It is good to remind ourselves that most of the people Jesus encountered in his ministry were a lot like us. They were ordinary people who (sometimes on the spur of the moment) did memorable things, but on most days simply lived their otherwise “ordinary” lives.
For example, consider Simon Peter, perhaps the greatest of the disciples, yet a rather ordinary and unremarkable fellow. A fisherman by trade, probably illiterate, he quit his job to wander around the countryside with a virtually unknown itinerant preacher.
Peter was a leader among the disciples, and he frequently voiced their fears, their amazement, and their joy. Perhaps most memorable is his confession at Caesarea Philippi, when Jesus asks, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter alone gets it right when he blurts out, “You are the Messiah, the son of the living God!” (Matthew 16:15-16).
Peter excels at bold faithfulness. He is the rock on which Jesus builds the church.
Not bad for an unemployed, illiterate fisherman.
This message is excerpted from “As God sees us” by Audrey West in the July/August 2017 Gather magazine. Today is the Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost.
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