“Take me out to the ball game Take me out with the crowd Buy me some peanuts and crackerjacks I don't care if I never get back Let me root, root, root For the home team If they don't win it's a shame Aahh. For it's one, Two, Three strikes you're out At the old ball game”
No it’s not. Well, maybe it is when it comes to baseball. But it is not when it comes to Jesus. When it comes to Jesus, it is not three strikes and you’re out, we see that this morning in our Gospel lesson. (John 21:1-19)
It was no accident that Jesus gathered his disciples, especially Peter, around a charcoal fire that day after he rose from the dead. Remember back when Jesus had gathered the disciples for their last meal together, and Jesus said that one of them was going to betray him. And when Jesus said that, Peter, full of self-confidence and devotion for Jesus said, that even if all the rest would betray him, he, Peter would not. And when Peter said that, Jesus said to Peter…”yes…yes, you will….before the cock crows, you will deny me three times.” So that very night, when Jesus was arrested, when he went before Herod and Pilate, when he was scourged, spit upon, mocked and given a crown of thorns…three times, Peter found himself near a charcoal fire, and when Peter was confronted, three times Peter said with much conviction as he could muster, “I don’t even know the man.” Three times around a charcoal fire that he denied him saying, “I don’t even know the man.”
Not exactly a home run that Peter hit. Actually, he struck out. Big time. When the game was on the line. When the one who Peter had believed was the long promised Messiah…the one who God had promised to send to rescue his people and bring them back to him…when everything was at stake….Peter denied Jesus three times. He struck out.
So, it was clearly no accident that Jesus walked over to Peter that day on the seashore as they all stood around that charcoal fire. And it was no accident that Jesus asked Peter three times, “Do you love me?” And it is no surprise that Peter felt hurt when Jesus asked him three times, “Do you love me?” After all, when Peter had to choose between his love for Jesus and saving his own skin….he chose saving his own skin….three times. “Peter, do you love me?” It was a question to which Peter knew the answer….well, not as much as thought I did. “I guess, Jesus, I struck out.”
But notice what Jesus said to this strike-out king…to his clean up hitter who whiffed when the bases were loaded…he did not say, “Go find a place on the bench and sit there. He didn’t say, “I am tired of looking at you. Go hit the showers, go home, and don’t come back.” He didn’t say, “You ruined it for us. We’re trading you away…after all, you’re pretty good at doing the enemy’s work.” He didn’t say, “You had your chance, and you blew it…three times and you’re out. And don’t let the door hit you when you leave.”
No, he didn’t say any of those things….things that we hear from others when we strike out on them. What Jesus said was, “Follow me.” You see, with Jesus, it is not three strikes and you’re out, its “follow me.” Its pick your head up. Its shake the dirt off of your shoes. Grab your bat. Step back up to that plate, and try again.. Follow me.”
I don’t know what went through Peter’s mind when he heard Jesus’ reply to Peter’s game ending whiff, but I know what would have gone through my mind. I would have been thinking, “But Jesus, I just struck out. I just let you down when you needed me the most. I blew it for you and us. What if I strike out again?”
And what would Jesus reply to those fears and shame. This is his reply to Peter and to you and me. “Listen Peter, we’re already won this one. When I walked out of that Easter tomb, I hit it out of the park…a home run….a walk off grand slam. We won….and now….well, we’re just running up the score. Every hit that we get and every run that we score….well, its just one more time that we get to rub the devil’s nose in it…to humiliate his defeat more and more….to turn up the agony of defeat that he feels. It doesn’t matter how many times you strike out. I already won the game. So, follow me…..follow me to the plate, and lets have some fun running up the score!”
Take me out to the ball game Take me out with the crowd Buy me some peanuts and crackerjacks I don't care if I never get back Let me root, root, root For the home team If they don't win it's a shame Aahh. For it's one, Two, Three strikes you're out At the old ball game.
No…no, it’s not. Not with Jesus. Amen.
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