterly” (Luke 22:61-62 NIV). I don’t think Peter lied to Jesus intentionally. He believed he was speaking the truth. However, the circumstance (a.k.a. the mirror) exposed the reality of what he was, and was not, willing to go through.

Simon Peter was walking with Jesus for years, and I’m sure he thought that his worst actions were behind him, but his denial of Jesus showed him otherwise. Like Peter, I don’t always like my truth. In fact, there are times that I hate it, and like the saying goes, “The truth hurts,” but like the Bible says, “The Truth will set you free.” It’s important to know and to face the truth because I can’t change what I don’t see, and I can’t confront what’s not in front of me. Awareness and acknowledgment of the truth are key.

Peter knew the truth, and his desire was to walk in it. This is the tricky thing about knowledge. We can be fooled into believing that we are further along than we actually are because of the knowledge that we have obtained. This is why James says, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (James 1:22 NIV). Simon Peter knew the Word. He walked with Jesus, the physical embodiment of the Word, daily, for years, and his constant interaction with Him made him believe he was willing to go to prison and death with Him, so the question is, “Why didn’t he?”

In my mind, I have come to break it down like this: Simon represents the flesh, and Peter represents the Spirit. The interesting thing to me is that Jesus addresses him as Simon when He explains that he will be sifted, but He calls him Peter when He says that he will disown Him. This makes me ask, “Why would Jesus address him as Peter (the Spirit side) when He’s saying that he will disown Him three times?” Shouldn’t He have called him “Simon” in that moment? Disowning Jesus is obviously a “flesh” move, right? I think Jesus used both names when addressing him because He wanted him to know that even when you are disowning me (acting from your flesh), you are STILL Peter, and I STILL choose you.

​Lately, I’ve been starting to think that it had to be Peter who would deny Jesus three times. It’s a lesson for people just like me. We struggle because we see our “Simon” show up repeatedly. We beat ourselves up because “I should be past this,” and “I know better than this.” We think, “I’ve been walking with God, and I’m still struggling with this?” Peter was not just one of the twelve; he was one of the three. He walked with Jesus side by side for years, and he saw miracle after miracle. He was a disciple, and he deeply believed. That’s why when he saw his flesh rear its ugly head, he went away to weep bitterly. “What’s wrong with me?!”

Jesus knew what he would do, and He still said, “I’m willing to die for you.” The thing about Jesus is that every word that He says is true. He does everything that He says He’s going to. Jesus told Simon, “I’m praying for you.” He said, “After your flesh gets the best of you, My Prayer is that your faith doesn’t fail you. I just need you to have faith the size of a mustard seed, that ‘He still loves me.’ Don’t you see, Simon? I died and rose again to cover all of your sin (past, present, and future tense), but My Grace gives so much more than this. Have faith Peter! My Grace gives you the Power to Live!”

“Though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again,” not because of faith in themselves, but because of their faith in Him (Proverbs 24:16 NIV). All you need is a little faith to go and look again: To see yourself in the Word of God, to be reminded that you are created in His Image, and that He already died and rose again to release you from the shackles of that sin and to cover you in His Love & Grace again, again, and again. “Seventy times seven,” Jesus instructed us to forgive (Matthew 18:22 NIV). How much more forgiveness will a perfect God give? “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him” (Matthew 7:11 NIV).

When Jesus described to Simon Peter what he was going to go through, He explained that he was going to be “sifted as wheat.” At first, I wasn’t exactly sure what this was supposed to mean, so I looked it up. To sift wheat means “to separate the grain from the chaff.” In Wikipedia, it says that this is “traditionally done by repeatedly tossing the grain up into a light wind which gradually blows the lighter chaff away.” The wheat is kept, and the chaff is blown away. Jesus was saying that after you are sifted, the valuable part of you will remain.

The grain doesn’t become grain after it has been sifted. The grain is grain before, during, and after the sifting. Simon was always Peter (on his best and worst day, and every day in between), and the beautiful thing about God is that He knows who you have been, who you are, and who you will be. If you’re like me, it’s easier to believe that my truth is all of my dysfunction, and it’s harder to believe that there’s already something of great value inside of me, but just because it’s harder to believe doesn’t make it any less true.

Heat and pressure are not things that we like to be exposed to, and yet, it is the sifting process that we must go through. “Pressure makes diamonds” is a quote that I have often turned to. However, their exact formation was not knowledge that I was privy to. Lucky for me, google makes information easy to find, and what I discovered about diamonds blew my mind.

Diamondspro.com says that “Diamonds are formed under the heat and pressure of the earth’s gravity,” and they “form in the midst of a collision between Earth and an asteroid.” Heat, pressure, an asteroid, and earth all have to come together to form and expose the diamond hidden deep beneath the earth’s surface. The Word is working in you. It is heaven colliding with earth to reveal the diamond inside of you.

Remember, you are going to make mistakes. The chaff is still being sifted and blown away, but your grain will remain. Just have faith. Here’s something I have to remind myself of in the midst of my sifting: God only agrees to things that allow His Glory to be revealed to, in, and through me. I am a P.I.P. (a person in process), and I am being transformed by the renewing of my mind with the Word of God (Romans 12:1 NIV). Pastor Kevin Gerald says that “All of us experience moments where we have a mood swing, or a moment of a bad spirit, but none of us have to stay there when we learn how to be renewed in the spirit of our mind.” Gerald says that “Renewing your mind is like giving your brain a bath.” We have to renew our minds with the Word of God, so that the spirit man inside of us is spoken to and allowed to shine through. Like fire refines gold, God is refining and purifying your soul.

Bishop T.D. Jakes asks, “What makes any event important if we don’t use it to become better and wiser?” Jakes said, “You either get better or you get bitter; you either allow the pain to engulf you, or you rise to something above it that blows your mind, sets you apart, and sets you on a different level. Choose which one you want to be.” Notice that the first thing Simon Peter did was to go “away and weep bitterly.” Jakes says, “If you don’t make peace with your past, you’ll never accomplish what your past came to propel you into.” Peter started with bitter, but his faith eventually changed his response to better. The same actions that once made him bitter became that which made him better.

Peter never denies Jesus again. In fact, he goes on to do exactly what he initially said: He follows, proclaims, and testifies to the Truth of Jesus, even to prison and death. It’s okay if at first your words, actions, and circumstances make you weep bitterly. The important thing is to return your faith to Him, so He can enrich your understanding and turn your “mourning into dancing” (Psalm 30:11 NIV).

2 Corinthians 3:18 (NKJV):

“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

Written by Crystal Bryan

“Help I’m Hidden” by Pastor Charles Metcalf https://youtu.be/DxOCmFUkKcc

“Yes You!” by Pastor Steven Furtick https://youtu.be/1yrZza-V_eY

“Yesterday’s Price is Not Today’s Price” by Dr. Dharius Daniels https://youtu.be/x7dZJQi6xHU

“Making Peace with Your Past” by Bishop T.D. Jakes https://youtu.be/d8ubSTUf1yU

Bethel Music (feat. Dante Bowe, Cory Asbury, and Kalley) at Legacy Nashville https://youtu.be/WB6Q-oOaYcs